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Building on the recent initiatives of Arts AlUla, The Royal Commission for AlUla partnered with the Middle East Institute to host a panel event celebrating their most recent contemporary art initiatives. The event will provide invitees with a closer look at Wadi AlFann, and provide a chance to hear from the people behind Wadi AlFann’s land art commissions. The event will also raise the profile of RCU’s art initiatives among key U.S. thought leaders in art communities, heritage institutions and museums, who will be in attendance.
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The event is an opportunity to hear from Nora Aldabal, Executive Director of Arts and Creative Industries at RCU, in conversation with Manal AlDowayan, one Saudi Arabia’s most significant contemporary artists and of the first five artists commissioned for Wadi AlFann, Iwona Blazwick, Chair of RCU’s Public Art Expert Panel, and Neville Wakefield, Artistic Director of Desert X, moderated by Kate Seelye, VP of the Middle East Institute.
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The panel discussed how contemporary artists, too, have already begun to add new layers to the cultural legacy of AlUla through a multitude of creative approaches. This began with the globally acclaimed exhibition Desert X AlUla, which Neville Wakefield helped launch in 2020. Over its two editions Desert X AlUla has now exhibited 29 works from top-level contemporary artists for the Saudi and international public to see and enjoy – including a now iconic work in the very first edition from Manal AlDowayan, who is also one of the five artists of Wadi AlFann. The panel also divulged into the concepts of Art in the Landscape and its variations from in the Middle East art scene and generally public art initiatives. The unique aspect of art in the landscape is its response to the topography of the land, its geology, ancient civilizations, and astonishing natural diversity , with the diverse, international, and cross-generational nature of Wadi AlFann’s commissions, showcasing a variety of reactions to the land and their practices within.
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