The rapid development of the AlUla heritage region in northwestern Saudi Arabia continues with the launch of two major museums: a contemporary art institution and a museum dedicated to the Incense Route. Khaled Azzam, the architect of AlUla Time travel arts master plan, said the two museums were the first of “15 cultural assets” being developed under the 15-year plan.
The Royal Commission for AlUla, the Saudi government’s cultural body headed by the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has announced that the contemporary art museum will be designed by Parisian architect Lina Ghotmeh; the Incense Road Museum will be designed by London architect Asif Khan. Ghotmeh has designed the Serpentine Pavilion 2023 in London, which is due to be unveiled in June.
According The National newspaper, Iwona Blazwick – the chairman of AlUla’s Royal Commission for Public Art expert group – told a briefing in Venice that the contemporary art museum will focus on three main collections.
“At its heart is a collection of art from the region called the Three Seas – the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. We’re focusing on 21st century artists, who come from areas that border these bodies of water, or who have deep, long-standing connections to them,” Blazwick said.
The second collection is called Continents. “And here we will look at a small number of artists from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America and Central America,” he said. she added “whose work represents a cosmos – bringing the world to AlUla”. The third collection includes a series of land art works. A press release adds that the new museum will be “structured like an archipelago of suburban galleries interspersed with a mosaic of artists’ gardens”.
The Incense Route Museum will be the “first museum in the world dedicated to the thousand-year-old network of major land and sea trade routes, celebrating the cultural heritage of AlUla as a place of exchange at the confluence of civilizations”, adds the press release. The new institution will also be connected to the Unesco World Heritage site of Hegra.
“The museum’s budget is confidential but is in line with other developments of this size. This project is part of a larger plan as outlined in the Journey Through Time master plan,” a Royal Commission spokesperson said. for AlUla.
In March, the Center Pompidou in Paris signed an agreement to develop a contemporary art museum in AlUla. When asked if this related to the Museum of Contemporary Art project, the spokesperson said: “The Center Pompidou is one of many reciprocal partnerships with museums and institutions being developed for the museum. AlUla Contemporary Art Museum. We will share more information about these partnerships at a later stage, but these will not affect the name of the museum.”
The proposed Center Pompidou project is the latest French artistic initiative to be launched in Saudi Arabia. It is not clear if this initiative is related to the planned contemporary art institution.
The Afalula agency, founded in Paris in July 2018, is the result of an intergovernmental agreement signed by France and Saudi Arabia (Afalula works in partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla).
Human rights violations remain a problemh. Between 2015 and 2022, an average of 129 executions took place each year in Saudi Arabia, an increase of 82% compared to the period 2010-2014, according to a report compiled by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and the non-profit organization Reprieve. .
