For Land Art artists there are no impossible challenges and even a place considered extreme for the development of the human species can represent, instead, an ideal space for the realization of a work: in this way, the challenge that awaits will certainly be stimulating. James Turrell, Agnes Denes and Michael Heizer, deans of that peculiar artistic movement formed around the end of the 1960s, invited to imagine and implement new projects in AlUla, in the north-west of Saudi Arabia, on the Via dell’Incenso. The project is part of Wadi AlFann, the program which, with the approval of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, intends to transform the Saudi desert into a “Valley of the arts”.
And we know that in those parts by now we play seriously: with a budget of 15 billion dollars – making a valley of art flourish in the desert is a miracle to be achieved with money – the program is in fact curated by Iwona Blazwickformer director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, in her new role as president of Royal Commission of Public Art of AlUla. What might seem like an imbalance in the West, however, is blurred by the participation in the project of two Saudi artists, Manal AlDowayan and Ahmed Mater, already known abroad: the first exhibited in Paris, in the United States and also participated in the Venice Biennale of Art in 2011; of the second, who in 2003 was one of the co-founders of “Edge of Arabia”, an artistic initiative dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab art and culture, the British Museum has acquired several works for its collection.
All works of art will be exhibited over an area of 65 square kilometers and are expected to be presented by 2024. The inauguration will be accompanied by a public program that will include performances and tours through the valley. The aim of the project is to commission 20 to 25 permanent works of art over the course of 10 years, to act as a counterpoint to “Desert X AlUla”, the Biennial of the desert that presents temporary works of art (here the photos of the latest edition).
Denes, known for his poetic works such as the cornfield cultivated in the heart of Manhattan, will exhibit an ascending sequence of pointed pyramids in an attempt to explore the concept of civilization and ideas of progress. Heizer, famous for the production of large embankments but also for “excavations”, such as Double Negative, a 535 meter long and 15 meter deep trench carved into the side of a mountain in the Nevada desert, will create engravings in the sandstone, relevant to the geology of the area. Finally, visitors to the desert will be able to try an alienating experience of space and color, crossing the tunnels and stairs, housed in the bottom of one of the canyons, of one of the famous Skyspaces by Turrell, master of perceptual paradoxes.
“This isn’t a sculpture park,” said Blazwick, who also highlighted how the geopolitical axis of contemporary art has shifted. “Each work must resist the powerful forces of wind and sand,” she continued, adding that the works will be engaging and evoke “a sort of secular spirituality”, which will contribute to enriching the stories of the communities of the Region.
Wadi AlFann: how to transform the AlUla desert into a Land Art valley