Photos: Noor Riyadh light installation festival lights up the Saudi capital

Visitors take pictures during the 'Noor Riyadh' festival of light in Riyadh. The Noor Riyadh festival kicked off last week, illuminating the Saudi capital with dazzling interactive light shows. The festival, which was launched for the first time, will be an annual celebration, attracting international and local artists to display their creativity throughout the capital.

“It aims to improve the city’s quality of life in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and to enhance the cultural and artistic aspects of the city by transforming Riyadh into an open art gallery that blends the traditional with the contemporary,” said Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture.

Lighting artists from more than 20 countries are taking part in the festival.

Children play with coloured sand during the 'Noor Riyadh' festival of light in Riyadh.

The participants from the Kingdom are Ahmed Mater, Lulwah Al Homoud, Ayman Zidani, Rashed Al Shashai and Maha Mallouh. Prominent international artists taking part are Daniel Buren, Carsten Holler, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Yayoi Kusama and Dan Flavin.

The Noor Riyadh festival is the first event organised by the Riyadh Art Programme, one of four major projects launched by King Salman in March 2019. It will run from March 18-April 3.

Riyadh Art is one of the four major projects launched by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz on March 19, 2019, under the supervision of the Committee of Grand Projects chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Salwa Palace in At-Turaif, the UNESCO World Heritage site, illuminates.

The event will have two central locations in Riyadh: the King Abdullah Financial District and the King Abdulaziz Historical Center in Al Murabba.

The theme of “Noor Riyadh” is “Under One Sky,” which, according to the festival’s official website, “alludes to the universal human impulse to gather around light, to look into the flames of a campfire and to gaze at the stars.”

The festival also includes a program of over 270 special activities of 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 and Saudi Arabia.

The Noor Riyadh festival features 33 citywide installations encompassing all forms of light art, including sculptures, projections, interactive shows, kinetic and immersive pieces placed in numerous locations across the city to excite and entertain residents and visitors.

Alongside the citywide installations the Light Upon Light: Light Art since the 1960s, the largest retrospective exhibition of lightworks featuring the work of 30 artists.