Desert X AlUla 2026 Will Open January 16 – February 28
Desert X AlUla returns for its fourth edition in Saudi Arabia.
The exhibition is curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, under the artistic direction of Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi. The exhibition’s theme Space Without Measure draws inspiration from Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran. Bold new site-specific installations by Saudi and international artists will transform AlUla’s valleys and canyons.
AlUla, Saudi Arabia (December 10, 2026): Desert X AlUla 2026 will return for its fourth edition from January 16 to February 28 as a highlight of the AlUla Arts Festival, the annual celebration that transforms the ancient city into a showcase of contemporary art, design and culture.
Desert X AlUla 2026 is an international, open-air art exhibition of extraordinary site-specific installations inspired by AlUla’s awe-inspiring landscape and heritage. Raneem Farsi and Neville Wakefield will return as this year’s artistic directors and the exhibition will be curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley. Reda is a leading Saudi curator and founder of Sahaba, with major projects including co-curating the first and second Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale; she currently serves as Curatorial Associate Director at the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. Whitley is an award-winning curator and writer who lives and works in London, UK. Named an honorary recipient of an OBE for Services to Art in 2025, her independent projects span North America, Singapore, Italy (British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale), and UAE (AlSerkal public art).
This year’s landmark edition in AlUla invites visitors to explore artworks in the landscape by multigenerational Saudi and international artists, each responding to AlUla’s unique cultural landscapes.
The Curator’s theme for Desert X AlUla 2026, Space Without Measure, is inspired by the poetic vision of Lebanese American writer Kahlil Gibran. Drawing on his meditations on possibility, perception and the boundless nature of the human spirit, the theme connects to AlUla’s own infinite horizons as a landscape layered with history, memory, and imagination.
Through this theme, the temporary artwork installations serve as landmarks for reflection and connection, guiding visitors through shared spaces of hope and communion. From immersive environmental visions to newly imagined vistas, each artwork invites visitors to wander through a different facet of the AlUla’s nature and history in ways that are both subtle and transformative.
Since its inaugural edition in 2020, Desert X AlUla has steadily built a rich legacy of site-specific artworks that respond to the desert’s extraordinary landscapes, and produced 50 artwork projects for AlUla. Desert X AlUla aims to contribute to and continue the artistic heritage of the local community and region: Works from Desert X AlUla 2020 by Sherin Guirguis, Lita Albuquerque, Manal AlDowayan, Superflex, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and Nadim Karam have been acquired by Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), some of which are on view at Habitas, AlUla. Works from Desert X AlUla 2022 by Dana Awartani, Alicja Kwade, Monika Sosnowska, Sultan Bin Fahad, Khalil Rabah, Shezad Dawood and Serge Attukwei Clottey have been acquired by RCU, adding to the Arts AlUla Public Art Collection which is on display throughout AlUla.
Across its editions, Desert X AlUla has become an influential platform for both Saudi and international artists, contributing to the evolving artistic heritage of AlUla and the wider region. Artists participating in Desert X AlUla 2026 will be announced over the coming weeks.
Desert X AlUla has played a pivotal role in paving the way for the development of another initiative due to open in AlUla unveiling from 2028. Wadi AlFann, a 65 square kilometre open-air museum set to become a global destination for monumental site-specific, permanent land art. Marking a major milestone in the ambitious revitalisation of artistic legacy in AlUla, Wadi AlFann will open a new chapter in art history, expanding and continuing for years to come. Both Desert X AlUla and Wadi AlFann underpin Art AlUla’s vision for AlUla to become a leading destination for art in the landscape.
Hamad Alhomiedan, Director of Arts & Creative Industries at the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), said:
“Desert X AlUla 2026 is one of the most anticipated moments of the AlUla Arts Festival, reflecting AlUla’s history as a global meeting place for creativity and cultural exchange. Bringing together exceptional artists from Saudi Arabia and around the world, the new installations will spark powerful dialogues between nature, heritage, and imagination. Now in its fourth year, Desert X AlUla has realised more than 50 commissions in Saudi Arabia, some of which still stand today in the landscapes of AlUla, as much a part of the landscape as the environment on which they inhabit. For us at Arts AlUla, this partnership serves as a glimpse of what is to come, a prelude to Wadi AlFann which means Valley of the Arts, our forthcoming global cultural destination for land art. It will be our generation’s legacy, communicating the story of this landscape to future civilisations, and connecting creativity, community and the desert’s timeless story on the international stage.”
Wejdan Reda, Curator, Desert X AlUla 2026, said:
“AlUla’s landscape is a living archive of stories, traditions and encounters that span centuries. For this edition of Desert X AlUla 2026, artists have engaged with its valleys and historic routes to create works that honour its landscape while opening new spaces for imagination. Inspired by the poetic vision of Kahlil Gibran, ‘Space Without Measure’ asks us to contemplate the boundless creativity that emerges when art responds to place. Each commission invites visitors to discover AlUla through fresh perspectives and moments of reflection shaped by its land, light, and history.”
Zoé Whitley, Curator, Desert X AlUla 2026, said:
“Desert X AlUla is such an expansive context for artists’ ideas to be realised, true to poet Khalil Gibran’s observation that dreams are ‘time limitless’ and provide ‘space without measure.’ A stone’s throw from a UNESCO World Heritage site, vast history meets the contemporary moment. It’s been a remarkable collaborative process to see how the artworks were each conceived, inspired by and in harmony with the surrounding landscape.”
Visitors to Desert X AlUla 2026 will journey through AlUla’s diverse landscapes, experiencing each work within its own distinctive setting. The upcoming edition will be presented across a number of remarkable locations, including the desert canyons that will be the home of AlUla’s permanent Wadi AlFann, Valley of the Arts. Each location is chosen for its unique environment, facilitating compelling dialogues between the artworks and AlUla’s natural and cultural heritage. Desert X AlUla 2026 is a ticketed event presented in collaboration between Desert X and Arts AlUla, established to foster new cultural dialogues through contemporary art.
From its first edition in 2020, Desert X AlUla was the first public art biennale in the region and established itself as a platform for artists to work within the landscape. Building on the legacy of Desert X in California’s Coachella Valley, which recently announced its 10th anniversary edition, the exhibition draws on the principles of land art to offer visitors a profound opportunity to experience art in direct conversation with nature. At the heart of Saudi Arabia’s growing arts landscape, AlUla is both a living museum of human history and a vibrant hub for contemporary creativity. Through Arts AlUla, RCU is committed to reviving the region’s rich artistic legacy, creating opportunities for the local community to engage with art as a source of inspiration, education, and enrichment from skills development and job creation to cultural exchange and international collaboration.
Join us at AlUla Arts Festival 2026 for a month-long journey of art, heritage, and creativity in one of the world’s most extraordinary landscapes. For more information, please visit: experiencealula.com
For further information, please contact:
Sabrine Shaw
Sabrine.Shaw@bursonglobal.com
AlUlaArtsFestival@bursonglobal.com
About Arts AlUla
The creation of Arts AlUla within The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) is a commitment to crafting the next chapters in a millennia of artistic creation – celebrating cultural inheritance, presenting the art of our time, and shaping a future propelled by creativity. 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.
About Wadi AlFann
Wadi AlFann, meaning ‘Valley of the Arts’, will be a global cultural destination for land art, unveiling from 2028 onwards, where era-defining works by artists from around the world will be permanently sited in the monumental landscape of AlUla, the extraordinary desert region of north-west Saudi Arabia.
New, large-scale, site-specific commissions by Manal AlDowayan (b. 1973, Saudi Arabia), Agnes Denes (b. 1931, Hungary), Michael Heizer (b. 1944, USA), Ahmed Mater (b. 1979, Saudi Arabia) and James Turrell (b. 1943, USA) will be the first five works to be conceived for Wadi AlFann, a spectacular valley spanning approximately 65 square kilometres. Further artists are engaged and commissioned through temporary commissioned exhibitions including Desert X AlUla, and the ‘Wadi AlFann Presents’ performance commissioning and exhibitions programmes, and the Public Art programme.
Wadi AlFann offers a profound opportunity to experience art in dialogue with nature. Learning from the desert, the artists are responding to the landscape of AlUla, taking inspiration from its dramatic topography, undulating vistas, remarkable geological structures complex natural ecosystems and local communities. The works will be created with respect for the landscape, set against the stunning sandstone cliffs and canyons of the vast terrain.
Wadi AlFann will provide unparalleled opportunities for local communities to experience art as a source of education and enrichment. Through job creation, skills development and engagement with local creatives, Wadi AlFann will strengthen AlUla’s cultural economy, inspiring a new generation of arts professionals and enhancing quality of life for its residents.
This epic new destination will also welcome art lovers, adventurers, and globetrotters from across the world on a transformative cultural journey to a unique place of creative and geographical wonder, continuing the region’s history as a place of cross-cultural exchange.
A full press release about Wadi AlFann can be found here.
About AlUla Moments
AlUla Moments is AlUla’s new home for events. AlUla Moments calendar was launched at the end of 2021 and introduced new festivals and events to celebrate and unlock AlUla’s stories, uncover its secrets, and celebrate local and international cultures. With 7,000 years of continuous human civilisations and home to some of the most sophisticated ancient kingdoms of antiquity, AlUla is no stranger to social gatherings and cultural celebrations.
AlUla Moments calendar comprises of five festivals offering diverse experiences in art, culture, music, nature, wellness, equestrian activities, dining, and astronomy. The AlUla Wellness Festival featuring the latest practices to engage the mind, body and soul; Winter at Tantora, the original AlUla celebration of heritage, culture, fashion and music; the Ancient Kingdoms Festival offers immersive events acknowledging the ancient civilisations that lived in AlUla and its neighboring oases in Khaybar and Tayma; AlUla Skies Festival with the popular hot air balloons and stargazing experiences; and AlUla Arts Festival bringing together contemporary and ancient art events and experiences.
In addition to the festivals AlUla Moments calendar offers a number of marquee events, including AZIMUTH and Richard Mille AlUla Desert Polo, along with the heritage sports events such as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Endurance Cup, AlUla Camel Cup, AlUla Falcon Cup, the Tent Pegging World Championship and Horseback Archery World Cup, a world-class fashion, adventure and sporting events.
For more information, please visit experiencealula.com
About AlUla
Located 1,100 km from Riyadh, in North-West Saudi Arabia, AlUla is a place of extraordinary natural and human heritage. The vast area, covering 22,561km², includes a lush oasis valley, towering sandstone mountains and ancient cultural heritage sites dating back thousands of years to when the Lihyan and Nabataean kingdoms reigned.
The most well-known and recognised site in AlUla is Hegra, Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. A 52-hectare ancient city, Hegra was the principal southern city of the Nabataean Kingdom and is comprised of 111 well-preserved tombs, many with elaborate facades cut out of the sandstone outcrops surrounding the walled urban settlement.
Current research also suggests Hegra was the most southern outpost of the Roman Empire after the Roman’s conquered the Nabataeans in 106 CE.
In addition to Hegra, AlUla is also home to ancient Dadan, the capital of the Dadan and Lihyan Kingdoms and considered to be one of the most developed 1st millennium BCE cities of the Arabian Peninsula, and Jabal Ikmah, an open air library of hundreds of inscriptions and writings in many different languages, which has been recently listed on the UNESCO’s memory of the World Register. Also AlUla Old Town Village, a labyrinth of more than 900 mudbrick homes developed from at least the 12th century, which has been selected as one of the World’s Best Tourism Villages in 2022 by the UNWTO.
For more information, please visit: experiencealula.com
About Desert X
Desert X is produced by The Desert Biennial, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, conceived to produce recurring international contemporary art exhibitions that activate desert locations through site-responsive installations by acclaimed international artists. Its guiding principles include presenting public exhibitions of art that are open and free to the public and respond meaningfully to the conditions of desert locations, the environment, Indigenous communities, and promote cultural exchange. Desert X is committed to education and public programming with a robust series of initiatives that expand the breadth and depth of the organization’s engagement with the surrounding community. The exhibitions provide a platform for artists from around the world to address ecological, cultural, spiritual, and other existential themes.
From its inception in 2017, Desert X has presented five exhibitions in the Coachella Valley. In 2020, the organization began to engage with exhibitions outside the United States and helped establish Desert X AlUla in the desert of Saudi Arabia. The exhibitions to date have explored new configurations of site-responsive work by more than 100 artists from North America, South America, South Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa creating a new paradigm for the presentation and experience of art and welcoming an audience of over 2 million.
Desert X is free and open to all and is funded by its board of directors and an international group of individual donors, foundations, and sponsors.
Follow Desert X on our website, Instagram, Facebook and Vimeo.