Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale
In Interludes and Transitions
Jax District, Riyadh

Beyond the glass and steel of central Riyadh, Diriyah feels suspended at the edge of time, where the mud-brick ruins of the Saudi state’s birthplace meet the sprawl of 21st-century development. One can’t help but feel the weight of realignment. Once a hub of regional trade and a waystation for pilgrims, the historic site was the host of the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, titled “In Interludes and Transitions.” Opened on January 30 in the repurposed industrial warehouses of the JAX District, the exhibition was curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed alongside Maan Abu Taleb, May Makki, Kabelo Malatsie, and Lantian Xie. It took procession as both a subject and a method, drawing on the Arabic title of the exhibition, في الحِلّ والترحال, which evokes the rhythmic cycles of journey within nomadic Bedouin communities. Organized into four galleries, conceived as song-like movements, and interspersed with site-specific “Arenas,” the presentation was fittingly attuned to a region long shaped by motion—winds carrying sands, caravans ferrying goods, and in our own era, currents of global migration and ecological transformation.