UNDER ONE SKY
Theme Exhibition: LIGHT UPON LIGHT EXHIBITION
Discovering Riyadh in daylight is something completely different than at night.
In the daytime, the warmth of the sun and its shimmering reflection on the city’s powerful architecture can be overwhelming. In the evening, the urban character changes significantly; enveloped in a glow of light emerging from the streetlamps, from illuminated buildings, and from the thousands of glimmers that shine through its windows, the city is plunged into an atmosphere of calm and tranquility.
The sensitivity and intensity of light lends certain emotions to the environment and can turn a familiar place into something radically new. It can highlight and enhance certain details, or, on the contrary, emphasize the adjacent darkness. Light from a lamp, reflected light in a painting or photo, light as an information carrier, light as a natural phenomenon: this powerful force is able to reflect, distort and create a world of its own, transcending the boundaries of time and space.
Light is one of the most important connecting elements between people and between human beings and nature. It belongs to all of us and has a direct effect on our emotions and on our physical well-being, affecting our mood, appetite, and alertness. Moreover, light plays a vital role in our daily lives and has become an important tool in meeting the needs of our twenty-first-century world.
Light-based technologies protect health and safety, provide sustainable energy, advance lighting options in rural areas, enable communication via the Internet, and hold the promise of limitless possibilities to improve the human condition and protect the earth.
And most importantly, our great collective light source, the sun, contributes immensely to what our life on earth is like: through its presence, we are all ‘under one sky.’ To honor this idea of togetherness, we have invited artists from all over the world, presenting a selection of 33 artworks in which light is the most important means of expression. Many of these artists and designers use light as their medium, while others reference it in a more conceptual and philosophical way, addressing the power of light in its metaphorical meaning: light as enlightenment, as that force that can instill in us all a sense of knowledge and understanding about the past, the present, and the future.
The artworks on display range from large-scale interventions on iconic buildings to dialogues with the natural environment or reflections on light as a natural phenomenon and a source of energy. Some of the artists use light to investigate our perception of the world surrounding us, while others have created impressive sculptures through the manipulation of light, colors, and shadows. What the artworks have in common is their ability to touch the public: exceptional experiences through a visual medium create unique and meaningful encounters by fostering connections and ideas.
Although it is important to underline the cosmopolitan nature of an event of this kind through a broad and international selection of artworks, it is equally important to acknowledge the ways in which it can illuminate a thriving local art scene, offering opportunities to examine its future directions and to unearth the roots that feed it.
To reflect Riyadh’s collective identity as a city and as a society, a group of established and emerging Riyadh-based artists were chosen to present site-specific installations that interact creatively with the history and nature of their city.
The inherent positive and spiritual connotation of light made it an excellent medium for Riyadh’s artists to heal their nostalgia against the city’s ever-changing face. The excitement of jumping into a promising future has indeed created a subtle feeling of anxiety in some of them, that can be traced back to fears of losing their safe place, as well as their physical or mental state of being. What links the local artists’ installations is the idea of reconnecting to a single moment that the audience can absorb before moving forward to the future. Some works present metaphoric experiences that allude to how Saudi society was created, such as a bolt of lightning striking the ground and shaping unique forms of fulgurite, or describe how one feels while comprehending one’s existence, such as the magnified scene of a burning thought, or the moving shadow of a fixed body.
Others resort to the power of prayers, poems, sounds, light, colors, and shapes to create spiritual experiences that exceed the physical world and travel through time and space. The festival is also the perfect opportunity to celebrate two Saudi pioneers who contributed to Riyadh’s history, Mohammed Alsaleem and Ali Alruzaiza. Some of their works have become part of the city’s collective memory and were for this reason chosen as the basis to create two grand installations that pay homage to their importance.
These artists have also faced a number of challenges and found their ways to cope with change. A reminder that if there is a norm in Riyadh, it would be constant, drastic change.
Through the public exhibition of this selection of artworks, Noor Riyadh turns the city into a large open-air museum for two weeks, giving the citizens of Riyadh a glimpse into the world of contemporary (light) art in an accessible way. This is a valuable contribution to the years of effort that have been made to take visual art out of the white cube and place it into the public space: closer to the public, and especially to a public that would not have access to a museum to enjoy art.
For many of the artworks on display, interacting with public space, with its distinct architectural and natural features, adds a new dimension and a special appeal. Through their specific placement, the installations are inextricably linked with the city and its image and experience.
In this way, some of the artworks embellish or awaken memories, others amaze and encourage thinking. By making use of public space, the exhibition is accessible to everyone and brings people together: artists, residents, and visitors. Together they give the city new meaning, just like the art itself, which will reach a new audience.
Therefore, Noor Riyadh is able to open the seemingly closed doors of the art world to a new generation of art lovers.
In the daytime, the warmth of the sun and its shimmering reflection on the city’s powerful architecture can be overwhelming. In the evening, the urban character changes significantly; enveloped in a glow of light emerging from the streetlamps, from illuminated buildings, and from the thousands of glimmers that shine through its windows, the city is plunged into an atmosphere of calm and tranquility.
The sensitivity and intensity of light lends certain emotions to the environment and can turn a familiar place into something radically new. It can highlight and enhance certain details, or, on the contrary, emphasize the adjacent darkness. Light from a lamp, reflected light in a painting or photo, light as an information carrier, light as a natural phenomenon: this powerful force is able to reflect, distort and create a world of its own, transcending the boundaries of time and space.
Light is one of the most important connecting elements between people and between human beings and nature. It belongs to all of us and has a direct effect on our emotions and on our physical well-being, affecting our mood, appetite, and alertness. Moreover, light plays a vital role in our daily lives and has become an important tool in meeting the needs of our twenty-first-century world.
Light-based technologies protect health and safety, provide sustainable energy, advance lighting options in rural areas, enable communication via the Internet, and hold the promise of limitless possibilities to improve the human condition and protect the earth.
And most importantly, our great collective light source, the sun, contributes immensely to what our life on earth is like: through its presence, we are all ‘under one sky.’ To honor this idea of togetherness, we have invited artists from all over the world, presenting a selection of 33 artworks in which light is the most important means of expression. Many of these artists and designers use light as their medium, while others reference it in a more conceptual and philosophical way, addressing the power of light in its metaphorical meaning: light as enlightenment, as that force that can instill in us all a sense of knowledge and understanding about the past, the present, and the future.
The artworks on display range from large-scale interventions on iconic buildings to dialogues with the natural environment or reflections on light as a natural phenomenon and a source of energy. Some of the artists use light to investigate our perception of the world surrounding us, while others have created impressive sculptures through the manipulation of light, colors, and shadows. What the artworks have in common is their ability to touch the public: exceptional experiences through a visual medium create unique and meaningful encounters by fostering connections and ideas.
Although it is important to underline the cosmopolitan nature of an event of this kind through a broad and international selection of artworks, it is equally important to acknowledge the ways in which it can illuminate a thriving local art scene, offering opportunities to examine its future directions and to unearth the roots that feed it.
To reflect Riyadh’s collective identity as a city and as a society, a group of established and emerging Riyadh-based artists were chosen to present site-specific installations that interact creatively with the history and nature of their city.
The inherent positive and spiritual connotation of light made it an excellent medium for Riyadh’s artists to heal their nostalgia against the city’s ever-changing face. The excitement of jumping into a promising future has indeed created a subtle feeling of anxiety in some of them, that can be traced back to fears of losing their safe place, as well as their physical or mental state of being. What links the local artists’ installations is the idea of reconnecting to a single moment that the audience can absorb before moving forward to the future. Some works present metaphoric experiences that allude to how Saudi society was created, such as a bolt of lightning striking the ground and shaping unique forms of fulgurite, or describe how one feels while comprehending one’s existence, such as the magnified scene of a burning thought, or the moving shadow of a fixed body.
Others resort to the power of prayers, poems, sounds, light, colors, and shapes to create spiritual experiences that exceed the physical world and travel through time and space. The festival is also the perfect opportunity to celebrate two Saudi pioneers who contributed to Riyadh’s history, Mohammed Alsaleem and Ali Alruzaiza. Some of their works have become part of the city’s collective memory and were for this reason chosen as the basis to create two grand installations that pay homage to their importance.
These artists have also faced a number of challenges and found their ways to cope with change. A reminder that if there is a norm in Riyadh, it would be constant, drastic change.
Through the public exhibition of this selection of artworks, Noor Riyadh turns the city into a large open-air museum for two weeks, giving the citizens of Riyadh a glimpse into the world of contemporary (light) art in an accessible way. This is a valuable contribution to the years of effort that have been made to take visual art out of the white cube and place it into the public space: closer to the public, and especially to a public that would not have access to a museum to enjoy art.
For many of the artworks on display, interacting with public space, with its distinct architectural and natural features, adds a new dimension and a special appeal. Through their specific placement, the installations are inextricably linked with the city and its image and experience.
In this way, some of the artworks embellish or awaken memories, others amaze and encourage thinking. By making use of public space, the exhibition is accessible to everyone and brings people together: artists, residents, and visitors. Together they give the city new meaning, just like the art itself, which will reach a new audience.
Therefore, Noor Riyadh is able to open the seemingly closed doors of the art world to a new generation of art lovers.
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