AlUla resident artists reimagine the future of nostalgia at
Art Week Tokyo
The AlUla
Artist Residency Programme—launched in 2021 through a partnership between AFALULA (the French Agency for AlUla
Development) and the Royal Commission
for AlUla (RCU)—was created to establish AlUla as a rising force in the
global art and culture landscape. This year, twenty-one alumni of the residency
showcased their work at Art Week
Tokyo, marking a major step in the programme’s international expansion.
The exhibition’s theme, Future of Nostalgia, draws from Svetlana Boym’s
influential book, which suggests that in a world defined by speed and
innovation, nostalgia does not lose relevance—rather, it becomes a powerful
tool for empathy and cultural reinvention.
As part of their residency, each artist spent up to three
months immersed in AlUla, collaborating closely with local teams. Their works
spanned a wide range of mediums, including painting, installation, film,
photography, poetry, and live performance.
Daniah AlSaleh: Bringing Hinat’s voice into the present
Award-winning Jeddah-based artist Daniah AlSaleh, known for
blending traditional art with computational techniques, explored themes of
female identity through the overwhelming beauty and history of AlUla.
“It’s hard to overstate how overwhelming AlUla’s landscape
and history are,” she said. “The pure-blue sky, the deep green palms, the
sienna-toned sand—it feels like walking through a painting. I knew I had to
bring colour into my work.”
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During excavations at Hegra, archaeologists discovered the
2,000-year-old tomb of a Nabataean woman named Hinat, whose inscription reads: “I
am Hinat, daughter of Wahabu. I dedicate this tomb to myself and to my future
generations, during the reign of the King, until the end of time.”
Daniah cast three young local girls—possibly Hinat’s
descendants—to embody her legacy, filming them as they moved through AlUla like
spirits of the past. The final work was projected onto a watercolour-paper
screen hand-burnished with hundreds of photo collages.
“The first projection, inside a tent in the Residency’s
oasis, was magical—an emotional moment,” she recalled.
Exploring memory, landscape, and transformation
Highlights from the exhibition also included:
- Yasmina Benabderrahmane’s Peaux-Roches (2024), featuring Fossile, a photograph inspired by AlUla’s tafoni—wind-carved rock formations. An abandoned jeep sinking into the sand reflects the desert’s power to erode and reshape.
- Théo Mercier’s Landscript, a sculptural installation that juxtaposes contemporary and ancient objects slowly reclaimed by drifting sand.
- Han Mengyun’s film Gift, inspired by the femininity and fertility associated with AlUla’s date palms, depicting the oasis as a matrilineal source of care, resilience, and ancestral knowledge.
- Anhar Salem’s documentary A Day in AlUla, following eight residents as they navigate daily life while reflecting on AlUla’s rapid transformation. “Before tourism became international,” a taxi driver says, “we only had visitors from the Gulf.”
- Sofiane Si Merabet’s It’s Not Early Anymore (2021), which revisits ancient wedding traditions through music. The film features Noujoud, AlUla’s celebrated tagaga (wedding singer), whose voice captures the nostalgia of lost caravans and loved ones.
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Audience response at Art Week Tokyo exceeded expectations.
In just a few years, the AlUla Artist Residency Programme has begun forging a
powerful cultural bridge between AlUla’s ancient heritage and its emerging
creative future—demonstrating how the past can inspire new expressions of
nostalgia, innovation, and artistic connection.
Source: https://www.voguearabia.com/
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