The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra).

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) has announced that the fourth edition of the Ithra Art Prize is now open for submissions. The Ithra Art Prize is presented in partnership with Ad-Diriyah Biennale Foundation, and the winning artwork will be unveiled at the inaugural Ad-Diriyah Biennale, the Kingdom’s first biennale. Entry is open to all Saudi and Saudi-based contemporary artists, as well as artists from or based in the 22 Arab League countries.

The prize includes up to $100,000 for the winner to create a world-class work of art. It is one of the most significant art prizes in the world. The deadline for submitting proposals for the 2021 Ithra Art Prize is August 16. A jury of local and international leaders of the art world will evaluate the proposals and announce the winner on August 30. The winning artwork will be unveiled at the Ad-Diriyah Biennale in Riyadh on December 7, and will then join Ithra’s prestigious permanent art collection. 

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Since its inception, the Ad-Diriyah Biennale Foundation has endeavoured to be a platform for art and artists. It has worked with Ithra in bringing the programme, first launched in 2017, back to the Kingdom after being held abroad for three years. The Ithra Art Prize aims to develop the art industry in the Kingdom and beyond through interaction between different cultures.

The Foundation will hold the Ad-Diriyah Biennale of Contemporary Art (2021) and the Islamic Arts Biennale (2022) annually to promote, diversity and create more space for Saudi artists from different creative fields, allowing them to showcase their work and interact with international artists. The biennale is a creative platform that allows international audiences access to diverse world-class Saudi art and culture. It will be held Dec. 7 – Mar. 7, 2022 under the curatorship of writer and critic, Philip Tinari.

  Ayman Zedani.

The theme for the biennale is “Feeling the Stones.” It is inspired by the idea of “crossing the river by feeling the stones,” a slogan that emerged during the 1980s as a metaphor for action at a time of social and economic transformation. Tinari said: “We hope that this exhibition will expose new generations of viewers to global contemporary art, not just as a mode of visual expression, but as a space for critical thinking. The art scene in Saudi Arabia finds itself at a crucial juncture, and art has an important role to play in reflecting on key issues of the moment.”

The biennale will take place at JAX district in Diriyah, in a 20,000 square metres area. It will unfold in six sections, examining themes that include memory and preservation; cultural transmission; social engagement; the Anthropocene (the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet) and the spiritual. It aims to create new connections between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the international art worlds, bringing new trends in global contemporary art to Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning cultural scene, with nearly 70 artists exhibiting. The biennale curatorial team also includes Wejdan Reda, founder of Sahaba art consultancy in Jeddah; Shixuan Luan, curator at UCCA; and Neil Zhang, assistant curator.

Reda is researching contemporary art canon and critical art discourse in Arabic, through the case study of the use of Arabic terminology in interpretation and mediation with sculptural public art projects. She is a curator, art consultant and the founder of Sahaba.club in Jeddah. Tinari is an American writer, critic, art curator, and expert in Chinese contemporary art. Based in Beijing since 2001, he is currently director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), in Beijing. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke and a Master’s from Harvard. Fluent in Chinese, he was a Fulbright Fellow at Peking University. Prior to arriving at UCCA in 2011, he worked as China representative for Art Basel, and lecturer in art criticism at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. He launched the magazine Artforum’s Chinese edition in 2008.

In 2009, he launched LEAP, “the international art magazine of contemporary China,” and edited the magazine till 2012. He has written and lectured extensively on contemporary art in China, in particular on the artist Ai Weiwei.

Diriyah is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the north-western outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was the original home of the Saudi royal family, and served as the capital of the Emirate of Diriyah under the first Saudi dynasty, from 1744 to 1818. It is part of Ar Riyad province now. The Turaif district, the first capital of Saudis, in Diriyah, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. UAE-based Saudi artist Ayman Zedani’s project Meem won the inaugural edition of the Ithra Art Prize, in 2018. The second winner, in 2019, was Dania Al Saleh’s Sawtam, which breaks down language into phonemes using multimedia visual and auditory displays.

Most recently, Fahad Bin Naif won the 2020 prize for his artwork Rakhm, which evokes agricultural nurseries in the Kingdom and incubates indigenous vegetation, instead of traditional house plants. All winning artworks were displayed at Art Dubai. The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture is a leading cultural centre in Saudi Arabia. Through a series of programmes and initiatives, it creates experiences that bring together culture, innovation and knowledge by championing diversity, celebrating creativity and encouraging collaboration, with the objective of energising Saudi Arabia’s knowledge economy.