Lining Jeddah’s expansive corniche are numerous eye-catching, large abstract sculptures by some of the world’s greatest 20th century artists. Works by Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Victor Vasarely, and Jean Arp join works by Arab artists, such as Lebanese artists Aref El Rayess and Shafiq Mazloum, and Egyptians Mustafa Senbel and Salah Abdulkarim. Their undulating, expressive forms complement the Red Sea coastline and Jeddah’s enchanting waterfront and desert landscape. Until about 10 years ago, the existence of these sculptures, brought to the city between 1973 and 1986 by the late mayor of Jeddah, Mohamed Said Farsi, were largely unknown to the world, as was Saudi Arabia.

Farsi, a great patron of the arts, believed that art was a necessary part of a thriving urban environment, and so he set out to beautify Jeddah. He funded his project with money from public donations and his own pocket. It was Farsi’s opinion that the people of Jeddah would have greater regard for their city if functional public works could be balanced by works of art exemplifying grace and dignity. In just over a decade, Farsi created an open-air museum in Jeddah featuring over 400 sculptures. Now just 20 line the Jeddah corniche; many were damaged and were restored thanks to a partnership between Art Jameel and the Jeddah municipality. Thanks to this collaboration, in 2016, Saudi artist Maha Malluh’s “Food for Thought ‘Abraj’” (2015) was also placed on the corniche.

Malluh’s work was produced from re-creations of aluminum pots, used for cooking a special kind of rice from Hejaz province, that are sold at flea markets around Saudi Arabia. The work, according to Malluh, is a way to explore narratives, histories, and stories of travel and adventure that people can discuss over food. They are cooking pots that celebrate not just Saudi identity but the Arab tradition of hospitality and congregation.

Public Art in the Sociocultural Transformation

Much has changed since Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman launched his Vision 2030 plan for socioeconomic change in 2016. Among the priorities of Vision 2030’s masterplan are investment in culture and the establishment of a creative economy to build a parallel economy to that of hydrocarbons. A country that had been nearly entirely closed off to the world for decades suddenly opened, and with this reopening came a fervent blossoming of art, cultural, and entertainment ventures thanks to billions of dollars of government investment. Public art is being used to play a key role in this sociocultural transformation.

“People in Saudi are viewing art differently now,” said Nouf Al Moneef, the director of Noor Riyadh, an art festival named after the Arabic word for light. “People are excited, they want to see more art, and they want to be educated more about what it is. We are so proud to be working in the realm of culture today to transform the cities and landscapes of our country.”

The art and culture now being shown to local and international visitors at ongoing events and exhibitions, and in planned mega and giga projects, is like nothing ever seen before in the kingdom. Major contemporary art exhibitions today aim to place art within the public realm to foster conversation and cross-cultural dialogue as well as to beautify Saudi Arabia’s various regions and cities.

Art Accessible to All Saudis

Riyadh Art, Saudi Arabia’s first national public art initiative, exemplifies the aim of bringing art to all people in the kingdom. One of four grand projects conceived by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, a government entity separate from the Ministry of Culture, Riyadh Art’s aim is to transform the capital into a dynamic and cosmopolitan city through yearly public art festivals, such as Noor Riyadh, while beautifying the city through hundreds of temporarily placed works of art.

“From lower-class neighborhoods to higher- and middle-class districts, everyone gets to live with these sculptures for three weeks,” said Jumana Ghouth, an independent Saudi curator and co-curator of Noor Riyadh in 2022. “You are almost forcing society to live with art, which will obviously provoke shifts in the way people view the world around them.”

The first Noor Riyadh, launched in March 2021, featured works by international artists, including Dan Flavin, Urs Fischer, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, and Yayoi Kusama, displayed next to works by Saudi artists, including Rashed AlShashai, Manal AlDowayan, Maha Malluh, and Ahmed Mater. The last two festivals have also juxtaposed work by international artists with those by Saudi and regional Arab artists.

“The fact that there is a dedicated festival with a massive budget to annually integrate over 82 public sculptures by both international and local artists in Riyadh is incredible,” noted Ghouth. “We went from a country that doesn’t have an art history class in our schools, like other countries do, to a festival dedicated to one medium, which is light, and integrating it into the urban landscape of Riyadh.”

As part of Vision 2030, the initiative aims to transform public spaces in Riyadh through commissioned public works of art to highlight creative expression, beautify the city, and accelerate the development of Saudi Arabia’s cultural economy. “Riyadh Art and Noor Riyadh play a vital role in transforming our city by fostering cultural vibrancy and engaging our community,” noted Miguel Blanco-Carrasco, an advisor at the Royal Commission for Riyadh City. “The works displayed around the city become a visual representation of Riyadh’s identity, history, and values, contributing to its overall sense of place. Riyadh is home to 8 million people from over 70 nationalities, and art, and specifically public art, is a powerful force to bring people together by providing a platform for diverse perspectives and narratives to be shared and celebrated in a communal and accessible space.” The result of such initiatives, underlined Blanco-Carrasco, is “a more inclusive and interconnected urban environment.”

Another program under Riyadh Art is Tuwaiq Sculpture, an annual sculptural symposium launched in 2019 that gathers sculptors from across the world to create works of art in a live setting in Riyadh.

“Tuwaiq Sculpture has informal education embedded in all its aspects,” Marek Wolynski, a curator at Tuwaiq Sculpture, said. “The project aims to introduce public art in an accessible and approachable way that is both insightful and inspiring, creating joyful experiences for the public during the festival, production phase, and, importantly, once the sculptures are permanently relocated across Riyadh and enrich the urban fabric of the Saudi capital.”

Public Art Is Public Conversation

Saudi Arabia’s first public art exhibition since the country’s period of transformation began was Desert X AlUla launched in January 2020. The exhibition showcased works of gigantic proportion. The California-based Desert Biennial art organization kicked off the first Desert X to much controversy from abroad. The decision to host the site-based installation art exhibition in Saudi Arabia led several board members to resign, and Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight called the event “morally corrupt.”

“I am not part of some propaganda machine,” stated Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, who represented Saudi Arabia in 2022 at the 59th Venice Biennale, in an article on Artnet at the time.

Despite the uproar that it caused; Desert X marked the first major international art event of its kind in Saudi Arabia. The second Desert X AlUla, held in February 2022, opened to a gentler, more accepting tone. And in 2024, the event opened in February and will run until March 23, under the theme “In the Absence of Presence,” celebrating aspects of the desert landscape that are often overlooked or invisible to the human eye. It has arguably been its most solid showing yet – devoid of any controversy and in the presence of a larger pool of international media and visitors than previous years.

“Public art is public conversation,” said Neville Wakefield, founding artistic director of Desert X and co-artistic director of Desert X AlUla and a curator of Noor Riyadh. “These conversations can be icebreakers into very complex issues taking place in the world, concerning the environment or social issues.” Wakefield believes that engaging with Saudi Arabia’s cultural sphere is about creating platforms for artistic voices that have yet to be heard. “The reason everyone wants to do this, the artists and myself, is to open up dialogue,” says Wakefield. “The common voice among all the artists I’ve been working with has been, ‘If you don’t give people the opportunity to change their hearts and minds and become engaged with cultures, then you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.’”

Iwona Blazwick shared similar sentiments regarding her new role as the chair of the Royal Commission for AlUla’s Public Art Expert Panel, overseeing Wadi AlFann (Valley of the Arts), the 25-square mile desert valley in AlUla surrounded by the area’s dramatic rock formations. Blazwick is leading a team commissioning permanent works of art in AlUla.

“The way these projects are being curated has ethics at the forefront,” she said, continuing: “For the Land Art commissions, as well as celebrating the great pioneers, we want to reflect artists from the region, the Global South, and beyond.

The first five artists commissioned to make monumental land installations for Wadi AlFann include Manal AlDowayan, who is representing Saudi Arabia at the 60th Venice Biennale opening in April, and Ahmed Mater, both rising stars of the Saudi art scene alongside established, iconic American figures Agnes Denes, Michael Heizer, and James Turrell.

“I think it’s significant that a mid-career Saudi woman is being given the same prominence and resources as a very established artist like Turrell,” added Blazwick. “It is an important project because it reflects a shift in the geopolitical axis away from the dominance of the North American and European narrative. We are approaching it from the Gulf but also from Africa, Asia, South America. There are great artists from the Global South that we need to pay attention to and that have been overlooked in the canon of modern art. This marks a paradigm shift in artistic discourse.”

Ancient Heritage and Local Communities

Public art, particularly in the context of AlUla, is also a way to celebrate the natural heritage of the surrounding landscape as well as cultivate a sense of community among local Saudis.

Blazwick also emphasized the twofold opportunity of her role to work with the heritage and environmental preservation of AlUla. “This initiative is a very carefully choreographed way of reiterating and echoing the legacy of the Nabatean era while also ensuring that artists create works in harmony with the local ecosystem,” she said. “We are inviting artists to work in a way that respects the ancient heritage of this area and the surprisingly rich animal and plant life of the desert. It’s also important that artists engage with local communities.”

AlDowayan’s project involves the direct participation of these communities. The artist, who grew up in the Aramco complex in Dhahran, has long championed the expressions of women, particularly of her home country, in her work, largely through participatory initiatives.

On exhibition at the new AlJadidah Arts District in AlUla is AlDowayan’s “Oasis of Stories,” which features hundreds of drawings made by local AlUla residents about life in the region created during a series of widely attended participatory workshops with the artist. “AlUla is filled with stories,” said the artist.

AlDowayan will use the drawings and stories from the workshop for the installation she will create for Wadi AlFann. Inscribed into the walls, echoing the labyrinth-like passages of AlUla’s Old Town lined with its traditional mud brick edifices, local residents will leave their mark in a place they call home. “The story of the people of AlUla I realized has not been documented,” AlDowayan said. “In this way, they too will be able to tell their story to everyone through this artwork.”