Farida Alhusseini, Director of the Islamic Arts Biennale talks about And all that is in between exhibition

Farida Alhusseini is the Director of the Islamic Arts Biennale at the Diriyah Biennale Foundation (DBF). Having joined DBF in 2021, she was instrumental in orchestrating the inaugural edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, which opened in January 2023 and achieved a record number of visitors.

With extensive experience in museums and exhibitions in Saudi Arabia, Farida has been fortunate to be a part of the growth of the cultural sector of Saudi Arabia and to have worked in several of Saudi Arabia’s pioneering cultural organizations. She is now a program director at the Ministry of Culture. Farida holds a BA in Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto and an MA in Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.

The exhibition titled “And all that is in between” will juxtapose historical objects from Islamic cultures with contemporary art, the Biennale will explore how faith is experienced, expressed, and celebrated through feeling, thinking, and making. How was this conceptualized and how would this resonate with audiences?

Simply put, the Biennale presents a view of Islamic arts now. Through historical objects from around the world, it bridges science, literature, craft, and religion. And through contemporary art commissions, it demonstrates the continuity of Islamic cultures and their traditions. The result is a multifaceted perspective on the arts of Muslim societies.

In Islamic cultures, the arts have always provided a forum in which to engage with the most pressing issues. People have reached an understanding of our world through science and mathematics, depicted its beauty in poetry and visual art, and honored the wonders we see around us through worship in a variety of forms. The Biennale shows that Islamic arts, broadly defined, continue to demonstrate a keen engagement with these activities, and I think this is something that will resonate with visitors, no matter where they come from. Our ambition was to create a process of exploration and discovery for visitors as they move through the Biennale’s spaces and encounter the works on view.

The exhibition which will last between January 25 until May 25, 2025 in Jeddah, will be held at the Western Hajj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport, is there any special significance to the location or why it was chosen?

The Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah is one of the most interesting works of architecture from the twentieth century, in my opinion. I know that’s a grand statement, but this is a remarkable example of American corporate internationalism in close, sensitive dialogue with its setting. Gordon Bunshaft and Fazlur Khan, of SOM, designed the terminal as a point of entry for Muslims from around the world embarking on the Hajj and Umrah. The terminal creates a new environment that is continuous with its site, like a landscape. The fact that the Biennale takes place here accentuates our project of presenting the global nature of Islamic arts and cultures. Pilgrims arriving at the terminal bring with them their own cultures, languages, and ideas. These are reflected in the emphatically global, living traditions of Islam, as a system of belief that ties people together over great distances and across time—another grand statement, but true, and in clear evidence here.

I personally find it truly interesting to create a space for art and culture in an airport, a space that is traditionally purely transitional and functional. This connects to the Saudi tradition of displaying high quality artworks within airports, one that is increasingly becoming a key consideration in rethinking, redesigning and humanizing such functional spaces.

That the Kingdom is experiencing seismic transformations is a given, how will the exhibition highlight this in a global frame of reference? And how is the average viewer or passenger able to digest all these elements visually and emotionally?

Islam is a global religion, and the cultures and civilizations that have grown around it encompass many different ways of thinking, making, writing, and living. These traditions have a shared foundation, no matter how different they look. The Biennale showcases never before seen treasures exclusively from Makkah and Madinah, and brings together objects, works of art, and ideas from across the Muslim world, from Timbuktu to the Indonesian archipelago. We are excited by this, as it’s a kind of presentation that hasn’t happened before, the diversity of the participating institutions and artists is groundbreaking, and the fact that it is taking place in Saudi Arabia now is significant.

The country is experiencing a period of profound transformation, and artists working here are especially attuned to this. Contemporary art curator of the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 Muhannd Shono is working with emerging artists from Saudi Arabia and artists from around the world to create new commissions for the Biennale, which indicates the shifting landscape of contemporary production in the country, within a global frame of reference. Visitors will have a chance to experience the exciting transformation taking place here through the perspectives of contemporary artists who are creating and exhibiting in this context.

The exhibition presents a dialogue between historic and contemporary works within the galleries and in outdoor spaces. Obviously, today exhibition spaces are malleable and shifting, how did this translate into this exhibition

Dialogue between inside and outside was a point of departure for this edition of the Biennale. Part of this stems from the basic fact of the exhibition spaces, which are spread across indoor pavilions and outdoor spaces under the canopy of the Western Hajj Terminal. SOM’s design of the terminal provides a captivating framework for the exhibition, and one that has turned out to be prescient for how we approach contemporary landscapes today as a continuum between nature and the city. The Biennale can be experienced as several separate zones, or seen as a totality. All seven of the components reflect on how we respond to the divine through our hearts, minds, and hands in different ways. Objects from the collections of some of the leading institutions of Islamic art from around the world present a historical constellation of the cultures and traditions that have contributed to the rich texture of Muslim societies across geographies and over the centuries. Contemporary commissions respond to the traditions of Islamic arts from multiple vantage points. Objects on loan from the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah speak to local histories and the personal dimension of devotion and worship that have shaped life there throughout history. Additionally, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation launched the AlMusalla Prize, an architectural competition for a space of worship that will be installed at the Western Hajj Terminal during the Biennale. The competition is not only an invitation to architects to think about contemporary spaces of worship for Muslims, but also an extension of the symbolic significance of the site for visitors from Jeddah and from around the world.

And all that is in between is part of a verse that appears several times in the Noble Quran: “And God created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in between.” Can you shed some more light as to the spiritual angle of the exhibition?

And all that is in between explores how faith is experienced, expressed, and celebrated through feeling, thinking, and making. Faith and spirituality have always formed a source of inspiration and driver for creative expressions and scientific innovation, which is also influenced by the human cultural and social experiences, and our shared universal challenges. By presenting objects such as manuscripts, metalwork, textiles, gems and jewels, and scientific instruments, we wanted to reflect on how people respond to the majesty of the divine. Including works of contemporary art within the framework of Islamic arts is an unambiguous statement of the importance of context, history, and cultural background to what is happening now and has always been happening. This is the perspective that the Biennale offers: the arts as a way of representing and reflecting on what is taking place around us and of responding to belief in the divine.