Monumental Art Returns to AlUla

Saudi Arabia’s ancient vast desert region is becoming a global hotspot for culture and heritage. The returning fourth edition of biannual Desert X AlUla, presents monumental site-responsive artworks that challenge how individuals perceive art within a natural environment. This edition, which features works by 11 artists positioned throughout the AlUla landscape, reflecting a diversity of concepts, materials and traditions, draws inspiration from the literary and poetic works of Lebanese American writer Khalil Gibran who once described dreams as “Space without measure.” 

Desert X AlUla, which runs until February 28, 2026, is a cornerstone of the annual AlUla Arts Festival, this year marking its fifth edition and which transforms the ancient oasis city of AlUla into an immersive platform for art and culture. 

Curated this year by Wejdan Reda, Zoé Whitley, with artistic direction by Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi, Desert X AlUla presents commissioned monumental works by participating artists Sara Abdu, Mohammad Alfaraj, Mohammed AlSaleem, Tarek Atoui, Bahraini Danish, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Agnes Denes, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Basmah Felemban, Vibha Galhotra, and Héctor Zamora.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Haraza Tree, Desert X AlUla, 2026

“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’,” said Whitley. “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.”

From monumental kinetic sculpture to sound-based creations located above and below the desert landscape, each commission is rooted in a mission to dialogue visually and thematically with AlUla’s distinctive natural environment. Highlights include Saudi artist Mohammad Alfaraj’s What was the Question Again? highlighting a palm tree made of numerous grafted trunks reflecting ideas of renewal, harmony with nature and the intricate relationships between people and their environment. There’s also the evocative installation Imole Red by Cuban-born, US-based multidisciplinary artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons which channels the land, spiritual heritage and light. Inspired by AlUla’s sunsets and West African Yoruba traditions, the work incorporates coluor and energy, transforming such elements into a flowing, alchemical garden that cherishes the valley’s past and its connection to water. Leading Sudanese modernist artist Ibrahim El-Salahi presents the installation Haraza Tree, inspired by the resilient acacias that grow throughout AlUla’s canyons. The work features a forest of sculptural meditation trees that reflect ideas of unity derived from multiplicity. Meanwhile, Saudi artist Basmah Felemban’s Murmur of Pebbles brings into focus and magnifies the smallest geological elements of the surrounding landscape and transforms them into monumental limestone sculptures, reflecting the ancient rivers that once shaped AlUla’s desert. The pebbles, now in their grandeur, highlight ideas of memory and resilience encapsulated within each stone. 

Sara Abdu, A Kingdom Where No One Dies:
Contours of Resonance, Desert X AlUla, 2026

The works presented communicate with AlUla’s landscape and explore Gibran’s meditations on the realm of possibility and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

Feature Image: Mohammed AlFaraj, What Was the Question Again?, Desert X AlUla, 2026