The Saudi capital is set to light up with the works of 60 artists from 20 countries this weekend, as the Noor Riyadh festival begins on Thursday.
This annual lights and arts event will feature installations and galleries spread across 13 locations in its first year and will continue until April 3.
"This is what makes Noor Riyadh different from any other light festival; it is not centred in one area," festival director Miguel Blanco-Carrasco told The National.
"Riyadh is a big city that spans wide, from south to north, from east to west, while other festivals focus on central areas, but for Riyadh, we needed to make it something home-grown, something that is for the people of Riyadh, by the people of Riyadh."
As part of the festival, public art installations are placed in natural locations, such as Wadi Hanifa, and urban locations, such as the King Abdullah Financial District and the Digital City. It will also feature artwork at heritage locations, such as Al Masmak Fortress.
The 30 installations encompass all forms of light art, from sculptures to projections, interactive shows, kinetic and immersive pieces, all of which aim to shed light on Riyadh's diversity and its urban form.
The festival also includes a programme of more than 270 special activities, such as tours, talks, workshops, family activities, film screenings and music, many of which are available online, allowing the festival to be enjoyed by a wider audience outside of Riyadh.
Noor Riyadh's theme for 2021, "Under One Sky", is a unifying one said Hosam Alqurashi, an official at the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, the festival's organising authority.
"In a time where people are going through social distancing, Noor Riyadh comes in as a beacon of hope. Multiple artists coming to one beautiful initiative like this promotes a message to the world that art is a universal language," Alqurashi said.
Beside the citywide installations that will illuminate the capital, the festival features "Light Upon Light: Light Art Since the 1960s", the largest retrospective exhibition of lightworks that features the work of 30 artists.
In this special iteration of "Light Upon Light", Saudi artists' works are featured in each of the four sections of the exhibition.
One of the festival's aims is to discover and nurture local Saudi talents and link them with international ones.
"We are proud to say that 40 per cent of the artists participating in all of Noor Riyadh are Saudi," said Alqurashi.
Producing an international festival of this magnitude during the pandemic was not an easy task, Blanco-Carrasco explained.
"Flying so many tons of cargo around the world and bringing teams to install this from many international locations has been very challenging, but we're all very pleased that we are here today," he said.
To ensure the safety of the festival's visitors, a number of Covid-19 measures are in place, including a mask policy, ticketed activities for capacity management, temperature screening at the entrance to indoor venues and a paperless policy, with a festival app and website.
Noor Riyadh is the first programme of Riyadh Art, a megaproject announced in 2019 to make the city one of the world's artistic capitals.
The project aims to turn Riyadh into a gallery without walls by installing 1,000 art pieces by 2030.
Twelve new projects from Riyadh Art will be announced soon.
Ticket price
Most of the outdoor public exhibitions are non-ticketed and open to all. A small number require prior booking. Special activities, such as workshops, film screenings and talks are ticketed with a nominal charge.
Date
The citywide installations will illuminate Riyadh from Thursday to Saturday, April 3.
The Light Upon Light: Light Art Since the 1960s exhibition will open on Thursday and run until Saturday, June 12, at the King Abdullah Financial District Conference Centre.
Location
Noor Riyadh is a citywide event that can be enjoyed in the following areas: Al Nakheel sports park, Digital City, Diplomatic Quarter General Authority, JAX District, King Abdullah Financial District, King Abdulaziz Historical Centre, Jeddah Tower, King Fahad National Library, Al Masmak Fortress, Riyadh Front, At-Turaif District World Heritage Site, Wadi Hanifah Stone Dam Park and Wadi Namar Park.
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Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
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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Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
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Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
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