The Inaugural Desert X AlUla, the Controversial Saudi Sculpture Event, Has Announced a High-Profile Lineup of Participating Artists

Desert X has announced the participating
artists for its controversial new biennial opening in the AlUla
region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. 

Curated by Raneem Farsi, Aya
Alireza, and Desert X artistic director Neville Wakefield, the
exhibition brands itself as the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
Danish collective Superflex, Egyptian artist Wael Shawky, and five
creators from Saudi Arabia are among those who have been tapped to
create the 14 site-specific works from January 31 to March 7. (See
the full list of participating artists here.)

The works are set to be installed outdoor throughout an ancient
desert oasis outside of AlUla. The artists have been tasked with responding to
the region’s history of migration and trade as a passageway along
the incense route in the Arabian Peninsula. 

The show, a spiritual sister to
the Desert X biennial in the Coachella Valley of California, was
“conceived to foster artistic exchange and dialogue across
continents,” says Farsi, noting a special desire to give voice to
Saudi Arabia’s own artistic community. “Many of the works on view
are informed by the multiple layers of history shaping the region
and through exhibitions like this, we are working towards a more
inclusive future through art.”

The initiative was
met with a
firestorm of criticism when it was first announced last
October. At the heart
of the matter was the fact that Desert X had partnered with the
Royal Commission of AlUla (RCU), a Saudi governmental body chaired
by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Almost a year to the day
prior to the Desert X AlUla announcement, Salman allegedly ordered
the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the
Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

On the Desert X website, it states that “RCU’s vision for AlUla
pledges to reinvigorate, protect and preserve AlUla as a vibrant,
open museum and a unique global destination for heritage, nature
and the arts, the first phase of which is delivering an annual
temporary exhibitions programme in the landscape, building
partnerships with institutions, artists and curators, and
developing local arts skills and infrastructure including training
artisans in heritage arts and design principles to build
livelihoods in AlUla.”

Critics, however, have seen the
project as shameless promotion for the agenda of the Saudi Arabian
leadership, at a time when the country is trying to boost its
cultural cachet and present a more welcoming image of itself on the
international stage. Three of Desert X’s 14 board members, artist
Ed Ruscha, curator Yael Lipschutz, and philanthropist Tristan
Milanovich, resigned in protest of the partnership with Saudi
Arabia last year. 

“This isn’t about dialogue among
artists,” Lipschutz told the Los Angeles
Times, “it’s about
striking a deal with a national government that has committed a
horrific genocide in Yemen, that is completely undemocratic and
that has an appalling record of discrimination against the LGBTQ
community.”

“People tend to pre-judge things
they haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience,” Wakefield told
the Art
Newspaper upon
announcing the lineup for Desert X AlUla. “We live in binary times,
when people are either isolationist or believe in the power of
cultural dialogue. Art changes hearts and minds. Denying an entire
population this opportunity is to be part of the problem not the
solution.”

Desert X
AlUla will take place
from January 31 to March 7 in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

The post The Inaugural Desert X AlUla, the Controversial
Saudi Sculpture Event, Has Announced a High-Profile Lineup of
Participating Artists appeared first on artnet News.