{"id":1431,"date":"2026-11-03T00:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/?p=1431"},"modified":"2026-11-03T00:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:22:13","slug":"beyond-the-center-periphery-binary-reflections-on-the-second-edition-of-the-islamic-arts-biennale-in-jeddah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/?p=1431","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Center-Periphery Binary: Reflections on the Second Edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the threshold of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, visitors are immediately confronted with an object of profound reverence: the kiswah<\/em> of the Holy Ka\u2018bah. Its towering black silk panels stretch nearly to the full height of the gallery space, while intricate gold embroidery catches and reflects the ambient light. For centuries, this sacred textile has been encountered primarily in Makkah, occupying a singular, immovable space defined by specific rituals of place, devotion, and pilgrimage. Here, however, within the expansive halls of the biennale in Jeddah, the kiswah<\/em> is encountered differently. While it retains its absolute sacred significance, it now exists within a dynamic milieu of contemporary artistic practices, varied ways of seeing, and diverse methods of making.<\/p>\n

This juxtaposition sets the tone for an exhibition that refuses to treat heritage and contemporary art as isolated categories. Situated just a few meters away, Abdelkader Benchamma\u2019s large-scale installation Between Each Sky<\/em> (2025) unfolds dynamically across the surrounding walls. Its complex ink and charcoal forms are brought to life through subtle projections, all purposefully organized around a cluster of seven architectural columns originating from Makkah. Nearby, Italian artist Arcangelo Sassolino\u2019s monumental steel disk, Memory of Becoming<\/em>, turns slowly and almost imperceptibly on its axis. Coated in heavy industrial oil that shifts continually with the sculpture\u2019s rotation and the pull of gravity, the work invokes raw material force. While one installation looks toward geological strata and vast celestial expanses, the other makes physical mass, structural instability, and material transformation starkly visible. The kiswah<\/em>\u2014occupying a dedicated, transitional hall squarely between these two immersive contemporary works\u2014does not function as a mere historical relic meant to be explained by modern art, nor does it serve as a prop. Instead, it stands as an independent, singular presence engaged in a profound spatial and conceptual conversation with its surroundings.<\/p>\n

This curated encounter captures something essential about the intellectual and artistic ambitions driving the second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale. The exhibition derives its overarching conceptual framework from a recurring phrase in the Qur\u2019an that speaks to the heavens, the Earth, and \u201cAll That Is In Between.\u201d The implications of this thematic anchor are vast and expansive. Rather than constructing a rigid binary between the heavenly and the earthly, the past and the present, or the divine and the worldly, the biennale deliberately charts the vast, complex field of creation that exists between these traditional categories. By drawing upon this expansive proposition, the exhibition explores how faith, memory, and culture are continually experienced, felt, thought, and materially manifested across time and geography.<\/p>\n

For many international observers, it is tempting to view such ambitious cultural exhibitions in Saudi Arabia through the tired, familiar language of geopolitics. Under this conventional lens, global power is seen as shifting inevitably toward a more distributed, multipolar international order, with the art world treated as merely downstream of wider economic and diplomatic realignments. From this perspective, the emergence of new biennales in rapidly developing cities is often dismissed as nothing more than the cultural correlates of new capitals appearing on a G20 policy memo. Although this interpretation can make for a tidy and easily digestible media narrative, it is neither a complete nor a particularly interesting way to understand what is actually happening on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

The more consequential transformation currently underway is not simply the geographical relocation of traditional art-world power to different coordinates on the very same map. Rather, it is the genuine emergence of new institutional models that were never trying to be peripheral, derivative versions of an existing Western template in the first place. These emerging models are being built out of distinct local and regional histories, fostering entirely different relationships between the art object and its audience. They put forward distinct ideas regarding what an exhibition is, whom it is for, and how culture itself accumulates, transforms, and is transmitted across generations.<\/p>\n

This institutional evolution runs directly parallel to a broader global reconfiguration that is already reshaping international relations, wherein rising middle powers are exercising greater strategic and cultural agency. These nations are actively forging new corridors of exchange and dialogue that stretch fluidly between the Gulf, Asia, and Africa. Cultural institutions have quickly become among the clearest and most dynamic expressions of this broader development, operating increasingly on terms and philosophies that they establish for themselves. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, these new centers of cultural production introduce novel institutional logics to the global stage. They offer alternative frameworks for determining what belongs within the hallowed walls of an exhibition space, what constitutes a meaningful cultural encounter, and how enduring relationships between distant places can be built. By stepping outside the tired confines of the center-periphery model, events like the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah are carving out a distinct space for contemporary artistic discourse\u2014one rooted in its own geography, history, and expansive vision of the creative universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the threshold of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, visitors are immediately confronted with an object of profound reverence: the kiswah of the Holy Ka\u2018bah. Its towering black silk panels stretch nearly to the full height of the gallery space, while intricate gold embroidery catches and reflects the ambient light. For centuries, this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[376],"tags":[1375,230,2088,2084,2082,388,852,389,2087,2089,2083,2085,2086,390,391],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-heritage-tourism","tag-arts","tag-beyond","tag-biennale","tag-binary","tag-center","tag-culture","tag-edition","tag-heritage","tag-islamic","tag-jeddah","tag-periphery","tag-reflections","tag-second","tag-temples","tag-unesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tourismsiam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}