Noor Riyadh illuminates the capital of Saudi with the works of around 60 artist from 20 countries. This annual lights and arts event will feature installations and galleries spread across 13 locations and will continue until April 3.
“This is what makes Noor Riyadh different from any other light festival; it is not centered in one area,” festival director Miguel Blanco-Carrasco said. “Riyadh is a big city that spans wide, from south to north, from east to west, while other festivals focus on central areas, but for Riyadh, we needed to make it something home-grown, something that is for the people of Riyadh, by the people of Riyadh.”
Public art installation are placed in natural locations, such as Wadi Hanifa, and urban locations, such as the King Abdullah Financial District and the Digital City. It will also feature artwork at heritage locations, such as Al Masmak Fortress.
Ranging from sculptures to projections, interactive shows, kinetic and immersive pieces, Noor Riyadh included all form of light art. The event aims to showcase Riyadh’s diversity and its urban form. The festival also includes a programme of more than 270 special activities, such as tours, talks, workshops, family activities, film screenings and music. With the intention of covering wider audience outside Riyadh, many of these programme will be available online.
Noor Riyadh’s theme for 2021, “Under One Sky”, is a unifying one said Hosam Alqurashi, an official at the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, the festival’s organising authority. “In a time where people are going through social distancing, Noor Riyadh comes in as a beacon of hope. Multiple artists coming to one beautiful initiative like this promotes a message to the world that art is a universal language,” Alqurashi said.
The festival also intents to nurture and promote local Saudi talents and link them with international ones. Producing an international festival of this magnitude during the pandemic was not an easy task, Blanco-Carrasco explained. “Flying so many tons of cargo around the world and bringing teams to install this from many international locations has been very challenging, but we’re all very pleased that we are here today,” he said.
Noor Riyadh is the first programme of Riyadh Art, a megaproject announced in 2019 to make the city one of the world’s artistic capitals. The project aims to turn Riyadh into a gallery without walls by installing 1,000 art pieces by 2030.
