Cortona on the move Al Ula takes place from 9 February to 31 March, the first edition of the photography festival born in the Tuscan city to take place in western Saudi Arabia. The central theme of the event is the passage of time, as the title indicates: Past forward. Time, life and longing.
Arianna Rinaldo, artistic director of Cortona on the move from 2012 to 2021, explains that all the works are linked to the concept of time and “follow two lines, one more personal and human and the other environmental and global”. An idea that is well suited to the context of Al Ula, a city built in the sixth century BC, a long crossroads between East and West and a place of passage for people and goods, then forgotten and now projected towards the future. Among the main themes of the exhibition are family, friendship, memory, change and the future.
From the collaboration between the curators – Arianna Rinaldo and Kholood al Bakr, Saudi visual artist – nineteen artists were selected: ten are photographers from all over the world, exhibited in past editions of the festival in Italy, and nine come from the Arab world. Three are Saudis: Mohammad al Faraj, an artist born in 1993, with his work Guardians of the oasis investigates changes in the landscape and the consequences on people’s lives; Adel al Quraishi presents a project on the faces of the inhabitants of the great Nafud desert; Moath al Ofi displays fragments of ancient civilizations along with modern artifacts.
Among the other works on display there is Men of the pearl, with which the visual artist Ali al Shehabi, from Bahrain, reflects on nostalgia and education in the Middle East. By portraying Arab men in intimate and familiar attitudes, he wants to talk about “breaking down the barriers of masculinity to show vulnerabilities,” he says.
Maintaining the tradition of the Cortona festival, where the works are exhibited throughout the city, even in Saudi Arabia the staging involved a part of Al Ula. The photographs are displayed on the walls of the courtyards and buildings in the historic district of Al Jadidah, now at the center of a redevelopment that aims to enhance the area’s historical heritage and promote artistic and cultural activities. On the upper floor of the house that houses the works of Al Faraj and Al Shehabi, the women portrayed by the Jordanian photojournalist Tanya Habjouqa are on display. Tomorrow there will be apricots tells the tragedy of the war in Syria. In her room next to her, Amina Kadous, who lives in Cairo, Egypt, reflects on her past with the series A crack in the memory of my memory.
The Serie Shroud by British Nigerian photographer Simon Norfolk denounces the melting of glaciers. The black and white images of Latif al Ani, the father of Iraqi photography who died in November 2021, are displayed along an alley; on a nearby wall are those of the American Deanna Dikeman, who immortalizes her parents in front of her house over the span of twenty-seven years; the blurry images captured with a distorted lens by Syrian photographer Osama Esid have an old palace as a background; in an open space surrounded by brick buildings, the photographs by Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti show the Italian museums closed during the lockdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
For Veronica Nicolardi, director of the Cortona on the move festival, the exhibition is “an opportunity to open up to dialogue”: “The choice was to consider culture and photography as a way to enhance a territory and a tool for comparison. , of knowledge and contamination “. This is also the idea behind the six artistic residencies organized in Al Ula from 3 to 24 March in which Arab and international photographers “will have the opportunity to carry out their projects, to express themselves, find space and mix”, explains Nicolardi.
The director also underlines “a correspondence between Cortona and Al Ula”, united by the fact that they are small towns “enhanced through art and culture, in this case photography”. The confirmation of the success of this initiative comes from the response of the public, Nicolardi says: “Seeing the girls who participate in the visits pick up the guide and read the story of everything behind it and think about the insight that this can bring. ”Is proof that“ we have brought the world to Arabia, we are a bit of a window on the world ”. Alanood al Sudairi, 24, assistant to curator Kholood Al Bakr, points out that “the artistic environment in Saudi Arabia is growing fast, there are new opportunities, many young Saudi artists have the opportunity to explore their art, to put it into perspective. show and learn more ”.