The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has released the list of participating artists for the kingdom’s first contemporary art biennale – Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale – which will take place in December.
The list includes 63 artists, mostly from Saudi Arabia and China, as well names from the US, Kuwait, Germany, Syria, Egypt, Ireland and Kenya.
A team of international curators led by Philip Tinari have put together a programme with six sections under the theme Feeling the Stones, inspired by the slogan “crossing the river by feeling the stones”, which was developed by Chinese politician Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s in reference to taking action during times of social and economic transformation.
The biennale will take place from December 11 to March 11, 2022 at the JAX District in Diriyah, just outside of Riyadh. Spanning more than 20,000 square metres, the area has recently been developed to serve as a creative district in Saudi Arabia, which has been pouring funds into arts and culture projects.
“The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale presents an unprecedented opportunity for the wide audiences in Saudi Arabia to experience global contemporary art,” Tinari, who serves as director and chief executive of UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art, China, said.
Speaking on the theme, he said the exhibition “explores how social transformation happens in a way that is iterative yet directional, experimental yet pragmatic” and said the programme will focus on “major projects”, including 33 site-specific commissions by artists from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world.
Aya Al Bakree, the chief executive of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, said the selection for the inaugural Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale is meant to “showcase Saudi artists in dialogue with leading artists from around the world”.
Ad Diriyah, the area where the event will take place, is known as the Jewel of the Kingdom. It is where the first Saudi Arabian state was established. Starting with the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, it will become the site of one other cultural biennale that will focus on Islamic arts. The two events, both overseen by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the Ministry of Culture in Saudi Arabia, will alternate each year.
Listed in alphabetical order are the artists participating in the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2021:
Omar Abduljawad (Saudi Arabia, 1989)
Sarah Abu Abdallah (Saudi Arabia, 1990)
Hmoud Al Attawi (Saudi Arabia, 1986)
Manal Al Dowayan (Saudi Arabia, 1973)
Fahad Al Hejailan (Saudi Arabia, 1957-2018)
Lulwah Al Homoud (Saudi Arabia, 1967)
Mahdi Al Jeraibi (Saudi Arabia, 1969)
Abdullah Al Othman (Saudi Arabia, 1985)
Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwait, 1983)
Daniah Al Saleh (Saudi Arabia, 1970)
Mohammed Al Saleem (Saudi Arabia, 1939-1997)
Shadia Alem (Saudi Arabia, 1960)
Zahrah Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia, 1977)
Marwah Al Mugait (Saudi Arabia, 1981)
Jowhara Al Saud (Saudi Arabia, 1978)
Rashed Al Shashai (Saudi Arabia, 1977)
Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia - Palestine, 1987)
Larry Bell (US, 1939)
Sultan Bin Fahad (Saudi Arabia, 1971)
Birdhead (China, est 2004)
Sarah Brahim (Saudi Arabia, 1992)
Colin Chinnery (UK, 1971)
Ayman Yossri Daydban (Palestine - Jordan, 1966)
Simon Denny (New Zealand, 1982)
Ibrahim El Dessouki (Egypt, 1969)
Osama Esid (Syria, 1970)
Morris Foit (Kenya, 1940)
John Gerrard (Ireland, 1974)
Abdullah Hammas (Saudi Arabia, 1953)
Huang Rui (China, 1952)
William Kentridge (South Africa, 1955)
Wolfgang Laib (Germany, 1950)
Lei Lei & Chai Mi (China, 1985)
Lawrence Lek (Germany, 1982)
Richard Long (UK, 1945)
Maha Malluh (Saudi Arabia, 1959)
Ahmed Mater (Saudi Arabia, 1979)
Mohamed Melehi (Morocco, 1936-2020)
Han Mengyun (China, 1989)
Sarah Morris (US, 1967)
Munira Mosli (Saudi Arabia, 1954 - 2019)
Peter Mulindwa (Uganda, 1943)
Nabuqi (China, 1984)
Filwa Nazer (Saudi Arabia, 1972)
Geof Oppenheimer (US, 1973)
Miguel Angel Payano Jr. (US, 1980)
Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia, 1956)
Shao Fan (China, 1964)
Muhannad Shono (Saudi Arabia, 1977)
Timur Si-Qin (Germany, 1984)
Tavares Strachan (Bahamas, 1979)
Superstudio (Italy, est 1966)
Koki Tanaka (Japan, 1975)
Wang Luyan (China, 1956)
Wang Sishun (China,1979)
Wang Yuping (China, 1962)
Andro Wekua (Georgia, 1977)
Xu Bing (China, 1955)
Yukinori Yanagi (Japan, 1959)
Ayman Zedani (Saudi Arabia, 1984)
Zhang Peili (China, 1957)
Zheng Yuan (China, 1988)
Zou Zhao (Singapore, 1989)
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Dunki
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Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Indian construction workers stranded in Ajman with unpaid dues
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sav%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Purvi%20Munot%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%20as%20of%20March%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The%20specs
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
