Showcasing exceptional designs inspired by the heritage, landscape and artistic legacies of AlUla, Saudi Arabia.
Arts AlUla has announced the 10 finalists for the second edition of the AlUla Design Award. The finalists will be exhibited at Paris Design Week where 5 winners will be announced on 7 September 2023.
Twenty designers were originally shortlisted and prototypes of their designs were evaluated by a Jury of recognised leaders from the design world. The 10 finalists’ designs will be exhibited in an exhibition conceived by acclaimed designer Hervé Sauvage from 8 – 16 September 2023 at Galerie MR21 during Paris Design Week.
The winning designs may be commissioned, supported in their production and promoted within AlUla and its network of influential and high-profile regional and international activities. The presence of the award at PDW provides an opportunity for design audiences to engage with new and exciting designers interpreting the landscape and heritage of AlUla in unique ways for cultural retail.
The AlUla Design Award (ADA) is an Open Call that invites established and emerging designers to conceptualise and propose exceptional items for cultural retail. The award recognises design inspired by the heritage, landscape and artistic legacies of AlUla.
The creation of Arts AlUla within The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) is a commitment to the next chapters in a millennia of artistic creation – celebrating cultural inheritance, AlUla has long been a consistent and ever-evolving hub of cultural transfer. It has been a place of passage, a crossroads for trade, and home to successive civilizations who carved, sculpted and inscribed their lives into the landscape. The work of Arts AlUla seeks to preserve this legacy: fuse the old with the new; the local with the international, keeping the arts central to the spirit of AlUla as a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage.
Arts AlUla will bring to fruition a series of new initiatives, projects and exhibitions. The artwork curation will speak to RCU’s vision for the continued development of AlUla’s contemporary art scenes: positioning the arts as a key contributor to AlUla’s character, the quality of life for its local community and the region’s economic future.
Arts AlUla focuses on transferring the talents of the Saudi nation and the local AlUla community into meaningful long-standing social and economic opportunities. This is a key part of the Journey through Time masterplan bringing together the 15 different landmark destinations for culture, heritage and creativity across AlUla.
AlUla tells the complex story of human settlement and civilisation through art and design. It ranges from prehistoric architecture upon the volcanic fields that continue to compel and confound archaeologists; the exquisite sculpture of ancient Arabian tribes who made AlUla their capital; the monumental Nabataean tombs carved out of sandstone mountains and decorated with intricate symbols inspired by Italian, Egyptian and Greek cultures; and the mud-brick labyrinth to AlUla Old Town decorated with the artwork of its inhabitants.
The exhibition will be open to press on the 6 September during the Paris Design Week press day.