The catalog for 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, under the artistic direction of Ute Meta Bauer, featuring some one hundred artists of different generations: a testament of a unique moment within a changing Saudi Arabian cultural ecosystem.
The catalog for 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, After Rain, provides a visual and spatial navigation of the multiple platforms of the Biennale: the exhibition held in the extensive former warehouse space of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation; the Biennale Encounters, a year-long series of talks, performances, and workshops; the curated film program; the Re/Search segment highlighting the artistic research processes underlying many projects featured in the exhibition; and the Learning Garden, the online companion to the Biennale. This book features some one hundred artists of different generations, many from Saudi Arabia and the region, and includes images of newly commissioned projects and time-based contributions, richly illustrated with images of the artistic contributions to the Biennale exhibition and its events. This large-scale international art project and its publication are a testament of a unique and exciting moment within a changing Saudi Arabian cultural ecosystem.
The second edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale is led by Artistic Director Ute Meta Bauer and Co-curators Rose Lejeune, Wejdan Reda, and Anca Rujoiu as well as Adjunct Curator Rahul Gudipudi. Running from February 20 – May 24, 2024, the exhibition takes place in the JAX District of Diriyah, a town on the outskirts of Riyadh encompassing the UNESCO World Heritage Site At-Turaif.
Ute Meta Bauer (born 1958 in Stuttgart, Germany) is an educator and curator in the field of contemporary art. Since 2013, she has been the Founding Director of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and a Professor in the School of Art, Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University. She co-chairs the Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices and is the Principal Investigator for the three-year research project "Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss." Bauer has held leadership positions in multiple cultural and academic institutions: as Artistic Director of Künstlerhaus Stuttgart e.V. (1990–94); Professor of Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art and Vice Rector of International Affairs at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1996–2006); and Founding Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (2002–05). At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Bauer served as Director of the Visual Art Program (2005–09), as the Founding Director of MIT's program in Art, Culture, and Technology (ACT) (2009–12), and at the Royal College of Art London she was Dean of the School of Fine Art (2012–2013). Bauer was a co-curator of Documenta11 (2002) and the US Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), served as artistic director for the 3rd Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2004), curated the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) and the 17th Istanbul Biennial. She has published and co-edited numerous publications in the field of contemporary art.
Edited by Ute Meta Bauer.
Foreword by Rakan Altouq and Aya Albakree.
Contributions by Ute Meta Bauer, Rose Lejeune, Wejdan Reda, Anca Rujoiu, Ana Salazar Herrera, Rahul Gudipudi.
