DEC 11 MAR 11, 2022
The first edition of the Diriyah Biennale, curated by Philip Tinari, director and chief executive of UCCA (2021), was based on a fictional story about Alexander the Great arguing with a Chinese emperor about whose society had the greatest artists. Monira Al Qadiri’s video installation with nearly 50 inky-black glass sculptures, (2020), retells the story of a British explorer in the 1930s who set off to the Empty Quarter desert to search for a lost city and instead found a crater full of otherworldly meteorites. Manal Al Dowayan’s installation (2014) featured hanging gold leaves and drawings of trees reflecting the matrilineal lineage of more than 300 Saudi women.
