Feeling the Stones: The First Diriyah Biennale

Han Mengyun, /The Pavilion of Three Mirrors /(2021). Oil on canvas, 3 polished-steel pavilions, 17 × 11 m; steel pavilions

Han Mengyun, The Pavilion of Three Mirrors (2021). Oil on canvas, 3 polished-steel pavilions, 17 × 11 m; steel pavilions

Marwah AlMugait, /This Sea Is Mine /(2021). Live performance, 3-channel video installation, 13'42"

Marwah AlMugait, This Sea Is Mine (2021). Live performance, 3-channel video installation, 13'42"

Abdullah Al Othman, /Manifesto: The Language & City/ (2021). Neon, LED, found wooden signage, 8 × 5 m. Commissioned by Diriyah Biennale Foundation

Abdullah Al Othman, Manifesto: The Language & City (2021). Neon, LED, found wooden signage, 8 × 5 m. Commissioned by Diriyah Biennale Foundation

Ahmed Mater, /Desert Meeting /(2021). Video installation, motion photographs on five cathode-ray tube televisions, 130 × 60 × 43 cm. Courtesy the artist and Lakum Gallery

Ahmed Mater, Desert Meeting (2021). Video installation, motion photographs on five cathode-ray tube televisions, 130 × 60 × 43 cm. Courtesy the artist and Lakum Gallery

Bricklab and Mammafotogramma, /Through the Looking Glass /(2021). Murano glass and steel, dimensions variable

Bricklab and Mammafotogramma, Through the Looking Glass (2021). Murano glass and steel, dimensions variable

Dana Awartani, /Standing on the Ruins of Aleppo /(2021). Clay earth, 23.7 × 13.5 m

Dana Awartani, Standing on the Ruins of Aleppo (2021). Clay earth, 23.7 × 13.5 m

Huang Rui, installation view from Diriyah Biennale. Left to right: /Seamstresses in a Street Production Unit /(1980), /Wall of Poets /(1981), /Cyclist /(1982), /Looking into the Distance /(1981). 

Huang Rui, installation view from Diriyah Biennale. Left to right: Seamstresses in a Street Production Unit (1980), Wall of Poets (1981), Cyclist (1982), Looking into the Distance (1981). 

John Gerrard, /Leaf Work (Derrigimlagh)/ (2021). Simulation, LED wall, polished-mirror pavilion, 400 × 400 cm. Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery

John Gerrard, Leaf Work (Derrigimlagh) (2021). Simulation, LED wall, polished-mirror pavilion, 400 × 400 cm. Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery

Larry Bell, /Iceberg/ (2020). French blue, capri blue, periwinkle, and turquoise laminated glass, 244 × 432 × 497 cm. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Larry Bell, Iceberg (2020). French blue, capri blue, periwinkle, and turquoise laminated glass, 244 × 432 × 497 cm. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Lawrence Lek, /Nøtel (Red Sea Edition)/, (2021). Open-world video game, gaming PCs, controllers, monitors, video loops, sound by Kode9. 6.4 × 6.4 × 2 m. Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London

Lawrence Lek, Nøtel (Red Sea Edition), (2021). Open-world video game, gaming PCs, controllers, monitors, video loops, sound by Kode9. 6.4 × 6.4 × 2 m. Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London

Lulwah Al-Homoud, /The Language of Existence/ (2021). Etchings on plexiglass with encapsulated blue LED strips, 99 pieces, 30 × 40 cm each

Lulwah Al-Homoud, The Language of Existence (2021). Etchings on plexiglass with encapsulated blue LED strips, 99 pieces, 30 × 40 cm each

Sarah Brahim, /Soft Machines, Far Away Engines /(2021). Projection-mapped video performance, dimensions variable

Sarah Brahim, Soft Machines, Far Away Engines (2021). Projection-mapped video performance, dimensions variable

Simon Denny, /Real Mass Entrepreneurship /(2017-2021). Installation, locally sourced commercial display elements, airbrush and acrylic on synthetic plaster and wood, plexiglas, fluorescent lamps, 4K video. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz 

Simon Denny, Real Mass Entrepreneurship (2017-2021). Installation, locally sourced commercial display elements, airbrush and acrylic on synthetic plaster and wood, plexiglas, fluorescent lamps, 4K video. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz 

Tavares Strachan room at the Diriyah Biennale 2021-22, /EIGHTEEN NINETY /(2020). 

Tavares Strachan room at the Diriyah Biennale 2021-22, EIGHTEEN NINETY (2020). 

Wang Luyan, sculptures from 2010-2019. Installation view from Diriyah Biennale 2021-22.

Wang Luyan, sculptures from 2010-2019. Installation view from Diriyah Biennale 2021-22.

William Kentridge, /More Sweetly Play the Dance /(2015). 8-channel video installation with four megaphones, sound, 15'00"

William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015). 8-channel video installation with four megaphones, sound, 15'00"

Zou Zhao, /Plain Sights /(2021). Performance, translucent glass, hats, furniture, structure, curtain, dimensions variable. All images: courtesy Canvas and Diriyah Biennale Foundation © Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the artists

Zou Zhao, Plain Sights (2021). Performance, translucent glass, hats, furniture, structure, curtain, dimensions variable. All images: courtesy Canvas and Diriyah Biennale Foundation © Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the artists

Han Mengyun, The Pavilion of Three Mirrors (2021). Oil on canvas, 3 polished-steel pavilions, 17 × 11 m; steel pavilions

Marwah AlMugait, This Sea Is Mine (2021). Live performance, 3-channel video installation, 13'42"

Abdullah Al Othman, Manifesto: The Language & City (2021). Neon, LED, found wooden signage, 8 × 5 m. Commissioned by Diriyah Biennale Foundation

Ahmed Mater, Desert Meeting (2021). Video installation, motion photographs on five cathode-ray tube televisions, 130 × 60 × 43 cm. Courtesy the artist and Lakum Gallery

Bricklab and Mammafotogramma, Through the Looking Glass (2021). Murano glass and steel, dimensions variable

Dana Awartani, Standing on the Ruins of Aleppo (2021). Clay earth, 23.7 × 13.5 m

Huang Rui, installation view from Diriyah Biennale. Left to right: Seamstresses in a Street Production Unit (1980), Wall of Poets (1981), Cyclist (1982), Looking into the Distance (1981). 

John Gerrard, Leaf Work (Derrigimlagh) (2021). Simulation, LED wall, polished-mirror pavilion, 400 × 400 cm. Courtesy the artist and PACE Gallery

Larry Bell, Iceberg (2020). French blue, capri blue, periwinkle, and turquoise laminated glass, 244 × 432 × 497 cm. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Lawrence Lek, Nøtel (Red Sea Edition), (2021). Open-world video game, gaming PCs, controllers, monitors, video loops, sound by Kode9. 6.4 × 6.4 × 2 m. Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London

Lulwah Al-Homoud, The Language of Existence (2021). Etchings on plexiglass with encapsulated blue LED strips, 99 pieces, 30 × 40 cm each

Sarah Brahim, Soft Machines, Far Away Engines (2021). Projection-mapped video performance, dimensions variable

Simon Denny, Real Mass Entrepreneurship (2017-2021). Installation, locally sourced commercial display elements, airbrush and acrylic on synthetic plaster and wood, plexiglas, fluorescent lamps, 4K video. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Buchholz 

Tavares Strachan room at the Diriyah Biennale 2021-22, EIGHTEEN NINETY (2020). 

Wang Luyan, sculptures from 2010-2019. Installation view from Diriyah Biennale 2021-22.

William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015). 8-channel video installation with four megaphones, sound, 15'00"

Zou Zhao, Plain Sights (2021). Performance, translucent glass, hats, furniture, structure, curtain, dimensions variable. All images: courtesy Canvas and Diriyah Biennale Foundation © Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the artists

Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale
Curated by Philip Tinari
JAX District, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia
11 December 2021 – 11 March 2022

Read Stephanie Bailey’s review of the Biennale here.

Saudi Arabia
Diriyah Biennale

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5 SHOWS ON OUR RADAR

Berlin Gallery Weekend is back! Here’s our guide to 5 shows among the 55 participating venues that we are especially curious to visit in the days ahead.

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#75
Margaret Raspé with camera helmet, 1971. Courtesy: the artist und Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. Photo: Heiner Ranke

Margaret Raspé with camera helmet, 1971. Courtesy: the artist und Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. Photo: Heiner Ranke

Every Day the Everyday

A video-first retrospective at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, is charged with ninety-year-old Margaret Raspé’s untiring anger at the separation between art-making and domestic femininity.

Discourse
Emily Dickinson, daguerreotype, c. 1847.  Courtesy: The Emily Dickinson Collection, Amherst College Archives & Special Collections, Amherst

Emily Dickinson, daguerreotype, c. 1847.  Courtesy: The Emily Dickinson Collection, Amherst College Archives & Special Collections, Amherst

Emily Dickinson’s Apple Computer House

The 19th-century poet, whose verse still resonates with its open-ended sense of how language produces meaning, is a model for a group of Brooklyn coders inventing a more humane computer.
By Olivia Kahn-Sperling

Discourse
Congolese Sapeurs

Congolese Sapeurs, members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People)

Theory of Style

What is style? It’s not fashion, or clothing; it’s only ever personal, but never entirely personal. In the first installment of Spike’s NEW COLUMN, Joanna Walsh ponders why we yearn for ten-piece wardrobe plans or call for Derrida to get style. 

Spike Events

SPIKE EVENT

On Thursday 27 April at Spike Berlin, our third panel with Tezos on art and new digital technologies unpacks Web3 as an economic structure, a sphere of knowledge, and a mode of governance.

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#75
Still from Jes Fan, Palimpsest , 2023. All images courtesy: the artist and Empty Gallery

Still from Jes Fan, Palimpsest, 2023. All images courtesy: the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong

Flesh of My Flesh

In Jes Fan’s glass-and-resin sculptures at Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, a local pearl oyster embodies the island’s long-running struggle against the conspiracies of empire.

Discourse
Izumi Suzuki. Photo: Nobuyoshi Araki

Izumi Suzuki. Photo: Nobuyoshi Araki

So powerful! So vulgar! So sublime! So incredible!

Translated into English decades after her death, the sci-fi stories of the avantgarde-writer Izumi Suzuki gently twist modern Japan into tales of unspeakable loneliness.

Discourse
All images: Jo Broughton, “Empty Porn Sets,” 1995–2007, C-type prints mounted on aluminum and set in sub box frames, 20.5 x 25.5 cm. All images courtesy: the artist and Michael Mckenzie at Hammer Lab, London

All images: Jo Broughton, “Empty Porn Sets,” 1995–2007, C-type prints mounted on aluminum and set in sub box frames, 20.5 x 25.5 cm. All images courtesy: the artist and Michael Mckenzie at Hammer Lab, London

The Nitty-Gritty of Hanky-Panky

Everything you always wanted to say about porn, but were too afraid to be asked: Lilly Markaki on Polly Barton’s Porn: An Oral History (2023).

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View of “dellbrück,” Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, 2023. All images courtesy of Manfred Pernice and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna. Photos: Markus Wörgötter

View of “dellbrück,” Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, 2023. All images courtesy of Manfred Pernice and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna. Photos: Markus Wörgötter

The Hermit of Domgasse

At Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna, Manfred Pernice is sculpting with a new name but a familiar hardware reptoire, heaping up double entendres from scraps during a new war in Europe.

Spike Events
Portrait of Monica Bonvicini. © Monica Bonvicini and VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2022. Photo: Olaf Heine

Portrait of Monica Bonvicini. © Monica Bonvicini and VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2022. Photo: Olaf Heine

Artist Talk: Monica Bonvicini

On Tuesday 11 April at Soho House Berlin, Monica Bonvicini speaks to Francesco Tenaglia about her ongoing show at Neue Nationalgalerie, “I do You,” and the linkages between architecture, sculpture, and power.

Discourse
Rosemarie Trockel, Replace Me , 2009. © Rosemarie Trockel and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

Rosemarie Trockel, Replace Me, 2009. © Rosemarie Trockel and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022

User Error: Partially Automated Shithole Capitalism

Claiming to automate labor, is AI actually creating more busy work for humans?

"My works are the most sincere and tragic things I have done in life"

"If I tell you I have to kill you with my laser vision"