Saudi Arabia and international artists in Italy in Cortona On The Move show

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Cortona On The Move AlUla is presenting exhibitions of three Saudi Arabian and three European photographers as part of the 12th edition of the Cortona On The Move international photography festival (July 14 — Oct. 2) in Cortona, Italy. The six artists have been selected following their participation in the inaugural Cortona On The Move AlUla artists residency programme. First launched this year, Cortona On The Move AlUla was born out of the collaboration between Arts AlUla and Cortona On The Move.

Cortona On The Move is an international festival of photography held in Cortona, a small town in Italy. It is a global point of reference for photography. AlUla, in northwest Saudi Arabia, is a living museum of preserved tombs, sandstone outcrops, historic dwellings and monuments, both natural and human-made, that hold 200,000 years of largely unexplored human history. A place of extraordinary human and natural heritage, it is now being turned into a cultural district — or township. The 21-day artist residency invited photographers from Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Italy to explore the rich heritage and culture of the region.

During the residency — 3-24 March, 2022 — the six photographers experienced a programme of training and cultural exchange, with opportunities to immerse themselves in the landscapes and creative communities of AlUla. Guided by a group of internationally renowned curators, photographers and lecturers including Kholood Albakr, Francois Hebel, Nathalie Herschdorfer, Corinne Noordenbos, Arianna Rinaldo and Gaia Squarci, the six photographers created works inspired by the rich heritage and culture of AlUla.

They are now being given the opportunity to present their work in six individual exhibitions at the Cortona On The Move 2022 festival in Italy. The exhibitions include: * Wrinkles by Hussain AlSumayn (b. 1992, Saudi Arabia). For his project, AlSumayn photographed the people of AlUla and the mountains surrounding the city, revealing similarities between the forms of the landscapes and human features.

He recorded how in old age, people and nature come to look alike in their “wrinkles”. AlSumayn is a photographer, filmmaker and visual artist who created the first Phone Photography Tour in Saudi Arabia. * A Disparate Familiar by Huda Beydoun (b 1988, Saudi Arabia). Beydoun is a visual artist who works with mixed media and photography. During the residency, she spent time in AlUla, and came across the Madrasat AdDeera, a school where women practice a range of handicrafts.

The experience of photographing the day-to-day of these women shaped much of her project. She is a visual artist, fashion photographer and Art Director, who exhibited at the 2013 Venice Biennale. * Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear by Martin Kollar (b. 1972, Slovakia). Kollar discovered the desert in AlUla as a storage place of the rejected, conserved and untouched, where inscriptions engraved into ancient sandstones existed alongside yesterday’s graffiti.

Abandoned objects in the desert are transformed into a future archaeological warehouse. * Fast — Paced by Hayat Osamah (b. 1993, Saudi Arabia). Osamah is a Riyadh-based artist, photographer and director who has worked with major media brands such as Vogue and GQ. One of her most profound experiences in AlUla came through the trust and generosity of a poet, Falah Ameed Al Khamali, who lives in his tent, isolated from the noise of a society in transition. * Almar’a by Eleonora Paciullo (b. 1993, Italy). Paciullo titled her project Almar’a, meaning ‘woman’ in Arabic.

Her photographs attempt to record the women behind the niqab (a veil worn by some Muslim women in public, covering all of the face, except the eyes), including their dreams and ambitions as leaders, artists and people with a vision to participate in the change that is happening in the Kingdom. Paciullo is an Italian photographer, book designer and photo-editor of The Light Observer magazine. * Under Land by Awoiska van der Molen (b. 1972, The Netherlands). Speaking about her work, van der Molen says: “I experienced this primordial space while walking through the desert and oases of AlUla. Blinded by sun and by darkest nights, I entered into the liquid world this desert once was.” She is a Dutch photographer who was selected for Prix Pictet, the world-renowned photography prize dedicated to sustainability and is a published author.

Rinaldo is the co-curator of the first edition of Cortona On The Move AlUla, and has directed a number of festivals, including Cortona On The Move, 2012 - 2021; Albakr is co-curator of the first edition of Cortona On The Move AlUla, and is a visual artist, curator and co-founder of PhonArt Saudi, an initiative that focuses on the smartphone as a tool for contemporary art; Hebel is a French artistic director and curator who has worked for more than 40 years alongside photographers and since 2018, has directed the Henri Cartier Bresson Foundation; Herschdorfer is a curator and art historian specialised in photography history, and is the Director of Photo Elysee, a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland; Noordenbos is a photographer and lecturer and Squarci is a photographer and photo editor who lives between Milan and New York where she teaches Digital Storytelling at the International Center of Photography (ICP).

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), Saudi Arabia, was established to preserve and develop AlUla. The creation of Arts and Creative Industries within the RCU seeks to fuse the old with the new; the local with the international, keeping the arts central to the spirit of AlUla.