It is home the kingdom’s star heritage attractions, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising Hegra, Dadan, AlUla Old Town, and Jabal ‘Ikmah. The residency is a small piece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s expansive plan to boost Saudi Arabia’s cultural credentials and promote a more “open” image of the country. AlUla, once inaccessible to tourists and avoided by locals out of deference to superstition, has been reincarnated as “the world’s largest living museum.” This will undoubtedly contribute to further mark the originality of AlUla as a cultural destination of a new kind.” Jean-François Charnier, AlUla’s scientific director, and Arnaud Morand, head of creation and innovation, called the residency program “an unprecedented experiment to associate at this level artistic vision and scientific approaches in the writing of the narratives and the reimagination of a destination. Trump PAC Donates for Smithsonian Portraits, Collector and Philanthropist Donald Jonas Dies at 92, and More: Morning Links for July 27, 2022 Medieval Pub Buried Under Grazing Pasture Is Unearthed in England Throughout the residency, the artists will work around the theme “rebirth of the oasis.” The first edition of the residency will be based in Mabiti AlUla, and later established in the arts and design center Madrasat AdDeera. The six inaugural residents are Saudi conceptual artist and educator, Rashed AlShashai Sara Favriau, a Paris-based multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, and performance Talin Hazbar a Syria-born, Sharjah-based architect and a visual artist whose work processes the intersections of nature, history, and ecology the French multimedia artist Laura Selliesis Dubai-based Sofiane Si Merabet, whose work interrogates memories, identities, and migration and Muhannad Shono, a Riyadh-based multidisciplinary artist. Six artists are participating in the 11-week pilot residency, a project of the Royal Commission for AlUla that started in November and continues into January. Saudi Arabia’s campaign to assert itself as an arts destination continues with the launch of the first artist residency in the ancient city of AlUla.

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