Experiencing a Sunset in Desert X Al Ula
Welcome to my very first trip to Saudi Arabia this January 2020.
‘Once in a lifetime’ is such an overused phrase these days.
We hear it for Disney World or the latest midnight infomercial sale.
But I really did experience a ‘once in a lifetime’ sunset - deep within the balancing space rock formations of Al Ula, Saudi Arabia this January 2020.
This was during the official opening of the much awaited Desert X Al Ula exhibition.
Both the journey and exhibition warrant that trip as one of the most unique explorations I embarked on at 25 years old.
It’s a feeling that you realize you will never experience much in the same way ever again in your life.
The people, the surroundings, the sun’s position just within those ancient rocks, and even my own maturity that had culminated in that very moment.
A momentary passing of a sun parting ways within a breathtaking landscape of nature and playful artwork installations.
All at once I could hear the rocks, the eternal witnesses of this transformation, whispering ancient secrets of the 2,000-year-old valleys.
The whispers of the earthy rocks ricocheted against the childlike laughter of the artist’s installations - made of out of swing sets, trampolines and repurposed date and plastic containers.
I saw the faint footsteps in the red sands of caravan traders surviving in a place of stark contrasts.
My own heritage and life story wove its way into the fold.
My six years since stepping foot on the Sharjah soil as a student in 2014.
All while my eyes traced the curvature of the sun against the unrelentless striations of rocks that balanced and cartwheeled in unimaginable ways.
Just in that single moment.
‘IT’S SAUDI BABY!’
(quote coined from Canvas magazine's 21,39 Jeddah Arts advertisement campaign)After working on a monumental project with Saudi artists in San Francisco back in 2016, it was only 4 years later that I embarked on a journey to the country.
This January I had the chance to attend 21,39 Jeddah Arts, a non-profit initiative organized by the Saudi Art Council, the name derives from the city’s latitude and longitude coordinates. 21,39 Jeddah Arts featured a main exhibition, along with gallery openings and a series of talk throughout the city, centered around their theme ‘I Love You Urgently,’ - addressing today’s global climate crisis (how timely to the series of unfortunate events that greets us as I type..).
As part of the program, there was an additional excursion to see the Desert X art installations in Al Ula that ran just 6 weeks from 31 January - 7 March 2020.
Al Ula is Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World heritage site (since 2008) in the Northwest region of Saudi Arabia.
The area is located at the crossroads of ancient civilizations on the Arabian Peninsula that had been very much unexplored until now.
Found within one of the harshest environments, the modern agricultural town of Al Ula (pop. 6,000) is relieved by Wadi al-Qura (Valley of Villages), an abundant aquifer-fed oasis.
Balloons soar above Al Ula rock formations. Image courtesy of Royal Commission of Al Ula. Photo taken from ‘The National’ newspaper article by Hayley Skirka, ‘Aman in Al Ula: Three new luxury hotels to open in Saudi Arabia’ (2019).
Otherworldly space rocks made of burnt ochre striations of sandstone speckle the entire area with rich archaeological monuments created by the Dadanites, Lihyanites, Nabateans and Islamic civilizations.
In particular, Mada’in Saleh (noted for their carved tombs of Hegra), about 14 miles north of the town of al-Ula, became an urban hub for the Nabateans, a civilization that is to have originated on the Arabian Peninsula and derived their wealth from the incense trade until the Roman annexation of the region in 106 CE. (for more info on the history, see here).
The space will always be considered a timeless mystery.
Ancient cities arrived, lived, encountered others, and left; with mud brick towns and tombs that are still visible in the terrain.
To this day, Al Ula represents a space of reflection, and a cross roads for an exchange of goods, people and ideas.
As part of a joint initiative between Desert X and the Royal Commission of AlUla, 14 artists from across the world, notably from the Arab region, were commissioned to produce monumental site-specific installations in this open air museum.
Originating in the Coachella Vallery of Southern California, Desert X was founded as a way to showcase a desert landscape for artists to produce their unrealized and ambitious projects.
Desert X is the first major contemporary art event for Saudi of this scale.
The strong curatorial team includes co-curators Raneem Farsi and Aya Alireza, along with Neville Wakefield as Artistic Director of Desert X.
Artists include: Lita Albuquerque, Manal AlDowayan, Zahrah Alghamdi, Nasser AlSalem, Rashed Alshashai, Gisela Colon, Sherin Guirguis, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, Nadim Karam, eL Seed, Wael Shawky, Muhannad Shono, Superflex and Rayanne Tabet.
THE JOURNEY
The ancient city of Al-Ula is located in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, about 300 kilometers north of Medina and is pretty much the size of the US state of New Jersey.
Feel like going?
Take a scenic 3 hour drive from Medina or 7 hours from Jeddah.
Feeling bougie? Charter a one hour flight from Jeddah.
As part of the 21,39 program, our artsy group took a private flight there.
Most of us were experiencing this for the first time -except for a few journalists who had a sneak peak before.
Rock formations of Al Ula, image courtesy of Suzy Sikorski
Greeted on horsemen at Maraya Concert Hall, Al Ula. Image courtesy of Suzy Sikorski.
We landed in a very remote airport and stacked ourselves into buses and embarked on a 40 minute ride into the wilderness, greeted by steep rock formations that I have never seen before in my life.
Sandstone cliffs are sculpted by the winds and forces of nature, in chiseled forms parallel to the Assyrian and Babylonian statues like a Dia Azzawi painting.
At this stage you’re delirious at how unfathomable this beauty is.
As our bus slowly made a left turn, we witnessed the building facade of Maraya Concert Hall, made entirely out of mirror that reflects the earthy psychedelic horizon and surroundings — a palette of turquoise blue skies, the light brown crusted sand and the mars-like rocks.
We were greeted by men on horses in traditional dress- it’s as if we’re rolling onto a movie set.
First thought - ‘this is a mirage, right?'
It was only when we drove to the Desert X site that we all became our inner-child again.
We were greeted by Nadim Karam’s playful figures evoking the flora and fauna of Al Ula.
Zahrah AlGhamdi, ‘Glimpses of the Past’
Each of us were given a map detailing the locations of the art installations we were to explore on foot.
For the first time in years I was on a mission to play in a jungle gym, this time it was art installations.
Both myself and my friend and artist, Noor Al Suwaidi experienced Desert X together just like children.
We hung out within the rock creviced grotto underneath Sherin Guirguis’s monumental anklet Kholkhal Aliaa.
Played on the swing sets of Superflex’s One Two Three Swing!
Jumped as high as we could on the trampoline of Manal Al Dowayan’s Now You See Me, Now You Don’t.
Walked through Nasser AlSalem’s Amma Qabl (‘what precedes’) elongated 9m tunnel structure
My shouts ricocheted right in the middle of Rashed Al Shashai’s pyramid of plastic containers A Concise Passage.
And eventually climbed on them, this fun activity part of the installation.
We rolled the play doh-like stones that fell from the sky from Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim’s Falling Stone Garden.
Nasser AlSalem, ‘Amma Qabl’ (‘what precedes’)
What we experienced was something I couldn’t exactly explain.
The rock striations I touched, the sand I felt and pebbles I picked up, and the alternating views I saw swinging and jumping in the air connected me with a two millennia's worth of interactions.
I think of the people who came before- only to look down at my feet and hands here in the now.
I was told to bring warm clothes as winter weather digits could drop to as low as 31°F
And it did ever so quickly once that sun experience set.
I blinked after the sun crept behind the rocks
All at once I was surrounded by a group of people in the art world that included creatives, artists, practitioners and even Nobel laureates coming in for a Andrea Bocelli concert and events lined up in Maraya Theatre that weekend.
I am surrounded by everyone but at the same time I felt alone in this timeless wilderness.
Within an expansive desert whose 2,000-year-old history and Desert X exhibition has shown it is open to infinite possibilities to embrace humanity.
In the introduction to the Desert X Al Ula catalogue, by Anna Somers Cocks, the Founder and Editor of The Art Newspaper, she remarks on an Englishman who arrived in Al Ula in 1877.
Known by Khalil, his real name was Charles Doughty—a doctor, historian and poet who was passionate of the Arab culture and language.
Hearing of the ancient city and carved tombs of Hegra (called Meda’in Saleh), he eventually settled there for a few weeks to study in the Arabic inscriptions in the Qalaa, the hajj fort that stands still today there.
The local community there, at first apprehensive of this Christian from the West, eventually embraced Khalil, reciting ‘Kul wahed ala dinuhu’ (‘to every his own religion’).
Flash forward to 2020, and we became part of that caravan just like Khalil, only this time on an expedition filled with artists and art lovers.
My own life in particular resonates with Khalil - as an American passionate of the Middle Eastern culture, who has come to claim the Peninsula as my home too.
I am always on the move to find that what makes me see and think differently about our humanity.
As the night drew longer, we were called back into our buses, and boarded our flight back to Jeddah.
Again on the move, but the visuals will remain forever.