The art world is talking about a major new arts and cultural center, opening in Jeddah next month.
Hayy Jameel is set to welcome visitors from December 6, 2021. According to the center’s website, “Hayy Jameel, the Kingdom’s dedicated home for the arts, is designed by multi-award-winning architectural studio waiwai [sic] and conceived as a dynamic, creative, community hub. The launch of Hayy Jameel marks three-quarters of a century of Jameel family global philanthropy and comes to fruition in line with a new era for culture and the arts across the Kingdom. The name of the 17,000-square-meter creative complex is derived from an Arabic word for neighborhood, to denote its intent as an accessible, communal and collaborative space. Hayy Jameel reflects Art Jameel’s commitment to supporting artists, creative communities and entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and beyond.”
Participating artists in Illuminate: A Noor Riyadh Capsule include Ahmed Angawi, Dana Awartani, Ayman Daydban, Manal Al Dowayan, Sultan bin Fahad, Ahmed Mater, Maha Malluh, Marwah Al Mugait, Nasser Al Salem, Rashed Al Shashai and Saeed Gamhawi.
From Noor Riyadh, Rashed AlShahai, Searching for Darkness, 2021, courtesy the artist and Hafez Gallery. Photo © Riyadh Art 2021
Portrait using wet plate collodion., Paused Mirror: The Saudi Artists by Osama Esid
Portrait of Ahmed Mater, Collodion print, Paused Mirror
CATPC (Cercle d'art des travailleurs de plantation congolaise), We Who Are Here And You Who Have Come by Emery Mohamba & Mbuku Kimpala, 2015, courtesy the artist and KOW Galerie, Berlin, from Staple: What's On Your Plate
CATPC, Untitled by Ced'art aka Cedrick Tamasala, 2018. Photo by Ladislav Zajac. Courtesy the artist and KOW Galerie, Berlin
Munem Wasif, "Seeds Shall Set Us Free II", 2016-2021, courtesy the artist and Project 88 — Wasif seeks to reimagine an indigenous “ecosophical” mode of agriculture, where grain is a companion species to humanity, having names, deities and spirits, around which the village organizes itself.
Artists participating in the exhibition Staple: What’s On Your Plate? include Leen Ajlan, Moza Almatrooshi, Jonathas de Andrade, Mirna Bamieh, Bricklab x Misht Studio, CATPC (Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise), Annalee Davis, Mohammad Alfaraj, Florence Lazar, Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Mariam Al Noaimi, Franziska Pierwoss, Pratchaya Phinthong, Cooking Sections, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Salma Serry, Slavs and Tatars, Suha Shoman, Fatima Uzdenova, Munem Wasif, Lantian Xie and Raed Yassin with Ute Wasserman.
Located in the residential north Jeddah area of Al Mohammadiyyah, Hayy Jameel’s building responds to its surroundings: tall façades that intimate the privacy of a home while allowing for interior openness, flow and maximum natural light.
Hayy Jameel is anchored by four Art Jameel programs, plus the multipurpose space Fenaa, and joined by like-minded creative enterprises, known as Hayy Residents. TMR will check in with Hayy Jameel periodically to update our readers.
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