April 22, 2025

Diriyah Art Futures Launches Groundbreaking Exhibition: ‘Maknana: An Archaeology Of New Media Art In The Arab World’

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), the MENA region’s first hub dedicated to New Media Arts, launched today its second exhibition, Maknana: An Archaeology of New Media Art in the Arab World, which will run until 19 July 2025 at DAF’s space in Diriyah, Riyadh.

Co-curated by Haytham Nawar and Ala Younis, the exhibition explores the rich history of New Media Arts in the Arab world through a collection of over 70 artworks by over 40 prominent artists from the region. The Arabic term ‘Maknana’, translated as automation, inspires the exhibition’s central inquiry: how Arab artists have navigated, repurposed, and challenged technologies to shape their own creative vocabularies.

The selected works engage with urgent sociopolitical contexts, from networked resistance and machine logic to memory preservation, speculative ecologies, and glitch aesthetics. These explorations are structured across four thematic sections, Automation, Autonomy, Ripples, and Glitch, which cover recurring artistic concerns and gestures across various generations, geographies, and technological paradigms.

Mona Khazindar, Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, said: “This exhibition reflects the region’s rich history of artists who have embraced and experimented with technological mediums to push creative barriers and respond to the questions of their time. It represents Saudi Arabia’s ongoing efforts to celebrate the Arab world’s pioneering artists, while also opening doors to global creative and technological innovators of the future, through an inspiring range of talent and artworks.”

The exhibition launch was marked by a special performance of Joe Namy’s Automobile (2025). During the sound car performance, Namy played excerpts from his ongoing performance piece, amplified through the custom sound systems of eight cars provided by Riyadh Muscle Cars Team.

Curators Nawar and Younis also participated in a fascinating panel conversation with artists Akram Zaatari, Ahmed Mater, and Ruba Al Sweel about the evolving relationship between art and technology in the Arab world. They discussed the various ways regional pioneers have used new media tools such as video, digital imaging, data, code, and sound to explore cultural identity, social transformation, and political memory.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich public programme, including masterclasses, practical workshops, talks and performances. On 26 and 27 April, Joe Namy will host a two-day masterclass exploring the power of sound as a transformative artistic medium. Blending theory and hands-on experience, the workshop will guide participants through listening sessions, collective engagement, and experimentation with sounds.

That same weekend, artist Susan Hefuna will also host a two-day workshop, teaching participants to use smartphones to distort, blur, and remix visuals and audio to uncover new forms of expression. Drawing inspiration from Glitch Art, a movement that emerged in 1990s electronic music, this hands-on session embraces errors and digital artefacts as creative tools.

Maknana: An Archaeology of New Media Art in the Arab World exhibition runs at Diriyah Art Futures in Diriyah, Riyadh until 19 July. For more information on the exhibition and upcoming public programming, please visit www.daf.moc.gov.sa

Participating artists: