Philip Tinari will be the first curator of the Ad Diriyah Biennale. Courtesy Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari will be the first curator of the Ad Diriyah Biennale. Courtesy Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari will be the first curator of the Ad Diriyah Biennale. Courtesy Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari will be the first curator of the Ad Diriyah Biennale. Courtesy Philip Tinari

Art

Philip Tinari announced as curator for Saudi Arabia's first Ad Diriyah Biennale

The country's inaugural biennial will take place in 2021 and feature 70 artists

Melissa Gronlund
Melissa Gronlund
London

December 11, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Further details on the new Saudi biennial, which will take place at the ancestral palace of Ad Diriyah, have been announced.

Philip Tinari, the director of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, will serve as curator. The team will also include Wejdan Reda, who runs the online cultural platform Sahaba.
The Ad Diriyah Biennale will take place in 2021, although the exact dates have not been confirmed, and will feature more than 70 artists. It is an initiative by the Saudi Ministry of Culture, and will alternate annually between the Ad Diriyah Biennale, devoted to contemporary art, and the Islamic Biennale, devoted to Islamic art.

A traditional Saudi Ardah dance in front of Salwa Palace in At-Turaif in Ad Diriyah. Photo by Meshari Almuhanna / DGDA
A traditional Saudi Ardah dance in front of Salwa Palace in At-Turaif in Ad Diriyah. Photo by Meshari Almuhanna / DGDA

“The Ad-Diriyah Biennale will offer a new platform for exchange between the Saudi and international art worlds, as well as an unprecedented chance for broad audiences in the kingdom to encounter global contemporary art,” Tinari said in a statement.

Born in the US, Tinari has lived in China since 2001. He joined the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in 2011 and is now its chief curator and director. The organisation, set up by the Belgian collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens, has since expanded into a location in the northeastern coastal town of Beidahe and in 2021 will open an outpost in Shanghai.

Ad Diriyah, on the outskirts of Riyadh, was the home of the Al Saud family in the 18th century. The vast Salwa Palace, built in the traditional style of the area, was the capital of the first Saudi state from 1744 until 1818, when it was destroyed by Ottoman invaders. It also bears particular significance as it was at Ad Diriyah that the ruler Muhammed Ibn Al Saud hosted the religious scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism, and brokered the power-sharing agreement between the two families. The site now consists of the ruins of Salwa Palace, as well as a number of museums about Saudi history and life.

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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.”

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