THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE DESERT
The Bright Side of the Desert Moon
Curated by Jérôme Sans, Pedro Alonzo, Alaa Tarabzouni, and Fahad Bin Naif
As one of the most ambitious festivals of its kind, Noor Riyadh is a citywide celebration of light and art, transforming the urban landscape into an open-air museum. Rooted in the vibrant cosmopolitan capital of Saudi Arabia, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon is an urban intervention in a fast-developing city and showcases a world in full mutation, like a whirlwind in the desert. In the midst of these accelerated transformations, the festival aims to write a story spread out in several locations, like a symphony in different movements that unfolds in both day and night.
Set in Riyadh, a burgeoning metropolis planted in the middle of vast arid land, the exhibition considers the desert as a place of reconnection where our differences dissipate. Desert light blinds as much as it guides us, deceives as much as it leaves us awestruck. With the power to dazzle both visually and mentally, the intensity of light in the desert has a mysterious, almost miraculous aura, like in the phenomenon of a mirage. Descending rays refract and seem to bend back towards us: light, they reveal, is not stagnant but moves around the atmosphere, as if sowing seeds or watering the dry, uniform grounds. Particularly prone to this optical illusion, emblematic of what can be seen but never reached, Riyadh is transformed into an intangible garden where light is understood as the universal force building our contemporary world and interpersonal relationships.
Conceived as a platform with no preconceived path, like a flux with no beginning nor end, this project bestows on each visitor the freedom to define their own route, to adopt their own idiosyncratic ways of connecting the artworks together, and to write their own narrative. Following Umberto Eco’s view on the poetics of the open work, the project’s scope cannot be reduced to one interpretation, refusing any hierarchy among the artworks or any overriding directive in the story that would bind all of them together. Resulting from the rare opportunity of having been granted the keys to a city, this festival develops a different approach to the exhibition format, by inciting one to stroll and wander aimlessly, to live outside of time and space for the span of its manifestation, to experience it once and come back as one pleases, encouraging visitors to take a beat from the daily sprint of modernity. While cities today are designed to incorporate speed into the habits of those who cross them, so that their citizens can navigate streets as rapidly as possible, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon posits itself as a manifesto that urges the slowing down of this ineluctable flow, by writing contemplation, poetry, slowness inside the urban fabric. The citywide exhibition thus re-enchants the landscape and creates entirely new scenarios, for the span of an instant, like a mirage.
Apprehended as both vitally natural and increasingly artificial, from the first flames that allowed humanity to settle and develop, to the brightness of technological screens today, light has guided the history of humanity. A visible, all-encompassing emblem of our modern world, it prolongs our days long after the sun sets and erases all the shaded, gray areas so that cities are always turned on. With our physical and virtual landscapes awake at all times, the night sleeps with open eyes. Flooded with information, visual stimulation, and mass entertainment, the World Wide Web weaves and constructs our modern habitats. Held in the hands of this enchanting torch, the world has become expansive, uninterrupted, infinite. If the grand cable were to be unplugged, depriving humanity of this binding radiant energy, the course of our lives and the world as we know it would immediately come to a halt, inconceivably disturbed. Situated at the very core of the structure of society, light is the umbilical cord of our world, be it economic, political, sociological, or cultural.
Built upon boundless mythologies that reject the night for fear of what it represents, humanity has always tried to steer clear of darkness. Thus does the young child stay wide-eyed at night, afraid of the lurking unknown of obscurity, and thus do illusioned men, with their back to the fire, mistake the truth for the mere shadows of a cave in the Platonic tale. Just as the ancient Greek philosopher once lauded light for its power to make us “see more truly,” our ways of describing knowledge today are still intricately linked to the lexical field of light. Guiding us out of the Platonic cave, light is the ultimate image of truth: it is after climbing out of the shadows that light emerges, leaping from the sensible to the intelligible world. Light is the giver of life and hope. This exhibition, exceptionally illuminating an already beaming city for the span of seventeen days, defies obscurity and multiplies the sources of light with a constellation of new radiant sights. Through their captivating glow and their apparent resistance to darkness, the artworks are like statements, proclaiming the brilliant potency of culture, and its utmost necessity so as not to live blinded and steeped in the oblivion of a world without art.
Reminiscent of the extensive, infinite mass of the metaverse, of today’s new technologies such as holograms, augmented reality, or AI, the image of the desert is one that points to the new swarming abundance of realities that exist simultaneously in one’s life. Thrusted daily from physical to virtual spaces, continuously traveling from one reality to the next, humans today are faced with an array of apertures into which they can penetrate. This extreme mobility, even while motionless, challenges the very notion of what constitutes reality while also consequently enlarging its possibilities. More so, a potent metaphor of our contemporary world, the desert is the figure of today’s Meta cities in which one is easily overwhelmed by information. In this extremely interconnected world, individuals have paradoxically never been so disconnected. Humans find themselves isolated, erased in the face of the multitude, as if constricted and bound to their own grain of sand. Anonymity amidst the crowd is paradoxically paired with accessible celebrity, even if fleetingly – a Warholian 15 minutes of fame made possible by social media. The exhibition twists the vision of the desert as a decontextualizing force which pushes to rethink our relationships, and to reconsider anonymity as a way to reconnect.
Embracing technological progress as well as paying attention to the history of humanity’s perception of light, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon thus aims to channel the diversity that composes our world within a shared experience through the artworks. It goes against our individualist tendencies and celebrates the common light that warms, comforts, and connects us all. This enlightening poetic manifesto proclaims boisterously that “we all live under the same sky.”
Curated by Jérôme Sans, Pedro Alonzo, Alaa Tarabzouni, and Fahad Bin Naif
As one of the most ambitious festivals of its kind, Noor Riyadh is a citywide celebration of light and art, transforming the urban landscape into an open-air museum. Rooted in the vibrant cosmopolitan capital of Saudi Arabia, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon is an urban intervention in a fast-developing city and showcases a world in full mutation, like a whirlwind in the desert. In the midst of these accelerated transformations, the festival aims to write a story spread out in several locations, like a symphony in different movements that unfolds in both day and night.
Set in Riyadh, a burgeoning metropolis planted in the middle of vast arid land, the exhibition considers the desert as a place of reconnection where our differences dissipate. Desert light blinds as much as it guides us, deceives as much as it leaves us awestruck. With the power to dazzle both visually and mentally, the intensity of light in the desert has a mysterious, almost miraculous aura, like in the phenomenon of a mirage. Descending rays refract and seem to bend back towards us: light, they reveal, is not stagnant but moves around the atmosphere, as if sowing seeds or watering the dry, uniform grounds. Particularly prone to this optical illusion, emblematic of what can be seen but never reached, Riyadh is transformed into an intangible garden where light is understood as the universal force building our contemporary world and interpersonal relationships.
Conceived as a platform with no preconceived path, like a flux with no beginning nor end, this project bestows on each visitor the freedom to define their own route, to adopt their own idiosyncratic ways of connecting the artworks together, and to write their own narrative. Following Umberto Eco’s view on the poetics of the open work, the project’s scope cannot be reduced to one interpretation, refusing any hierarchy among the artworks or any overriding directive in the story that would bind all of them together. Resulting from the rare opportunity of having been granted the keys to a city, this festival develops a different approach to the exhibition format, by inciting one to stroll and wander aimlessly, to live outside of time and space for the span of its manifestation, to experience it once and come back as one pleases, encouraging visitors to take a beat from the daily sprint of modernity. While cities today are designed to incorporate speed into the habits of those who cross them, so that their citizens can navigate streets as rapidly as possible, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon posits itself as a manifesto that urges the slowing down of this ineluctable flow, by writing contemplation, poetry, slowness inside the urban fabric. The citywide exhibition thus re-enchants the landscape and creates entirely new scenarios, for the span of an instant, like a mirage.
Apprehended as both vitally natural and increasingly artificial, from the first flames that allowed humanity to settle and develop, to the brightness of technological screens today, light has guided the history of humanity. A visible, all-encompassing emblem of our modern world, it prolongs our days long after the sun sets and erases all the shaded, gray areas so that cities are always turned on. With our physical and virtual landscapes awake at all times, the night sleeps with open eyes. Flooded with information, visual stimulation, and mass entertainment, the World Wide Web weaves and constructs our modern habitats. Held in the hands of this enchanting torch, the world has become expansive, uninterrupted, infinite. If the grand cable were to be unplugged, depriving humanity of this binding radiant energy, the course of our lives and the world as we know it would immediately come to a halt, inconceivably disturbed. Situated at the very core of the structure of society, light is the umbilical cord of our world, be it economic, political, sociological, or cultural.
Built upon boundless mythologies that reject the night for fear of what it represents, humanity has always tried to steer clear of darkness. Thus does the young child stay wide-eyed at night, afraid of the lurking unknown of obscurity, and thus do illusioned men, with their back to the fire, mistake the truth for the mere shadows of a cave in the Platonic tale. Just as the ancient Greek philosopher once lauded light for its power to make us “see more truly,” our ways of describing knowledge today are still intricately linked to the lexical field of light. Guiding us out of the Platonic cave, light is the ultimate image of truth: it is after climbing out of the shadows that light emerges, leaping from the sensible to the intelligible world. Light is the giver of life and hope. This exhibition, exceptionally illuminating an already beaming city for the span of seventeen days, defies obscurity and multiplies the sources of light with a constellation of new radiant sights. Through their captivating glow and their apparent resistance to darkness, the artworks are like statements, proclaiming the brilliant potency of culture, and its utmost necessity so as not to live blinded and steeped in the oblivion of a world without art.
Reminiscent of the extensive, infinite mass of the metaverse, of today’s new technologies such as holograms, augmented reality, or AI, the image of the desert is one that points to the new swarming abundance of realities that exist simultaneously in one’s life. Thrusted daily from physical to virtual spaces, continuously traveling from one reality to the next, humans today are faced with an array of apertures into which they can penetrate. This extreme mobility, even while motionless, challenges the very notion of what constitutes reality while also consequently enlarging its possibilities. More so, a potent metaphor of our contemporary world, the desert is the figure of today’s Meta cities in which one is easily overwhelmed by information. In this extremely interconnected world, individuals have paradoxically never been so disconnected. Humans find themselves isolated, erased in the face of the multitude, as if constricted and bound to their own grain of sand. Anonymity amidst the crowd is paradoxically paired with accessible celebrity, even if fleetingly – a Warholian 15 minutes of fame made possible by social media. The exhibition twists the vision of the desert as a decontextualizing force which pushes to rethink our relationships, and to reconsider anonymity as a way to reconnect.
Embracing technological progress as well as paying attention to the history of humanity’s perception of light, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon thus aims to channel the diversity that composes our world within a shared experience through the artworks. It goes against our individualist tendencies and celebrates the common light that warms, comforts, and connects us all. This enlightening poetic manifesto proclaims boisterously that “we all live under the same sky.”
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