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Saudi Arabia Unveils Exhibition Exploring Diriyah’s Natural and Built Landscapes

The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects to offer a wider lens into Diriyah and At-Turaif. SPA
The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects to offer a wider lens into Diriyah and At-Turaif. SPA
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Saudi Arabia Unveils Exhibition Exploring Diriyah’s Natural and Built Landscapes

The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects to offer a wider lens into Diriyah and At-Turaif. SPA
The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects to offer a wider lens into Diriyah and At-Turaif. SPA

“The Earthen Testaments,” a multidisciplinary exhibition exploring Diriyah’s natural and built landscapes through imagery, film, artifacts, and contemporary artworks commissioned from Saudi artists, has opened at Ségur Hall, UNESCO House, in Paris.

The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects to offer a wider lens into Diriyah and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site of At-Turaif, the center of government of the First Saudi State and the ancestral home of the Saudi Royal family. Presented by the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, the exhibition will be on view February 22 to 29.

“We are thrilled to host this exhibition on the rich heritage of Diriyah and At-Turaif, its UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our collaboration is vital to our mission to protect cultural heritage sites and to bring their archaeological significance to life—not only for the Saudi people but also for the international community,” said Fahad bin Maayouf Al Ruwaily, the Saudi ambassador to France and Monaco and interim permanent delegate of the Kingdom to UNESCO.

“The Earthen Testaments presents, through the visionary work of contemporary Saudi artists, a window into the world of Diriyah and At-Turaif. For this enriching cultural exchange, we extend our sincere gratitude.”

According to Diriyah Gate Development Authority CEO Jerry Inzerillo, “As a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Kingdom, At-Turaif represents the birthplace and gateway to Saudi Arabia, and it is a privilege and great responsibility to share Diriyah’s stories, values, culture, art, and heritage with the world through this exhibition.”

The historical city of Diriyah, birthplace of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia situated along Wadi Hanifah, has been redefined as a thriving, vibrant center of culture, history, heritage, and knowledge that celebrates its storied landscape, history, heritage, and symbolic monuments.

The unique characteristics of the site have contributed to its status as a natural, cultural, and national landmark, with the UNESCO World Heritage Site of At-Turaif at its heart. The earthen structures of At-Turaif, a UNESCO site since 2010, stand today as a symbol of the heritage, traditions, values, and material forms that define Najdi culture and heritage.

The exhibition combines historical remnants and archaeological objects with contemporary responses from various Saudi artists, offering a wider lens into Diriyah’s heritage and values through material traces. Artwork and film are juxtaposed with a selection of material excerpts, archival images, historical maps, poetry, and an interview with a descendent of the master builder of At-Turaif.

Numerous elements immerse visitors in the unique properties of At-Turaif and its intimate link between landscape, natural resources, and the history of place. The Earthen Testaments presents a glimpse into the story of this historical city and its people through an exploration of its materials.
The exhibition combines archeological fragments, archival photographs, film, poetry, and artwork by Saudi artists Rasha AlRashed (b.1985), Omar Abduljawad (b.1989), Ali AlSumayin and the collective Bricklab (Est. 2015).

In addition, the artisan Abdullah AlSayegh and the perfumer Bader AlHarqan have crafted a Diriyah-inspired giveaway. Visitors will be able to trace the material as witness to the stories of the Wadi and the archeological structures of the sites and experience the tangible and intangible heritage of the area, stepping into a site that stands today as the gateway to the establishment of the story of Saudi Arabia today.

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Culture

French Artist Begins Giant ‘Cave’ Art Inflation Over Paris’ Oldest Bridge

People walk along the Seine river next to "The Pont Neuf Cave," an inflated art installation by French street artist JR, on Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, Thursday, May 21, 2026, which will be open to the public from June 6-28. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
People walk along the Seine river next to "The Pont Neuf Cave," an inflated art installation by French street artist JR, on Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, Thursday, May 21, 2026, which will be open to the public from June 6-28. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
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French Artist Begins Giant ‘Cave’ Art Inflation Over Paris’ Oldest Bridge

People walk along the Seine river next to "The Pont Neuf Cave," an inflated art installation by French street artist JR, on Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, Thursday, May 21, 2026, which will be open to the public from June 6-28. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
People walk along the Seine river next to "The Pont Neuf Cave," an inflated art installation by French street artist JR, on Paris' oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf, Thursday, May 21, 2026, which will be open to the public from June 6-28. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

The oldest bridge in Paris has begun to vanish this week, as the artist JR — who is known as the “French Banksy” — began inflating a giant “cave” over the Pont Neuf.

The monumental, rocky illusion is swallowing the 17th-century landmark, which has carried Parisians across the Seine for more than 400 years. By Thursday, it looked as if a prehistoric cliff had risen in the heart of the city.

The inflation process, which was carried out overnight — after being delayed by bad weather — is the most dramatic stage yet of a project more than a year in the making.

One of the most ambitious public artworks Paris has seen in decades, which has been funded by the sale of JR’s work and a handful of corporate partners, does not open to the public until June 6.

“We’re about to leave something pretty incredible in the middle of Paris,” JR told The Associated Press earlier this year at his studio in the city’s east, wearing his trademark hat and shades.

The transformation of the bridge has been documented by the AP since March with time-lapse cameras, including one fixed on a rooftop terrace high above the river, watching the bridge slowly disappear day by day.

From the outside, the installation looks like a rocky mass that “literally” breaks the landscape, said JR, who is famous for pasting enormous photographs on buildings, walls and rooftops around the world. This time he wanted Parisians to do something unusual on their busiest bridge: stop.

Visitors will be able to walk for free through a long, dark tunnel that lets in no daylight and where, according to JR, people “will lose track of time.”

The numbers are startling. The structure is 120 meters (393 feet) long and 18 meters (59 feet) tall — which is as high as a six-story building.

Yet it is built almost entirely from air — 80 fabric arches filled with 20,000 cubic meters of it — and weighs only about five tons. The fabric was hand stitched by 25 artisans in a village in Brittany.

Nothing digs into the historic stone.

Cut the air and the cliff would sink like a held breath — a collapse JR’s engineers spent weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Orly airport to be sure that if the power ever failed, the rock would come down gently.

The artwork, called La Caverne du Pont Neuf, is a tribute to a Parisian artistic legend.

In 1985, artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, wrapped the same bridge in pale golden fabric — 13 kilometers of rope, a decade of arguing with city hall, three million visitors in two weeks. The act helped invent the idea of monumental art in modern cities.

A square beside the bridge now carries their names.

“It’s pretty hard to go after them,” JR said.

His idea, he said, is to bring “mineral and nature” back to the heart of the city. He is not covering the bridge but undressing it — sending the dressed stone back to the limestone quarries from which Paris itself was cut.

The cave is also a warning. JR built it as a nod to Plato’s allegory, in which prisoners mistake shadows on a wall for the real world.

“What are our caves today? Our phones,” he said. “Because we believe that our algorithm on social media is the reality.”

Then he walks straight into the contradiction: to enter his cave about screens, visitors raise their phones.

The tech company Snap has built an augmented-reality layer that shows what the eye cannot.
The sound is a low, mineral hum from Thomas Bangalter, formerly of Daft Punk — who was 10 the year Christo wrapped the bridge.

The cave will be open around the clock from June 6-28, closing the bridge to traffic and visible from the quays, from passing boats, even from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

It will coincide with Paris Fashion Week, World Music Day and the all-night Nuit Blanche arts festival.

When it comes down, the fabric will be reused or recycled. Air, JR likes to say, leaves no scar.
Then, like the golden wrapping 40 years before, the cave will be gone — and the Pont Neuf, older than the republic and older than the revolution, will reappear exactly as it was.

Culture

Winston Churchill's 'Playful' Paintings Go on Show in London

The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
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Winston Churchill's 'Playful' Paintings Go on Show in London

The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP

As Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill was known for his stirring speeches, but a new London exhibition explores another side to his creativity -- as a passionate and prolific artist.

The exhibition opening Saturday at the Wallace Collection will be the most significant display of the statesman's paintings for more than 60 years, including over 50 canvases, many of them rarely seen in public.

Churchill first tried painting during World War I after he resigned from the government over the 1915 failed Dardanelles naval attack.

This was a "very difficult time in his life" when "he suddenly finds himself with all this unwanted leisure time", Lucy Davis, co-curator of the exhibition, told AFP.

"And he discovered painting as a way of releasing the stress, the anguish that the situation had caused him."

The museum presents a chronological survey starting with his first paintings, created with advice from renowned artist John Lavery, then canvases painted in the 1920s at Chartwell, the country house where Churchill lived with his family.

Largely self-taught while associating with well-known painters, Churchill quickly became interested in landscape painting and drew inspiration from holidays in the south of France to create brightly colored canvases dominated by blues and ochre.

- 'Loved the light' -

Churchill "saw painting as a spur to travel" and "just loved the light and warmth and atmosphere, which he captures so beautifully", said Davis.

A whole room is dedicated to canvases inspired by trips to Morocco, including "The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque", the only painting that Churchill did during World War II. A gift to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the painting recently belonged to Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.

The exhibition ends with the postwar period when Churchill, defeated in a general election, began painting again and continued until his death in 1965, with some of his works going on display at the Royal Academy.

Churchill had previously shown paintings at various galleries, but always under an assumed name.

As a statesman, Churchill went down in history for his wartime leadership, but as an artist, he had little interest in depicting current world events, the curator stressed.

"He was a wartime leader. He was known for these very stirring wartime speeches. But in these paintings, you really see his joie de vivre, his witty side, his playful side."

One painting at the exhibition is an exception: "The Beach At Walmer", painted in 1938 as fears grew of imminent war.

It shows a sandy beach in southern England with bathers paddling. But in the foreground, a black cannon points at the sea, suggesting a looming threat.

Culture

Saudi Heritage Commission Discovers Abbasid-Era Gold Jewelry in Qassim

The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
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Saudi Heritage Commission Discovers Abbasid-Era Gold Jewelry in Qassim

The Saudi Heritage Commission logo
The Saudi Heritage Commission logo

Saudi Arabia’s Heritage Commission announced the discovery of a collection of Abbasid-era gold jewelry at the archaeological site of Diriyyah in Qassim Region during the fourth season of excavation and survey work.

The discovery includes 100 gold pieces adorned with floral and geometric motifs, along with architectural remains from the Abbasid period, including stone foundations, mud walls, pottery, and metal tools.

The findings indicate human settlement dating back to the late third century AH and highlight the site’s historical importance along pilgrimage and trade routes.

The discovery reflects the Heritage Commission’s ongoing efforts to document and preserve the Kingdom’s archaeological heritage, supporting cultural development goals aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.