Four-month-long Islamic Arts Biennale opens in Saudi Arabia | Art-and-culture News

“This is the world’s only biennale dedicated to the arts of the Islamic civilisation, both historic and contemporary,” noted Aya Al-Bakree, CEO, Diriyah Biennale Foundation (DBF) that organises the exhibition. She said the programming intends to cement the Biennale as a global platform for cultural exchange and a reference point for new research in the field. The DBF is chaired by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan Al Saud. The event recorded a footfall of over six lakh visitors in its first edition in 2023. The organisers believe that the numbers will multiply with this edition. So as viewers began trooping in on the inaugural day, several encountered the artistic directors: Amin Jaffer, director of The Al Thani Collection; Julian Raby, former lecturer in Islamic art and architecture at the University of Oxford and former director of National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution; and author and historian Abdul Rahman Azzam. Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, who represented the country at the 2022 Venice Biennale, is the contemporary art curator, also responsible for new commissions, bringing together artists such as France-born Louis Guillaume, Imran Qureshi from Pakistan, and Asim Waqif from India, among others.

Coming together under the umbrella of the overarching theme “And All That Is In Between”, inspired by a recurring verse in the Quran, the display is neatly divided into seven broad components, with the commencement made with Al Bidaya (The Beginning) that invites viewers to contemplate the sacred through artefacts from Makkah and Madina, including the first-ever display of the full Kiswah — the sacred cloth that drapes the Kaaba — outside Makkah. Also on view, among others, is a staircase with baroque-inspired motifs gifted to the Kaaba by Nawab Muhammad Munawwar Khan Bahadur of Arcot in the 1820s.

The chapter AlMadar (The Orbit) presents objects of Islamic arts representing celestial navigation, mapping of oceans and rivers, and mathematical calculations in Muslim cultures. The many firsts in the gallery include a 1221 CE astrolabe with the oldest complete geared mechanism in the world.

If under AlMathala (The Canopy) artists have created commissioned works in the outdoors to respond to the theme of the garden in Islamic civilisation, the section AlMuqtani (Homage) displays works of Islamic art from the private collections of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani and Rifaat Sheikh El Ard.

Housed in adjacent buildings are sections dedicated to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. Suspended from the high-walled ceilings here are 1861 CE metal-thread embroidered curtains for the Hujrah screen, and 16th century CE candlesticks that once adorned the Prophet’s house in Madinah, including some with the wax still present. The glimpse into the past extends to the earliest documentary on Hajj. Shot by Georgio Eduardo Alberto Krugers, a cameraperson and director in the Dutch East Indies, the 1928 film follows the Hajj journey of Indonesian pilgrims from their departure from Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta to the conclusion of their journey in the Haramain.

The end also gives directions for new beginnings, as tradition meets contemporary in a Musalla designed as a communal and modular space for prayer by the winners of the 2024 AlMusalla Prize  it also proposes a more sustainable future, with the contemplations extending to an ecological approach with its use of waste from local date palm trees and textiles treated with natural dyes.