Saudi, international artists invited to participate in Riyadh sculpture symposium

RIYADH: Artists from Saudi Arabia and around the world are being invited to take part in an annual sculpture symposium in Riyadh.

Thirty artists will be selected for Riyadh Art’s fifth Tuwaiq Sculpture event, providing them with a platform to create and display public artworks in a live setting.

Using stone sourced from the Tuwaiq area, the completed pieces will then go on show around the city, as part of the Kingdom’s national public art initiative.

The open call for next year’s participants closes on Aug. 31 and selected artists will be announced at the end of October.

The cohort will carry out live sculpting in public and the event will also include talks, panel discussions, workshops, and educational activities, some attended by the sculptors.

Khalid Abdullah Al-Hazani, executive director of the Riyadh Art program, said: “The works and events of the Tuwaiq Sculpture forum are part of the Riyadh Art program, which aims to improve the quality of life of the city’s residents and visitors and spread joy in their daily lives.”

Under the theme Dimensions of Movement, the artists will explore the notions of progress and expansion paralleling current shifts and advances in society.

The theme has been based on the 20th-century artistic and social movement known as Futurism with the aim of capturing the city’s drive toward innovation and new frontiers.

Curator Marek Wolynsky, a specialist in large-scale projects and cross-sector partnerships, will be returning to revive his role at the program following the success of this year’s symposium.

He will lead a panel of jurors and experts, including Khulod Albugami, a sculptor and assistant professor at Princess Nourah University’s College of Art and Design; Nojoud Alsudairi, co-founder of Syn Architects, an artist and architect whose practice focuses on identities rooted in urban contemporary Saudi culture; Fahad Aljebreen, a sculptor and assistant professor at King Saud University, and associate curator of Tuwaiq Sculpture 2024; and Sebastiano Barassi, a curator and art historian, who has held curatorial positions at The Courtauld Gallery, the University of Cambridge, and the Henry Moore Foundation in the UK.

Artists wishing to take part must have a minimum of five years’ experience sculpting and exhibiting in outdoor spaces and galleries. Qualifying applicants will also be required to submit a proposal in response to the curatorial theme.

The 30 selected artists will receive an all-expenses-paid three-week stay in Riyadh while they produce their sculptures working only with Saudi-sourced granite of three different colors.

Once finished, their works will be showcased in an exhibition and then relocated throughout the capital to become part of Riyadh’s permanent urban fabric.

Tuwaiq Sculpture’s annual symposiums have hosted more than 90 world-renowned artists and thousands of visitors since its inaugural event. The program mirrors Riyadh Art’s public initiative that works to enhance the city’s cultural landscape through art, and which has now housed in excess of 1,000 public art pieces in neighborhoods, parks, and other spaces.