The second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale will open in Jeddah from January 25 to May 25, 2025. Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the Islamic Arts Biennale is the first and only biennale dedicated to the arts of Islamic civilization. It presents historical artifacts and contemporary works together as part of a rich continuum, and will take place at the landmark Aga Khan Award–winning Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. This site also holds deep significance for Muslims around the world, as millions of travelers pass through the airport each year to make the sacred Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Makkah.
Building on the successful vision of its inaugural edition, which attracted over 600,000 visitors, the second edition in 2025 is a place of gathering as much as of creation, and it offers many different ways of exploring the contributions of Islamic arts and culture to world civilization. The 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale will consist of five galleries, including a curated exhibition combining historical objects with works by contemporary artists and a vast outdoor exhibition space. It will see the return of AlMadar—meaning “the orbit” in Arabic—which, through a collective, themed exhibition, aims to give voice to the richness and diversity of Islamic culture through institutions from different geographies. There will also be a dedicated gallery—titled Homage—that celebrates the patronage behind two significant collections of art today which reflect high points of Islamic civilization. Two special pavilions, Makkah and Madinah, are dedicated to celebrating these two holy sites. In conjunction with the Islamic Arts Biennale, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation has launched a new architecture prize called the AlMusalla Prize, an international competition for a small prayer space to be built on the Biennale site.
The Diriyah Biennale Foundation CEO Aya Al-Bakree has appointed a team of Artistic Directors comprised of Amin Jaffer, in his ongoing role as Director of The Al Thani Collection, whose academic and curatorial work is focused on the meeting of European and Asian cultures; Julian Raby, a distinguished scholar, former lecturer in Islamic art and architecture at the University of Oxford, and former director of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution who also served on the curatorial team of the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale; and Abdulrahman Azzam, an acclaimed author and historian who served as Senior Expert Advisor for AlMadar in 2023. Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, whose work deals with questions of spirituality and the role of imagination in shaping reality, and who represented Saudi Arabia at the 59th International Venice Biennale in 2022 and was a participating artist in the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, will serve as Contemporary Art Curator.
The expanded curatorial team, hailing from diverse backgrounds and geographies, brings deep expertise in Islamic culture—including fine art, philosophy, crafts, and archaeology—and boasts extensive experience in creating world-class exhibitions with leading institutions globally. The team includes Masa Al-Kutoubi (AlMadar Lead), Rizwan Ahmad (Curator), Heather Ecker (Curator), Marika Sardar (Curator), Joanna Chevalier (Associate Curator), Amina Diab (Associate Curator), Sarah Al Abdali (Assistant Curator), Bilal Badat (Assistant Curator), Faye Behbehani (Assistant Curator) and Wen Wen (Assistant Curator).
The Islamic Arts Biennale is organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, a nonprofit institution established in 2020 dedicated to nurturing creative expression and instilling an appreciation for culture and the arts in Saudi Arabia. The Diriyah Biennale Foundation also produces the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and oversees the development of the JAX District in Diriyah, which is the location of its headquarters.
About the Diriyah Biennale Foundation Established in 2020 and inspired by the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation assumes a critical role in nurturing creative expression and instilling an appreciation for culture and the arts and their transformative potential. By producing two biennales in alternating years, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale at the JAX district in the historic town of Diriyah and the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, the Foundation aspires to be a catalyst for lifelong learning, offering local and international audiences the opportunity to engage with the burgeoning local art scene. At this historical moment of evolution and growth in Saudi Arabia, its biennales showcase some of the world’s leading artists, drive cultural exchange between Saudi Arabia and international communities, promote dialogue and understanding, and further establish Saudi Arabia as an important cultural center.
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