AlUla Arts Festival returns for its 2nd edition with a Saudi first exhibition on Andy Warhol
AlUla Arts Festival returns for its second edition with a Saudi first exhibition on Andy Warhol, guided artwork hikes round Wadi AlFann, public and efficiency artwork and extra
AlUla, Saudi Arabia, February 2023 – The AlUla Arts Festival returns for its second edition on February 16, with an expansive program of occasions, exhibitions, and inventive initiatives going down throughout 12 days within the gorgeous panorama of the traditional metropolis of AlUla.
Inaugurated in 2022 as a part of the broader AlUla Moments calendar of occasions and festivals, AlUla Arts Festival is about to change into a must-do annual occasion on the worldwide arts scene. The pageant program boasts of artwork, tradition, images, in addition to unique performances and immersive experiences throughout varied areas.
Themed ‘Living in Color’, AlUla Arts Festival 2023 explores artwork that revels within the polychromatic, imbuing the distinctive surroundings with dazzling hues by way of curated public artwork installations and particular exhibitions, together with FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla, which brings artworks by the American modern artist to the dominion for the first time.
FAME is produced in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and curated by the museum’s director Patrick Moore to reply particularly to the mirrored constructing Maraya, a devoted arts and tradition venue in AlUla. The exhibition will function Warhol’s well-known work and prints of Hollywood stars and celebrities alongside his ground-breaking set up Silver Clouds and archival images.
FAME can even be accompanied by a strong program of performances, talks, and workshops, together with the 13 Most Beautiful, large-scale projections of Warhol’s silent movies set to a specifically commissioned stay soundtrack by cult rock duo Dean and Britta which is able to happen at Maraya on 16 February.
With a highlight on the inspiring desert landscapes of AlUla, guided artwork excursions provide guests a likelihood to traverse AlUla’s distinctive panorama by way of the lens of artwork. The Art within the Landscape Guided Hike will introduce audiences to the Wadi AlFann landscapes, which would be the website of artwork commissions by the likes of world-renowned artists James Turrell, Agnes Denes, and Michael Heizer and regional heroes Manal Al Dowayan and Ahmed Mater inside the 65-square kilometer valley, with the first works to be accessible from 2024.
Aimed at adventurous artwork lovers, the ticketed guided hike will final six hours, with contributors navigating the canyons and gorgeous desert path whereas studying concerning the Wadi AlFann imaginative and prescient and artist narrative. The hike can even embrace a go to to the Art within the Landscape public artwork installations that had been initially a part of Desert X AlUla 2022.
Continuing AlUla’s program of artist residency ‘Palimpsest of Time’, from 17 February to 18 March is an exhibition and open studio bringing collectively 13 artists from the present and former AlUla Artists Residency programme The multidisciplinary artists have all lived and labored within the distinctive setting of AlUla, fostering dialogue and collaboration with AlUla’s scientific and native inhabitants. The exhibition is hosted in Mabiti- a visitor home and palm grove dwelling to the artist residency – a further set up at Madrasat Addeera celebrates all 25 creatives who’ve skilled the residency program to date.
AlUla’s new and thrilling arts, tradition and eating village, AlJadidah would be the setting for a vary of public artwork and interactive occasions.
100 Best Arabic Posters in AlJadidah, presents eye-catching graphic designs from the Arab world. Launched in 2015 on the German University of Cairo, the distinctive platform showcases the newest improvements inside the area’s modern visible tradition, serving as a reference for graphic designers, visible artists, and students inside the Arab world and past.
A compelling and immersive set up has been commissioned by Arts AlUla for AlUla’s Oasis. The art work, titled Resonant Shell by artists Nathalie Harb and Youmna Saba will present a meditative expertise as guests enter an architectural construction that acoustically isolates exterior sounds, bringing to focus a sound-work drawn from AlUla’s desert and geology. Located within the Oasis, the site-specific art work takes the form of a tower with mudbrick and material as its materials.
Led by Hukat AlFann, the Living in Colour Guided Tours will take guests by way of the Community Square within the Arts District and Oasis to see newly commissioned and momentary public artwork, together with group artworks and murals by artist eL Seed, in addition to the distinctive group hand-painted city carpet in AlJadidah. The period of the ticketed tour is 75 minutes, although guests can even conduct a self-guided tour with the assistance of AlUla Art’s print and digital guides.
Of Myhrr and Silver Scent Walking Tours will evoke the wealthy historical past of the Incense Road, main guests by way of an immersive journey of scents, from myrrh to botanicals to roasted Arabic espresso. Weaving by way of the oasis, AlJadidah, and Old Town, the ticketed tour can even provide encounters with sound and music associated to the traditional buying and selling route.
AlJadidah can be the positioning for the specifically constructed Cinema AlJadidah and a curated movie program AlUla Cinema Week. With programming in partnership with the Red Sea International Film Festival, this cozy and atmospheric out of doors cinema will play a particular number of movies from Saudi Arabia, the broader Arab world, and past. Complementing the FAME: Andy Warhol in AlUla exhibition the cinema can even have a curated Warhol weekend of documentaries, options and artist movies. The movie program can be complemented by talks and a images exhibition devoted to Egyptian feminine cinema icons.
In addition, returning by standard demand, Fringe – the AlUla Performing Arts Festival will enliven AlJadidah with street-style performances, music and humanities for audiences of all ages and skills. Free to all to get pleasure from every night in the course of the pageant.
Specifically geared toward partaking the local people by way of artwork, Madrasat Addeera Program includes arts and crafts workshops at varied ranges in topics similar to wooden carving, textile weaving, palm frond weaving, geometry, and ornamental design.
Additionally, the AlUla Canon Young People’s Program, from February 20 to twenty-eight, will give budding photographers the chance to be taught visible storytelling by way of a workshop that can culminate in an outside exhibition.
Arts AlUla Festival will run till February 28, with some applications extending by way of May.
Neel Achary
