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DESERT x ALULA 2024
THIRD EDITION OF INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OPENS
➤ Faisal Samra, The Dot, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
Under the harsh, scorching sun of the Arabian desert, a vast expanse of golden wilderness stretches out. The slowly receding camel trains and the barren desert landscape seem to place one within an ancient and majestic landscape painting.
In this exotic land, the American contemporary art exhibition Desert X has bestowed a fresh era of significance upon the city of AlUla in Saudi Arabia. This year's exhibition, themed "In the Presence of Absence," sees 15 artists from around the world exploring the unseen aspects of this seemingly void land, transforming the desert's tranquility and mystery into awe-inspiring artistic beauty, while prompting viewers with profound questions: "What cannot be seen?"
➤ Faisal Samra, The Dot, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ In The Dot, Faisal Samra shows how the Wadi AlFann valley originated from an ancient crack, revealing the small forces that shape grandeur over epochs. The illusion of time is symbolized by a line composed of rock fragments.
➤ Ayman Yossri Daydban, A rock garden in the shape of a full-sized soccer field, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Ayman Yossri Daydban draws the contours of a football pitch with white stones and rocks gathered by the AlUla community from across the valley. Placed in a remote, rocky area, the football field is a mysterious and suspicious presence, provoking collective memory and considering the social role of football. For When I saw my reflection, Bosco Sodi gathered volcanic rocks from across the landscape. Wrapped in gold, they have been placed in rock faces that tower above the desert to draw the viewer’s eyes to the beautiful organic formations and accidents that already exist in the rock formations.
➤ Ayman Yossri Daydban, A rock garden in the shape of a full-sized soccer field, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
Since its inaugural exhibition in California's Coachella Valley in 2017, Desert X has aimed to address the environmental conditions and indigenous community issues of desert regions, while also creating a platform for discussion and interaction among artists worldwide. This year's edition of Desert X, which has concluded, was held concurrently with the local AlUla Arts Festival, exploring the theme of desert oases. This extended a platform for cross-cultural exchange, broadening understanding of the desert and opening a gateway to its historical and mysterious aspects.
AlUla, located in the ancient desert region of the Arabian Peninsula, provides a majestic natural landscape and a rich history, setting the stage for this exhibition. The works of 15 artists are displayed amidst the natural scenery of AlUla, where they present their understanding and imagination of this land through various media and forms. From the black volcanic stone terrain to the historic railway station, each piece profoundly connects with the land.
➤ Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi, Invisible Possibilities_ When the Earth Began to Look at Itself, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi turn the landscape into a self-reflective arrangement in Invisible Possibilities: When the Earth Began to Look at Itself. Through different viewpoints and approaches, the work aims to reshape viewers’ understanding of the site’s ecological transition and its physical geographies.
➤ Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi, Invisible Possibilities_ When the Earth Began to Look at Itself, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
The hosting of Desert X AlUla 2024 has enriched the local cultural scene and provided audiences with a unique experience. In this ancient desert region, a marvelous visual and sensory feast is collectively created, not only prompting a reexamination of the relationship between nature and art, and experiencing the power and charm of art, but also injecting new vitality and opportunities into this desert landscape.
➤ Bosco Sodi, When I saw my reflection, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Bosco Sodi gathered volcanic rocks from across the landscape. Wrapped in gold, they have been placed in rock faces that tower above the desert to draw the viewer’s eyes to the beautiful organic formations and accidents that already exist in the rock formations.
➤ Caline Aoun, The Desert Has No Surface, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ In Caline Aoun’s The Desert Has No Surface, stones from the basalt plateau of Harrat al Sham are polished on one side. The sun is an essential element in Aoun’s work which is activated through the refraction of sunlight producing moments of shimmering that reflect the impermanence of the desert landscape and the natural forces that created it.
➤ Aseel AlYaqoub, Weird Life_ An ode to desert varnish, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Aseel AlYaqoub’s Weird Life: An ode to desert varnish is inspired by the ‘desert varnish’ that naturally appears in landscapes like AlUla’s, evolving into a luminous veneer with yellow, orange, red and black, and bemusing scientists for centuries.
➤ Ibrahim Mahama, Dung Bara – The Rider Does Not Know the Ground Is Hot, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
➤ Ibrahim Mahama, Gabli Din Pali – A Full Gourd Does Not Rattle_ It Is Only a Partially Filled Gourd Which Rattles, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Also composed of vessels, Ibrahim Mahama’s terracotta pots are scattered across the landscape, suggesting new ecosystems emerging from the relics of history. Mahama’s works can be viewed across Desert X AlUla’s three sites including Dung Bara – The Rider Does No in Wadi AlFann, Hanging Garden at AlManshiyah Plaza and Gabli Din Pali – A Full Gourd Does Not Rattle.
➤ Ibrahim Mahama, Hanging Garden, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
➤ Filwa Nazer, Preserving Shadows, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Inspired by pre-Islamic beliefs of jinn inhabiting the desert, Filwa Nazer’s elevated walkway of Preserving Shadows is structured using steel mesh to form a massive, undulating black snake. Elaborated into massive, outsized forms.
➤ Filwa Nazer, Preserving Shadows, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Inspired by pre-Islamic beliefs of jinn inhabiting the desert, Filwa Nazer’s elevated walkway of Preserving Shadows is structured using steel mesh to form a massive, undulating black snake. Elaborated into massive, outsized forms.
➤ Kader Attia, Whistleblower, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Necks of glass bottles emerge from Kader Attia’s sculptures in Whistleblower, which whistle when open to the wind. The haunting sound that results encourages viewers to reflect on the concern we should all have for Earth.
➤ Karola Braga, Sfumato, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ It Is Only a Partially Filled Gourd Which Rattles on Harrat Uwayrid. Drawing on AlUla’s legacy on the Incense Route, Karola Braga uses scent to recreate the sensory world of ancient trade. Her structure, Sfumato, engulfs participants in hazy frankincense and myrrh, inviting visitors to reconnect with the olfactory heritage of the route in a unique and immersive encounter.
➤ Kimsooja, To Breathe – AlUla, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ As we enter the cylindrical form of Kimsooja’s work, between iridescent walls, visitors are drawn in and out to the center of a spiral. The chromatic walls of To Breathe – AlUla distils light that has travelled aeons into prisms that dance across the visitor and the landscape.
➤ Kimsooja, To Breathe – AlUla, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
➤ Monira Al Qadiri, W.A.B.A.R., Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Monira Al Qadiri’s W.A.B.A.R. echoes mysterious objects that perplexed inhabitants of the desert in the 1930s. The work summons a cosmic folk narrative where upon discovering the pearls, a community in the Empty Quarter believed they had an extraterrestrial origin.
➤ Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem, Reveries, Desert X AlUla 2024, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy of The Royal Commission for AlUla
✦ Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem’s installation focuses on honouring the traditional crafts of the region, creating a refuge made from rammed earth jars. Dubbed Reveries, each jar in the tower bears geometric cuts, allowing nature and light to shift and cast ever-evolving patterns within.
