Diriyah Art Futures Launches CONTINUUM ’25 Exhibition: Showcasing Artworks By Emerging Artists Cohort

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), the first hub for New Media Arts in the Middle East and North Africa, launched its latest exhibition CONTINUUM ’25, showcasing the works of its inaugural cohort of emerging artists and mentors.

Artists, cultural leaders and members of the public flocked to DAF to explore compelling works spanning a range of cutting-edge technological mediums, including immersive installations, sound and screen-based works, virtual reality, and AI-generated art.

CONTINUUM ’25 features artworks produced by 11 emerging artists and two mentors during DAF’s inaugural year-long Emerging New Media Artists programme. Curated by Irini Papadimitriou, the exhibition explores themes ranging from memory, identity and displacement to climate ecologies, ethics and algorithmic power.

Developed under the mentorship of internationally acclaimed artists Anna Ridler, Karen Palmer and Madeline Gannon, the artworks blur the boundaries between the real and the artificial, the human and machine, the organic and synthetic in diverse and compelling ways.

The exhibition kicked off with a fascinating panel conversation between curator Irini Papadimitriou, Tegan Bristow, Director of Education at DAF and emerging new media artists Khaled Makhshoush, Dhia Dhibi, and Samia Dzair. The discussion was moderated by Wejdan Reda, and they discussed the fascinating and ever-evolving ways in which New Media Artists are using technology to expand their creative practices, while also highlighting the power of multidisciplinary collaboration between artists, researchers, and technologists.

CONTINUUM ’25 marks the first in a new series of exhibitions at DAF, spotlighting diverse voices shaping the future of New Media Art in the region and beyond. The title CONTINUUM reflects the ever-evolving nature of creative inquiry that defines DAF’s groundbreaking Emerging New Media Artists programme.  

Developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France, the Emerging New Media Artists Programme gives emerging artists access to cutting-edge professional equipment and a production budget, as well as a wide range of multidisciplinary learning opportunities.

The Emerging New Media Artists featured in CONTINUUM ’25 include: Turki AlQahtani (Saudi Arabia); Khaled Makshoush (Saudi Arabia); Salma Aly (Egypt); Samia Dzaïr (Algeria); Aya Abu Ghazaleh (Jordan); Dhia Dhibi (Tunisia); William Brooks (Wales); Junsoo Kim (South Korea); Youssef El Idrissi (Morocco); Kyle Donald Marais (South Africa); and Mohamed Al Mubarak (Bahrain). The mentor artists participating in the exhibition are Karen Palmer and Anna Ridler.

CONTINUUM ’25 is open to the public at Diriyah Art Futures and runs from September 13th to November 15th. The exhibition is accompanied by a rich public programme of workshops, talks and other activities spanning AI, VR, digital photography and much more. Please see the September programme below:

Friday 19 September | Workshop: Stories of Home: Digital & Hand Embroidery

05:00 PM – 08:00 PM | Language: Arabic and English

In this creative workshop, participants will explore the concept of ‘home’ as a place, memory, or feeling through the lens of regional embroidery traditions and New Media Art practices. Drawing from embroidery examples across the region, and using Photoshop and AI-generated visual prompts, participants will design symbolic representations of their personal narratives of belonging. These digital designs will be translated into hand-embroidered, padded keychains, representing individual interpretations of home and memory.

For more information, visit:

Website: www.daf.moc.gov.sa/en | X @DAFmoc | Instagram: @DAFmoc