Art Week Riyadh Unveils Curatorial Team For Its Inaugural Edition In April 2025

The Visual Arts Commission has unveiled the curatorial team for Art Week Riyadh's first edition, scheduled from April 6 to 13, 2025. The team includes Vittoria Matarrese as Artistic Director and Curator, Basma Harasani and Victoria Gandit Lelandais as Associate Curators, and Shumon Basar as Curator of the Public Program.

Art Week Riyadh will be hosted at the JAX District, with activities spread across the city. The event aims to unite prominent local, regional, and international galleries, cultural institutions, artists, patrons, collectors, and art enthusiasts. This gathering celebrates Saudi Arabia’s emerging role in global cultural engagement.

Matarrese previously led the Bally Foundation in Switzerland and the performing arts department at Paris's Palais de Tokyo. She remarked on the significance of Art Week Riyadh: "Art Week Riyadh represents an extraordinary opportunity to engage with a city and region undergoing profound cultural transformation. The inaugural edition, At the Edge, is a platform to explore these shifts and reveal how tradition and acceleration coexist and evolve."

Harasani highlighted Saudi Arabia's cultural progress: "Being the first of its kind, Art Week Riyadh is a testament to the remarkable progress the country has made in establishing itself within the global cultural narrative, while still preserving its authenticity and showcasing the very best the Kingdom has to offer."

The theme "At The Edge" will guide this inaugural edition. It aims to explore Riyadh's dynamic essence by showcasing its evolving cultural landscape. This theme highlights how tradition coexists with rapid development in Saudi Arabia’s capital.

Gandit Lelandais emphasized Art Week Riyadh's role in fostering an art ecosystem: "The very fact that Art Week Riyadh exists demonstrates the intentional development of a thriving art ecosystem, with a clear vision to foster a healthy environment for growth among all the key players—galleries, artists, institutions, scholars, collectors, and more."

Public Program Highlights

The event will feature over 30 galleries from various regions. It will include collections and a public program comprising talks and performances. These elements aim to stimulate critical discussions about art within Riyadh's growing cultural scene.

Basar reflected on Art Week Riyadh's broader impact: "Art Week Riyadh offers a moment to frame everything that has happened arts-wise in Riyadh, in the Kingdom, and in the region over the last years and decades, and to dialogue that with global scaled conversations in an increasingly multipolar world."

This week-long celebration underscores Saudi Arabia’s commitment to becoming a hub for global cultural discourse. By bringing together diverse voices from around the world, it seeks to enrich conversations about art both locally and internationally.

With inputs from SPA