He received his BFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Kansas City Art Institute in 2008, and his MFA in Art and Media from Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in 2013. Cruces’ work is interested in human interaction with the landscape, while incorporating a wide variety of material approaches – painting, sculpture, and video. These elements often culminate in installations that collapse notions of obligation and leisure, nature and domestication, the familiar and the foreign. 

His work has been exhibited at Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, CH; Swiss Institute, Milan, IT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, CH; kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga, LV; Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, DK; and Museo della Frutta, Turin, IT. He has held residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, FR; Rupert, Vilnius, LT; Aldea, Bergen, NO; and Cripta747, Turin, IT, and Nave, Guayllabamba, EC. 

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Her work has appeared in group exhibitions including those at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2004); Tate Modern, London (2006), Moscow
Biennial (2007); Zachęta – Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw (2009); Performa Biennial, New York (2009, 2013); Witte de With, Centrum vo
Hedendaagse Kunst, Rotterdam (2011); and MoMA PS1, New York (2013). In addition to a curatorial residency at International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (2005), she has had residencies at Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2009), and Iaspis, Stockholm (2013). In collaboration with architect Aleksandra Wasilkowska, Kurant represented Poland at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale with the pavilion presentation Emergency Exit. Kurant lives and works in New York.

For the Palimpsest of Time exhibition that occurred in AlUla, Agnieszka Kurant exhibited past work, including prints from the series Maps of Phantom Island. “Chemical Garden” investigates the digital, biological, and mineral relationships and consists of complex crystalline structures resembling plants. These structures were created by mixing water glass (sodium silicate) with inorganic chemicals, including salts of metals (copper, cobalt, manganese, chromium, and iron) used in modern computers and whose industrial extraction leads to the devastation of entire ecosystems. #Paradoxically, modern research shows that chemical gardens in hydrothermal vents on the seafloor are a plausible path for the origin of life on Earth. Some of the earliest purported fossils of life might be from fossilised chemical gardens. The work explores how organic and inorganic substances are continually reorganised into various unstable forms. The work was created in collaboration with Dr Magdalena Osial. Maps of Phantom Islands depict non-existent islands observed as mirages or invented by past explorers and placed on important political maps throughout the history of cartography. These fictitious territories often lead to real political conflicts.

On 26th of February, Agnieszka Kurant’s talk gave the local community of AlUla a sense of her past works and connexion with her researches made in AlUla about the correlation between social change, climate change and the mutations and transformations of the living matter and geology. Around AlUla, she witnessed the evolution of geological and architectural forms blended with that of evolving languages, writing systems and living species. These mutating forms, from the quasi-melted rocks shaped by the ocean millions of years ago and more recently by desert winds, to evolving systems of writing documented on the surface of ancient rocks, were of particular interest to her.

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Through various creative outlets, Ahaad Alamoudi (b. 1991, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) has dedicated years to documenting the evolving social landscape of Saudi Arabia. Her work spotlights the pivotal role of gender in shaping her artistic expression. Raised in both Saudi Arabia and the UK, she now operates from Jeddah. Her art takes apart national and cultural symbols, like traditional dances and popular songs, and gives them a fresh perspective. By harnessing digital manipulation techniques to manipulate the pacing of discovered video clips and reimagining visuals, she skillfully pays homage to the dynamic Saudi youth culture of viral remixes. Through this approach, she infuses her work with additional depths of interpretation and a sense of playful creativity. Her art has graced global stages, with prominent showcases ranging from the prestigious Venice Biennale to exhibitions like Phantom Punch and Generations, which serve as vital conduits for Middle Eastern artists, enabling their work to captivate international audiences. 

Ahaad Alamoudi lives and works between Jeddah and London. Past exhibitions include Art Dubai (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), ATHR Gallery (Jeddah, KSA), Abu Dhabi Art (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Bates Museum of Art (Lewiston, USA).

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Selected exhibitions and biennales: 1.54 Contemporary African Art Fair (New York, London) Biso Biennale, Burkina Faso, 2023; , (Re)générations, Reiffers Art Initiatives, 2024 Les Portes du possible, Art & Science-fiction, Centre Pompidou Metz, 2022.

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Self-taught, Salem studied Information Technology at the Arab Open University in Jeddah, completed a postgraduate degree at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in Tourcoing. Her artistic practice explores, documents and reveals private spaces to the public realm through themes of everyday life, the body, and social media. Working primarily with video, Salem draws an emphasis on new forms of communication that critique video as a medium. She often improvises with her iPhone camera, working collaboratively with subjects and characters to foreground processes around the marginalization of people and their images.

Selected exhibitions, festivals and screenings : The Future is Unmanned, La Haed, Switzerland (2024);Tampere Film Festival (Finland, 2022); Cité internaronale des art (Paris, 2023).

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Zedani’s recent projects include The heavens is for all, Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah (2023); between desert seas, Louvre Abu Dhabi (2022); The keepers, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden- Baden (2022); the Valley of the Desert Keepers, Desert X Alula, AlUla (2022); Terrapolis, The Sustainability Pavilion, Expo 2020, Dubai (2020); Between the Heavens and the Earth, Lahore Biennial, Lahore (2020).

Continuing his previous research on the parasitic plants of the Arabian desert, Ayman Zedani furthered his investigation during his recent residency to include the new archaeological discoveries in AlUla and Khaybar.

These new findings provoked a lot of questions and reflected the need for further historical research. Zedani attempted to create a story connecting different civilizations that have lived in AlUla and Khaybar, which is an ongoing process. He is trying to fill the missing historical gaps with science fiction to create a coherent narrative attempting to make what was happening there more fathomable.

This speculative approach based on fictional scenarios resonates with other works by Ayman Zedani, in which he uncovered a broad spectrum of possibilities through well-known objects from the environment of the region, as seen in his installation, The Keepers.

The installation « The Keepers » presented at the AlUla Artist Residency is a culmination of Ayman Zedani’s research on the parasitic plants of the Arabian desert over the past few years.

These plants are known for their ability to acquire genes from their host plants, thereby ensuring the survival of their offspring. This continuous process of gene appropriation results in the formation of an archive of the desert’s history and, possibly, the keys to a liveable future.

This work is part of an extensive series that Ayman Zedani has been developing to shed light on non-human models that can help us contemplate the impacts of climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the future of the Earth.

The film « To The Eagles » (2023) is a speculative fiction short film bringing together Ayman Zedani’s research outcome during the AlUla Artist Residency. It weaves together factual information with science fiction narrative to connect the different human civilizations that lived in Alula and Khaybar. It explores the idea that the tombs of Dadan and Hegra as well as the different markers in Khaybar are portals to other dimensions which were activated and used by different civilizations.

Ayman Zedani’s investigative practice aims to subvert our understanding of the past and challenge our acceptance of the future. The immersive environments, installations, and videos Zedani consider possible futures for the Gulf and consistently renegotiate the relationship between humans and nature. Zedani’s past installations have featured stone, clay, charcoal and concrete while the artist’s current practice features the manipulation of organic materials in order to reframe nature as a protagonist. Keep watching to see how this has manifested in Zedani’s time in AlUla!

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Aziz Jamal (b. 1993, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) is a multidisciplinary Saudi artist. He finds inspiration in spontaneous bursts of creativity. His studio based practice leads him to explore multiple mediums and techniques, following an inner will to craft and create a tangible narrative composed by a myriad of different elements and ideas. His in-depth explorations of a singular wellspring of inspiration result in art works closely tied to the specific place and time of their conception. In this sense, his creations bear distinctive characteristics stemming from a physical, temporal, and spiritual connection to a particular moment and location.

Aziz Jamal lives and works in Saudi Arabia. Past exhibitions include Noor Riyadh (KSA), EWU Gallery (USA), Chase Gallery (USA), Bozzi Gallery (USA), Al Balad (KSA), Studio AF (KSA).

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The first iteration of the project will take the shape of a Virtual Reality as well as a video. His work has been exhibited at Des Corps Libres, Reiffers Initiatives, Paris. Drop 06, Zien, Online. Global Gallery, Worldwide. Organized by Porsche and König Galerie. Salon de Montrouge, Paris.

During his AlUla Artist Residency, Ben Elliot has been inspired by the scenery, the local wildlife, the people in AlUla and the developments brought on by Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. He imagined the future of these landscapes and produced a powerful immersive Metaverse experience, challenging the past and future through the digital realm, based on his historical site visits and with the help of the local community and experts.

During the “Palimpsest of Time” exhibition, Ben Elliot showcased Smartsuit, a speculative garment designed by him, which envisions the future of clothing for the human body. Perfectly designed for AlUla’s desert, it is minimalist, utilitarian and streamlined for everyday use, Smartsuit acts as a true bioskin, responding to the needs of the body in a technology driven society. Constructed from intelligent biomaterials and acting as a new exoskeleton, Smartsuit adapts to unlimited colours and intuitively shapes itself to the individuality of its user while responding to its environment. The suit adapts to the weather, provides warmth, energy and nutrients to the host, optimises the body’s performance levels, enhances the senses, stores unlimited data and connects intuitively to all social networks. The Smartsuit is self-cleaning, self-healing and self-fragilising.

On March 8th, the event “Sands of tomorrow” included an off-white cocktail and finger food and recital of Ben Elliot’s writings by Alanood.

At the intersection of physical and digital paradigms, Metaone is divided into different environments inspired by innovative places, like AlUla. Metaone envisions being a digital answer to these new kinds of cities and societies, which are at the same time smart and in adequacy with their natural habitat (i.e. biomimetic shapes).
For Elliot, AlUla represents a very exciting ambition for a futuristic country where history, nature, technology, and sciences coexist to create progress. He is interested in the conception of new spaces that rethink humanity’s relationships to the space we live in – which is also something the metaverse should provide reasoning about through the shapes (architecture, urban planning) or values (sustainability, well-being) it carries.

Ben Elliot’s workshop was intended for the younger local generation of AlUla.

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Bricklab’s team, Aseel Alamoudi, Ghaida Gutub, Zahiyah Alraddadi are saudi architects that have joined at a later stage the AlUla Artist Residency Program in March 2023. Aseel Alamoudi holds a Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, USA. She has developed a visual design language which she uses as a tool to create objects of different scales. She experiments with the ontology of her objects in different contexts using digital and physical mediums such as animation and 3D printing. Aseel’s work was exhibited in Raw Print pop-up, Hayy Jameel and Noor Riyadh 2023. Ghaidaa Gutub graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture with Honors from Effat University in 2017, she then went on to take her Master’s Degree in Advanced Architecture from Columbia University in New York; Ghaidaa is a member of the Saudi council of Engineers. Zahiyah Alraddadi graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Effat University in 2019 and is a member of the Saudi council of Engineers. She is a painter at her studio and an expert in 3D modelling and visualizations. She has been shortlisted for the Tamavouz International Awards and has wind the WA Award in 2019.

“Experiments in Rammed Earth” explores the connection between spatial qualities and human perception.

In an attempt to capture the essence of AlUla and its textures through a collection of objects including rocks, sand samples and pigments extracted from natural resources collected from different areas of AlUla,
Bricklab’s team invited the public to a two-part show, first to have an overview of the collected items and a perception of their experience in the city and second for the children to participate and experiment with the natural resources and connect with the texture of the region by making their own rammed earth objects.

The artists and the children revealed the created experiments and showcased the results.

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