The exhibition was co-curated by Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Saudi curators and contemporary art specialists Raneem Farsi and Aya Alireza. The words, elongated to 9m, are architecturally transformed into a tunnel as they link one non-descript point in the desert to another, equally anonymous point. Nasser Alsalem's Amma Qabl structure is an elegantly simple gesture that spans past and present: a passage-way, its circumference shaped by calligraphic letter forms that read Amma Qabl (loosely meaning ‘what precedes’). The exhibition emerges as an exploration of desert culture and aims to boost a cross-cultural dialogue between artists from Saudi Arabia and its surrounding region and artists from previous iterations of Desert X in California, taking its cues from the extraordinary landscape and historical significance of AlUla. The artwork is an ode to AlUla’s agricultural wealth its plentiful palm tree groves that have fueled the area’s trade for generations and the springs of water that have sustained them.ĭesert X AlUla was arranged as the first site-responsive exhibition of its kind in Saudi Arabia. Zahrah Al Ghamdi's Glimpses of the Past consists of approximately 6000 tin date containers of different sizes, laid out across 80 meters against the terrain of AlUla. Zahrah Al-Ghamdi's "Glimpses of the Past" The sculpture sits atop a bolder in the hidden valley, amid a special arrangement that reflects the alignment of stars overhead on January 31, 2020, at the exact moment of the opening ceremony, at 26.5503 degrees N, 37.9679 degrees E.ġ4 site-responsive installations have been built on the desert on Januand will be on view until March 7, 2020, which was organized collaboratively by Desert X and the Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU). The narrative is particularly potent here in AlUla, with the region’s long connection to astronomy. Lita Albuquerque's NAJMA (She Placed One Thousand Suns Over the Transparent Overlays of Space) installation continues to document generations of human consciousness and wisdom through the science of astronomy.Ī gift that gives an understanding of the cosmos, it first flowered in this part of the world and provides constant guidance in both ordinal and celestial dimensions. Lita Albuquerque's NAJMA (She Placed One Thousand Suns Over the Transparent Overlays of Space) Named Desert X AlUla, the exhibition features prominent artists, including American artist Lita Albuquerque, Copenhagen-based studio Superflex, Saudi Arabian artist Nasser Al Salem, Jeddah-based artist Zahrah Al Ghamdi, Saudi artist Rashed Al Shashai.
Desert X, a site-specific, contemporary art exhibition that is held in the Coachella Valley in Southern California, has set 14 site-responsive installations in AlUla desert in Saudi Arabia as its new iteration in the Saudi Arabian desert.