JEDDAH: The Saudi Ministry of Culture is to take part in a major international exhibition aimed at exploring the future role of artificial intelligence (AI).
And two artists from the Kingdom, Lulwah Al-Homoud and Dania Al-Saleh, will be taking center stage to showcase their work at next month’s event in Russia.
The exhibition will be launched during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), at which delegates will discuss the latest advances in AI technology and tackle the question: “What will happen next?”
Saudi duo Al-Homoud and Al-Saleh will join with artists from throughout the world for the expo, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Intercultural Dialogue,” which will open in the State Hermitage Museum’s general staff building in St. Petersburg, on June 6, the first day of the SPIEF gathering, and run until July 7.
The artists’ work will show how traditional and future elements can be mixed to express creative concepts, such as the combining of ancient Arabic calligraphy with AI.
Al-Homoud is known for expressing creativity through abstract shapes. She holds a master’s degree from Central Saint Martins’ college of arts and design in England, with a specialization in Islamic art. She has coordinated exhibitions around the world, including the Shanghai Duolun Museum, in China, and the Saudi Art Gallery at the School of Oriental And African Studies in London.
Her works were also acquired by the Five Continents Museum in Munich, Germany, and the LACMA art museum in Los Angeles.
Al-Saleh explores “the voice” of infrastructure and the complexities of language through her work. In her Ithra prize-winning piece “Phoneme,” she sought to divide language into a smaller unit, concentrating on Arabic letters, and searching for their origin in order to prove their communicative power among humans.
To do this, Al-Saleh, who is studying for a master’s degree in computer science at Goldsmiths, University of London, created a program to produce 28 scribbles representing the alphabet.
By taking part in the Russian expo, the Ministry of Culture aims to support Saudi artists and promote cultural dialogue with the world through various arts initiatives.
The exhibition, organized by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Hermitage, will be attended by world-renowned artists including Mario Klingemann from Germany, Sun Xun from China, Team Void from South Korea, American computer animator Jonathan Monaghan, and Norimichi Hirakawa of Japan.
