How a visionary creative is connecting cultures at the world’s largest light art festival
For the 2023 edition of Noor Riyadh, lead curator Jérôme Sans invites visitors to explore their common humanity through the world of light art.
Pushing art beyond its boundaries
This month, Noor Riyadh, the world’s largest light art festival, returns for a third year, bringing the work of more than 100 artists into the heart of Saudi’s capital.
Part of the Riyadh Art initiative, Noor Riyadh has had a journey that’s benefited from many of the world’s leading creative voices, including Hervé Mikaeloff, Dorothy Di Stefano, Raneem Farsi, Neville Wakefield, Susan Davidson, and more.
This year is no different, with lead curator Jérôme Sans bringing his innate desire to transcend the conventional to the festival’s third edition. As co-founder of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and a curator of major biennials worldwide, Sans has long been committed to bringing art closer to the public sphere.
“Since the beginning of my curatorial practice, I have always wanted to push art beyond its traditional boundaries,” says Sans. “Opening the windows of institutions and removing the fear of bringing life inside them.”
Curating prestigious festivals including the Venice and Moscow Biennales, his passion for public art projects has seen him direct exhibitions in the most unexpected places, including at Polygone Riviera, France’s first hybrid shopping centre and art gallery.
“I’ve always been very interested in experimenting with places which traditionally do not host exhibitions,” he explains. “Art should again find its place in the city and participate in today’s conversations, debates, and culture.”
Discovering Riyadh
As a curator with a penchant for making art more accessible, Sans was excited by the creative challenge posed by Riyadh. The city’s rapid transformation into a cosmopolitan hub, coupled with its desire to bring art and culture to its streets, presented a unique opportunity.
“I am attracted to vibrant places,” Sans explains. “Today, in terms of urban planning, social development, and cultural activities, few places are as interesting as Riyadh. It is a city which is completely inventing itself, creating a cultural territory of unlimited possibilities.”
In the three years since its inception, the festival has showcased hundreds of artworks, developing a global reputation that last year attracted over 2.8 million visitors.
For Sans, the curatorial appeal of Noor Riyadh lay in its ability to go beyond the aesthetic. More than just an exhibition, the festival’s ethos mirrored Sans’ own, dissolving differences, breaking barriers, and connecting people through the universal language of light.
“I have been fascinated by the unique quality of light in Riyadh,” he explains. “It removes differences and connects us all. Without it, nothing can function.”
Curating Noor Riyadh
Sans interpreted the festival’s theme, The Bright Side of the Desert Moon, as a reflection of not only the physical desert but the psychological one. In this interpretation, light is a catalyst for change, bringing individuals to the streets to foster connection.
“In today’s digital world, we all think we are connected, but in fact we are isolated in our own desert,” Sans explains. “For me, it was very interesting to focus on this metaphor, on the notion of bringing light to our internal desert.”
So, when it came to curating the more than 120 artworks that would bathe Riyadh in the glow of light, Sans wanted to celebrate the common light that warms and comforts us all.
Sans and his curatorial team handpicked each piece, carefully considering its ability to evoke an emotional or intellectual response. This process reflects his central belief in the need for art to inspire reflection and wonder in our everyday lives.
“The idea was to try to co-write one story together,” he says. “This exhibition is collaborative, like a circle, a moon, a movie made up of different voices, from different generations and different cultures.”
The outcome of Sans’s vision promises to be a spellbinding one. Visitors to Noor Riyadh 2023 can expect to embark on what Sans describes as a “unique and challenging adventure”. Inviting them to leave their inner deserts and connect with their loved ones, Sans hopes that each installation will remind us of the beauty that lies on our doorstep.
A bright future
With Jérôme Sans at the helm, the 2023 edition of Noor Riyadh promises to be a celebration of light art, and its ability to unite.
“The scale of this festival is one of a kind,” Sans says. “It is contemporary art on a magnitude you cannot find in a museum or gallery. It is like entering another dimension, making you feel like you are a part of something that is alive. ”
And as the festival continues to grow, so too does Riyadh, which continues to accelerate the development of its cultural ecosystem.
Top image: Keep it Alive by eL Seed. Photo © Noor Riyadh 2022. Below image: Waterlicht by Daan Roosegaarde. Photo © Noor Riyadh 2022.
