Saudi Art Goes Global Through Institutional Channels

Saudi visual artist Ayman Zedani’s “In the Bellies of the Rocks” stands at the entrance of Paris International, inviting fairgoers to consider the Gulf’s ecological future. AlUla commissioned the exhibition as part of its Cultural Season in Paris. The path from residency to cultural-season commission to international art fair makes the institutions behind the work part of its story, not just the walls around it.

The installation pairs a two-channel video with newly unveiled sculptural interventions. Zedani developed the work during his residency in AlUla, drawing on architectural 3D renderings, archival footage and speculative science fiction to build a fictional narrative that revisits ancient Arabian landscapes and archaeological histories. Paris International runs Oct. 20-24 at 187–189 Quai de Valmy, 75010, Canal Saint-Martin, Paris.

Who sets the terms

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week has opened its fourth Global Digital Art Competition, asking artists worldwide: “Can art help us picture a world that can withstand whatever comes next?” The theme is “Securing Systems. Sustaining Growth.” Artists aged 18 or older can submit work by Nov. 16. One winner and two finalists will receive honours in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 13, and organisers will show their work at the event.

The competition invites artists to address future energy; advanced technology and AI; water, food and resource security; investment and infrastructure; or human development. Entries may take the form of still or moving images, interactive or generative art, immersive experiences or web-based pieces. Artists who use AI or other generative tools must disclose their use and explain what those tools contributed. The invitation is broad, but the competition sets the categories and disclosure rules.

Masdar runs the competition with District1795, a technology platform for arts and culture in the Middle East and North Africa. An international art-world jury will judge concept, artistic vision, originality, impact, representation and accessibility. The members are Dyala Nusseibeh, Director, Frieze Abu Dhabi; Kawthar Bin Sulayem, Founder and CEO of District1795; Hamad Al Shamsi, Artist; Anna Magritskaya, Managing Director, Theatre of Digital Art; Khawla Abou Saleh, Visual Artist and Creative Director; and Diaa Allam, Calligraphy Artist. Artists can find the application form and guidelines on the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week website.

Research, sorted by language

The inaugural Riwaq Prize for Science and Culture was presented in Berlin on Oct. 16 during Der Divan’s fourth Arab Book Fair. Der Divan – The Arabic Cultural House and the German Orient Institute Beirut created the prize to recognise scholarly monographs on Arab cultures and societies. The prize totals €3,000, split equally among Arabic, German and English categories. Three specialist juries, each with three members, chose the books.

The Arabic-language award went to Dr Raed Al-Samhouri for “Ibn Taymiyya al-Tarikhi wa-l-Mustaʿad (Ibn Taymiyya: The Historical and the Rediscovered),” published in 2024 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. The book explores how contemporary consciousness represents Ibn Taymiyya and how people invoke him in present-day debates. It sets his work within historical, social and political contexts, challenging readings that reduce it to violence and takfir or use passages to justify positions and conflicts that arose in different circumstances. The author’s central question is to “free Ibn Taymiyya from our time—or perhaps free our time from him.”

Prof. Dr Yvonne Albers received the German-language award for “Beirut und die Zeitschrift Mawaqif. Eine arabische Intellektuellengeschichte 1968–1994,” published by Brill Fink in 2023. Her study traces the Beirut-based journal Mawaqif as a cultural and intellectual institution where people produced and debated ideas. It follows publishing, connections among intellectuals and institutions, and political and social change.

Nora K. Schmid won the English-language award for “The Ascetic Qur’an and its Kharijite Readers.” The book brings close textual analysis together with the historical and cultural circumstances in which early readers understood the Qur’an, focusing on asceticism and Kharijite readers. The jury said the book contributes to a more differentiated understanding of early Islamic piety and interpretation.

Culture as policy and encounter

Clemens Hach, Deputy Head of the Middle East and North Africa Division at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, also spoke at the Riwaq ceremony. Dr Lorans Al Hennawi, Director of Der Divan – The Arabic Cultural House, said the prize expresses a conviction that “rigorous knowledge is essential to understanding ourselves, our history and the world.” Prof. Dr Jens Hanssen, Director of the German Orient Institute Beirut, said the prize treats Arab cultures and societies as subjects of critical inquiry, not fixed images or closed narratives. The partnership seeks to give research wider visibility and strengthen academic and cultural ties between researchers and institutions in the Arab world and Germany. Organisers will award the prize every two years, alternating between humanities and social sciences.

Other initiatives in the source also pass through formal venues. Saudi artist Sarah Brahim’s “Let us Love the Distance” runs at Rome’s Forof from Oct. 26, 2026-July 27, 2027, bringing contemporary art together with the remains of the Basilica Ulpia. Saudi multidisciplinary artist Mohammed Alfaraj’s first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, “The Heart is a Bird’s Nest, the Brain is a Spider Web,” runs at London’s Delfina Foundation until Nov. 22, 2026. Drawing on folklore, social rituals and his upbringing in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahsa oasis, the works examine ecological networks among humans, plants and animals.

The institutional channel also appears in figures Saudi Arabia reported: the Saudi Press Agency said the country took part in 71 international cultural events in 2025, more than twice its target of 34. Cultural events in the kingdom spanned 6,314 event days, exceeding a target of 3,010. The numbers track activity and targets. They don't, by themselves, tell us who gets to set the terms of cultural life.