RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The third Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale has opened in Riyadh with a ceremonial desert procession through Wadi Hanifah, launching a major international exhibition that organizers say explores migration, movement and cultural interconnection across and beyond the Arab world. The show runs until May 2, 2026 at JAX District, near the UNESCO World Heritage site of At-Turaif.
Titled “In Interludes and Transitions,” the biennale brings together 68 artists from 37 countries, with several new commissions and multi-sensory installations spanning sculpture, sound, architecture, text and performance. Curatorial framing emphasizes how people, ideas and materials travel across regions in times of displacement, ecological stress and rapid political change.
Among the standout works is “AGBA: 8 Stone Cave” by Nigerian-British artist Yussef Agbo-Ola (Olaniyi Studio), a sculptural pavilion centered on ancestral intelligence and ecological spirituality. The work blends Yoruba cosmological ideas with references to Saudi cultural forms, including Al-Qatt Al-Asiri geometric traditions. Its imagery draws on local and regional symbols—such as birds, marine life and botanical motifs—while using earthen construction methods that evoke natural structures. Agbo-Ola described the piece as an invitation to consider ancestors beyond the human, including rivers, mountains and plants.
South African artist Dineo Seshee Bopape (Raisibe) presents an immersive installation focused on wind, memory, migration and land-based knowledge systems. Her conceptual thread references “go fiela mogotha”—a sweeping practice associated with women’s care of domestic and communal space—reframing it as an act of repair and stewardship. The installation also connects ritual, weather and cosmology, including references to rain-making traditions and celestial beings in Southern African thought.
The broader biennale environment has also drawn attention for its scenography, designed to encourage slow movement and porous viewing rather than rigid gallery pathways. Review coverage notes that the spatial design supports the exhibition’s themes of transition by emphasizing flow, thresholds and sonic continuity across halls and courtyards.
For Saudi Arabia, the biennale is another high-profile marker in its cultural expansion strategy, but it is also being read as a regional platform where African, Arab and global contemporary practices meet on equal conceptual ground.
As the exhibition continues through early May, the strongest thread remains consistent: art here is not presented as static object, but as a living archive of movement—of peoples, memories, ecologies and shared futures.
