Diriyah Artwork Futures, MENA Area’s First Hub for New Media Arts


Diriyah Artwork Futures, the primary establishment within the Center East and North Africa devoted to new media arts, has formally opened its doorways to the general public. Located in Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage website in Saudi Arabia’s capital metropolis of Riyadh, Diriyah Artwork Futures is a global hub, established with the mission of diversifying the rising area of latest media arts by amplifying the voices of Center Japanese practitioners.

“The opening of Diriyah Artwork Futures represents a milestone within the evolving narrative of latest media arts, as we lastly introduce views from the Center East and North Africa to international conversations on this area,” mentioned Haytham Nawar, director of Diriyah Artwork Futures. “DAF will function an epicenter for important engagement and innovation on the intersection of artwork and know-how, pushing inventive boundaries and imagining new futures.”

DAF’s launch is accompanied by a full slate of public occasions, anchored by the opening of its inaugural exhibition, “Artwork Should Be Synthetic: Views of AI within the Visible Arts,” which runs via February 15, 2025. Surveying the evolution of computer-generated artwork from the Nineteen Sixties via the current, the exhibition serves as a daring declaration of DAF’s mission assertion in addition to an assertion of its bona fides.

Leonel Moura ARS (Artwork Robotic Swarm), 2024

Courtesy of Diriyah Artwork Futures©

“Artwork Have to be Synthetic”was curated by Jérôme Neutres, former director on the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais in Paris, and options works by greater than 30 pioneering artists, together with Frieder Nake, Refik Anadol, and Vera Molnar, in addition to Saudi artists Lulwa Al-Homoud and Muhannad Shono, together with others from the MENA area.

DAF’s opening week was additionally marked by multiday workshops on geometric abstraction (taught by Al-Homoud) and the function of generative AI (led by pathbreaking artist Leonel Moura), in addition to excursions of the exhibition and an audiovisual live performance devised and carried out by artist Davide Quayola. Public conversations with Leonardo Dellanoce and Louis-Philippe Demers are scheduled via the remainder of the 12 months, with extra workshops, masterclasses, performances, and movie screenings deliberate for early 2025.

Diriyah Artwork Futures’ opening displays Saudi Arabia’s ambition to develop into a world hub for innovation, a part of the framework of Imaginative and prescient 2030, an bold enterprise that seeks to strengthen the Kingdom’s financial place on a world scale and elevate its standing as a cradle of inventive and technological innovation via multi-industrial initiatives rooted in Saudi tradition and heritage.

Lulwah Al-Homoud Perpetual Codes, 2022

Courtesy of Diriyah Artwork Futures©

Mona Khazindar, advisor to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tradition, mentioned: “Established by the Museums Fee, one of many 11 sector-specific entities of the Saudi Ministry of Tradition, DAF is a testomony to our nation’s efforts to nurture expertise and pioneer new types of inventive expression. By means of international establishments resembling DAF, we’re creating a cultural ecosystem that nurtures creativity, enriching lives and empowering the subsequent era of artists and students.”

This launch additionally marks the most recent achievement in a long-running effort to revitalize Diriyah by the Saudi authorities and Diriyah Firm, a public funding fund devoted to advancing this initiative underneath the auspices of Imaginative and prescient 2030. The historic metropolis lies alongside the fertile Wadi Hanifa valley northwest of Riyadh and served as the primary capital of Saudi Arabia from 1727 till 1818.

As Riyadh grew into a contemporary capital, Diriyah was left principally deserted for greater than 100 years, till residents started to return to the realm within the mid-Twentieth century. Non-public repopulation efforts have snowballed over the next many years right into a full-fledged, state-funded enterprise to protect the town’s historic standing and reestablish the realm as a lovely vacation spot for tradition and commerce. Since 2010, At-Turaif—Diriyah’s historic district, the place DAF is positioned—has loved standing as a UNESCO World Heritage Website.

With strikingly trendy kinds and a pure earth exterior that evokes the mud-brick buildings of the outdated metropolis, DAF’s services embody the confluence between Diriyah’s historic significance and its bold imaginative and prescient for the longer term. The 129,000-square-foot campus was designed by Italian architects Schiattarella Associati and homes cutting-edge exhibition areas, studios, digital labs, residential quarters, a library, and an auditorium, amongst different services. That is greater than a mere museum of pc artwork; it’s a residing discussion board for artists, students, and technologists to collaborate and catalyze the expansion of this quickly creating medium.

Miguel Chevalier Digital-Zelliges, 2022

Courtesy of Diriyah Artwork Futures©

To that finish, DAF has additionally underscored its advocacy for stewarding the subsequent era of expertise and selling the inventive voices of regional practitioners via a collection of packages and residencies.

The Rising New Media Artists Program is a yearlong course designed to equip forward-thinking younger artists for a profession in new media arts. Developed with Le Fresnoy, Studio Nationwide des Arts Contemporains, an arts middle in France, the syllabus encompasses weekly lectures, seminars, screenings, and workshops with main artists, in addition to an setting to create works throughout a variety of disciplines. The members’ inventive endeavors are additional supported via funding, mentorship, and entry to the ability’s state-of-the-art gear and manufacturing areas. The primary cohort includes 12 younger artists representing 11 nations all through the Center East, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The Mazra’ah Media Arts Residency, in the meantime, is geared towards established artists and students working within the fields of latest media and digital artwork, and can run from February via April 2025. The theme of the primary residency is “Excessive-Decision Goals of Sand” and encourages members to create new work or scholarship that considers the intersections between ecology and human civilization via the twin lenses of artwork and know-how. The theme additionally explores DAF’s proximity to the landscapes of historic Diriyah and the quickly creating Saudi capital. As with the Rising New Media Artists Program members, residents will probably be supported via entry to DAF’s services and gear, a manufacturing finances, and alternatives to exhibit their work.

Purposes for the Mazra’ah Media Arts Residency are open via January 20, 2025

For extra details about Diriyah Artwork Futures, go to daf.moc.gov.sa/en/ or comply with DAF on X (@DAFmoc) and Instagram at @DAFmoc.

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