DIRIYAH.- The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026, led by Artistic Directors Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, announces a preliminary list of participating artists and presents its curatorial framework and title, In Interludes and Transitions. This is the third edition of the Biennale, which takes place at JAX, a creative district with industrial heritage in the historic town of Diriyah, and will open to the public on January 30, 2026.
The title of the Biennale draws from a colloquial phrase invoking the cycles of encampments and journeys in nomadic communities in the Arabian Peninsula, taking as a point of departure the movements, migrations, and transformations that continue to connect the Gulf region with the world—bringing together practices committed to vibrant imaginations of world-making, forged through the social and ecological upheavals that mark the first two decades of this century. The Biennale proposes to rethink the world in intense motion, through processions that entangle humans with planetary, multi-species, spiritual, and technological currents.
With scenography by design studio Formafantasma, the Biennale is conceived as a choreography in which histories, ancestors, dreams, and premonitions move together through song, stories, dance, and whirlwinds. The Biennale presents works by artists, musicians, filmmakers, architects, and writers to amplify continuity and resilience in times of uncertainty. Over 20 new works have been commissioned for the Biennale.
The preliminary list of participating artists includes Pio Abad, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Yussef Agbo-Ola (Olaniyi Studio), Ahaad Alamoudi, Afra Al Dhaheri, Mohammed Alhamdan (7amdan), Ruba Al-Sweel, Taysir Batniji, Raven Chacon, Rohini Devasher, Merve Ertufan, Ivana Franke, Rahima Gambo, Petrit Halilaj, Aziz Hazara, Alana Hunt, Yazan Khalili, George Mahashe, Théo Mercier, Nour Mobarak, Nancy Mounir, Hussein Nassereddine, Daniel Otero Torres, Thảo Nguyên Phan, Gala Porras-Kim, Sarker Protick, Raqs Media Collective, Oscar Santillán, Trương Công Tùng, Wolff Architects, Agustina Woodgate, and Yu Ji.
Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, Artistic Directors of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026: “Processions have produced relations and forms in this region. The movement of winds and the flow of trade, migration, and exile are carriers of stories, songs, and languages, producing rhythms and poetic meters such as the rajaz. Thinking of the world in procession—a braiding of movements that commemorate and celebrate—allows an understanding of cultural forms through exchange and transmissions; itineraries of travel, intersections, and mutations; and retelling of fragments of exiled stories that have persisted through bodies, materials, rhythms, and cadences.”
The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026 is led by Artistic Directors Nora Razian, Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes at Art Jameel in Jeddah and Dubai; and Sabih Ahmed, a curator, cultural theorist, and educator serving as Projects Advisor at the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai. They are joined by a team of international curators: Maan Abu Taleb, May Makki, Kabelo Malatsie, and Lantian Xie. The Milan-based architect Sammy Zarka has been appointed as Associate Architect and Exhibition Designer to collaborate closely with the curatorial team.
