TO BRING THE OASIS BACK TO LIFE

SIX ARTISTS

Focus

After eleven weeks of research, design, workshops, visits, and meetings, the first international art residency program in AlUla came to an end on January 14, 2022. The artworks created were unveiled during three days of open studios with dedicated programming, then exhibited at the heart of the oasis until March 31. This experience helps make the region the perfect setting for contemporary design, all while strengthening ties with the local community and on-site experts.

This ambition is the rightful extension of an already powerful artistic identity within this territory of intertwined civilizations, mysterious architecture, and newly discovered sculptural work. In the vast project that is AlUla’s transformation, three programs are directly focused on artistic creation: the design of an Art District, including schools, workshops, residency spaces, and exhibitions; the Perspective Galleries, a future flagship museum of contemporary art; and, finally, the Wadi AlFann, a commission for monumental works installed in the natural valleys a few kilometers from the Old Town.

« This doesn't mean that artists will build the infrastructure; however, they will be involved in the various development projects and inspire them with a creative spirit. »

Jean-François Charnier,

Scientific Director of the French Agency

for AlUla development (Afalula), Head of the Culture

and Heritage Division

The theme of the first art residency program in AlUla sounds like a promise, the promise to bring an oasis that has been isolated for centuries back to life and to shine light on an exceptionally rich history. From the very outset, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) visualized AlUla as “a destination built by artists.”

THE OASIS

REBORN

To make this collaboration between artists and experts a reality, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and the French Agency for AlUla Development (Afalula) have launched, with the support of Manifesto, an agency specializing in cultural engineering, the first edition of an international art residency program.

Creative design, however, will be expressed beyond these programs: it shall infuse, nourish, and interact with scientific reflection as well as economic and tourist development, and even spatial planning. Artists are invited to think, dream, and shape this extraordinary site in close collaboration with experts, whether they be researchers, engineers, consultants, or artisans, all working to revitalize the site in one single movement.

For eleven weeks from November 1st, 2021, to January 14, 2022, the “Mabiti” guest house played host to the pioneering designers. Nestled in the very heart of the oasis, with the garden opening onto the palm grove, the six artists, selected from around fifty applicants, were left free to immerse themselves, meet, create, and shape the raw material of AlUla, offering their own artistic interpretation and examining the development project through their practices. Countless visits, workshops, and meetings centered on the preservation and rehabilitation of the site have made them leading players in a new form of symbiosis. A symbiosis between artists and scientists but also with the local community, the artists thereby becoming “mediators” between one and the other, according to Arnaud Morand.

Their names are Rashed AlShashai and Muhannad Shono (Saudi Arabia), Sara Favriau and Laura Sellies (France), the Syrian Talin Hazbar, and the Franco-Algerian Sofiane Si Merabet, both based in the United Arab Emirates. Three men and three women aged 32 to 44, with various approaches, techniques, and backgrounds.

DISCOVER

FRANCE

SOFIANE

SI MERABET

DISCOVER

SAUDI ARABIA

MUHANNAD

SHONO

DISCOVER

FRANCE

SARA

FAVRIAU

DISCOVER

FRANCE

LAURA

SELLIES

DISCOVER

SAUDI ARABIA

RASHED

ALSHASHAI

DISCOVER

SYRIA

TALIN HAZBAR

During the three days of open studios, the artists’ pieces were exhibited in Mabiti and the surrounding palm grove along a half-kilometer route. The RCU wanted to include them in the program for the AlUla Arts Festival, held in Mabiti until March 31, 2022. They will also form an integral part of the permanent route of AlUla installations, and they will be preserved in a way to make them more durable and resistant.

Upcoming art residency programs will take place at Madrasat AdDeera, a former girls’ school converted into a major art and design center. All disciplines will be represented there, ranging from studios for design, multimedia, and music, through to artist workshops, a library of natural materials for perfume, stone and wood sculpture, and a rooftop dedicated to cross-disciplinary programming. “It will be a space that represents this creative interdisciplinary spirit the future Art District could embody,” Arnaud Morand, Head of Innovation & Creation at Afalula, enthuses. All in all, a very promising outlook for the future of AlUla.