Noor Riyadh’s mission: to light up the city with art

RIYADH: Visitors to Wadi Hanifa, a huge valley in Riyadh lined with palm trees and waterways, were greeted last weekend by new large-scale contemporary public artworks created by Saudi and international artists .

These installations are part of Noor Riyadh, an annual festival of light and art that showcases more than 190 works by around 130 Saudi and international artists from 40 countries. They are exhibited until November 19 in 40 places located in five main centers of Riyadh.

Children played football in front One Thousand Galaxies of Light, a work by Puerto Rican-American artist Gisela Colon. It is an elliptical configuration of 100 vertical white light tubes, each of which is 2.5 meters high.

Gisela Colon, who also participated in the first edition of Desert X AlUla in 2020, said she was inspired by physics, cosmology and biology for this work, which imagines a forest of mythical horizons pointing metaphorically towards a bright future, in line with Noor Riyadh’s theme this year: “We dream of new horizons.”

On a nearby thoroughfare, passers-by can see the installation From Anima by Riyadh-based choreographer, dancer and artist Sarah Brahim, which features images projected onto the underside of a bridge in the Wadi Hanifa wetlands.

“In this work, I was inspired by the way light enters and exits the body in various ways,” Ms. Brahim explains to Arab News.

“The work re-theorizes Aristotle’s text ‘De Anima’ and focuses on five different souls at five different times of the day, how light animates the soul and the essence of life. Each person represents a type of physical and metaphorical light”, continues the artist.

Ms. Brahim also emphasizes the use of time in her work. Headphones are made available to visitors to the facility so that they can listen to a soundtrack while viewing the images.

Another work exhibited in Wadi Hanifah is Ghosts of Today and Tomorrow, by Saudi multimedia artist Ahaad Alamoudi. It is a performative installation that considers light as a natural vector of information. It is made up of two ancient pigeon towers, alluding to the historic use of pigeons as carriers of messages, and a singer who performs a mawwala type of traditional Arabic song, as light streams from the openings of each tower.

“The meaning of light is very accessible and appropriate in a city like Riyadh,” says Miguel Blanco-Carrasco, the executive director of Noor Riyadh, to Arab News. “The city comes alive after sunset due to Riyadh’s temperature and geography.”

In the evening, many locals go out for dinner or spend time in the city’s many parks. Therefore, the festival was designed with the aim of installing works of art in places in Riyadh where people are most likely to see them.

“Light is a medium accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of education, their class or their understanding of contemporary art”, emphasizes Mr. Blanco-Carrasco. “We want to bring art everywhere and we want to make it accessible to everyone.”

Another highlight of Noor Riyadh is the work of Saudi artist Mouhannad Shono, entitled “I See You Brightest in the Dark»which is exhibited in Bayt al-Malaz.

The work If God Willing, All Will be Resolvedby Saudi-Palestinian artist Ayman Yossri Daydban, meanwhile, uses carefully chosen stills from subtitled films to create a work that paints Arabic script with light.

It is inspired by the commonly used Arabic expression, “inchallahwhich means “God willing”, and is inscribed in large white neon text on the structure of the former Irqah Hospital. It overlooks the abandoned cityscape that surrounds it, breathing new life into a space now largely devoid of human presence.

Noor Riyadh is the first program implemented under the auspices of Riyadh Art. (Photo provided)

Carving the Future, by Saudi artist Obaid al-Safi, is presented in a desert landscape. With this work, the artist questions the relationship between the desert and the civilization that emerged from it, reflecting on the links between the Kingdom’s ancient past and its more recent transformations.

The poignant work Between Biotic and Bionic by Saudi artist Ayman Zedani, in Riyadh’s Olaya district, explores how, in cities across the Gulf region, nature is increasingly experienced as a simulacrum or imitation, like tropical forests artificial or neon jungles, blurring the distinction between the real and the artificial world.

The installation brings together, in the artist’s own style, elements of light, sound, sculpture and nature in welded metal structures covered with reviving plants, types of plants that can survive periods of extreme dehydration. . This is a nod to the desert landscape and the effects of climate change

The textual work of Joel Andrianomearisoa, an artist from Madagascar, is essential. On a Never-Ending Horizon, a Future Nostalgia to Keep the Present Alivedisplayed in the King Abdullah Financial District and created using neon and metal, conveys a message of love, hope and dreams for the future.

Noor Riyadh is the first program implemented under the auspices of Riyadh Art, the Kingdom’s first public art initiative. It aims to transform the city into a “gallery without walls”, to beautify it and to strengthen the creative spirit of the population.

One of its aims, says Mr. Blanco-Carrasco, is to “remove any preconceived idea that contemporary art is only accessible to the elite. We want to make it accessible to everyone in Riyadh. Noor Riyadh is their festival”.

This text is the translation of an article published on Arabnews.com