Taking place in JAX District, the event will showcase contemporary artists from around the world. 

Art lovers, unite. We have some exciting news. The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026 will open to the public on 30 January 2026 with the title ‘In Interludes and Transitions.’ Now in its third edition, the Biennale is led by Artistic Directors Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, who have set out a curatorial framework that explores movement, exchange and the cultural rhythms that bind communities across borders.

The Biennale will be anchored at JAX, the creative district in Diriyah known for its industrial heritage, and will expand across selected venues and outdoor spaces. The aim is to immerse visitors in an experience that responds to the urban fabric of the district while celebrating Diriyah’s role in Saudi Arabia’s evolving cultural landscape.

The chosen title takes its cue from a casual phrase that refers to the cycles of encampment and journeys made by nomadic communities in the Arabian Peninsula. By tracing these movements and transformations, the Biennale considers how the Gulf connects with the wider world through routes of travel, trade and storytelling. This lens sets the stage for an exhibition that thinks about culture as something that is carried, shared and reshaped.

In a program that privileges listening as much as looking, sound will sit alongside visual art, music and performance. The scenography is conceived by Formafantasma, the design studio that has crafted a spatial choreography where history, ancestry, dreams and premonition intermingle through song and dance.

The 2026 edition will feature more than 70 artists and over 20 new commissions. The preliminary list includes Pio Abad, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Yussef Agbo-Ola (Olaniyi Studio), Ahaad Alamoudi, Afra Al Dhaheri, Mohammed Alhamdan (7amdan), Ruba Al-Sweel, Taysir Batniji, Raven Chacon, Rohini Devasher, Merve Ertufan, Ivana Franke, Rahima Gambo, Petrit Halilaj, Aziz Hazara, Alana Hunt and Yazan Khalili, with more names to follow as the opening approaches.

Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, Artistic Directors of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026 said: “Processions have produced relations and forms in this region. The movement of winds and the flow of trade, migration, and exile are carriers of stories, songs, and languages, producing rhythms and poetic meters such as the rajaz. Thinking of the world in procession – a braiding of movements that commemorate and celebrate – allows an understanding of cultural forms through exchange and transmissions; itineraries of travel, intersections, and mutations; and retelling of fragments of exiled stories that have persisted through bodies, materials, rhythms, and cadences.”

The first Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale took place in December 2021. The theme was ‘feeling the stones’ and it brought together more than 70 artists. Established with the support of the Ministry of Culture, it aimed to nurture the local art scene in the Kingdom. Since then, it has become a staple in the cultural calendar and serves as a global platform that fosters dialogue between the country and the rest of the world.

Check in with FACT for the latest details. 

GO: Visit https://biennale.org.sa for more information.