‘Between Two Cultures’: Contemporary Art Context for Historical Diversity between Saudi Arabia, Yemen

The exhibition highlights the similarities and differences between Saudi culture and other cultures (Saudi Culture Ministry)
The exhibition highlights the similarities and differences between Saudi culture and other cultures (Saudi Culture Ministry)
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‘Between Two Cultures’: Contemporary Art Context for Historical Diversity between Saudi Arabia, Yemen

The exhibition highlights the similarities and differences between Saudi culture and other cultures (Saudi Culture Ministry)
The exhibition highlights the similarities and differences between Saudi culture and other cultures (Saudi Culture Ministry)

Riyadh is hosting a unique art exhibition that sheds light on both the similarities and differences between Saudi Arabian culture and other cultures.

In its first round, the exhibition will place special emphasis on Yemen and its close ties to Saudi culture, showcasing areas such as fashion, visual arts, architecture, design, and culinary arts.

Organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the “Between Two Cultures” display will delve into the exploration and presentation of diverse cultures.

The concept of intersectionality is manifested in the intricacies of the exhibition, where human experiences converge in shared fields that reflect human awareness of oneself and one’s surroundings amid responses to challenges.

This perspective extends to life, encompassing realms such as music, fashion, arts, and folk games, all of which serve as icons of human expression.

The exhibition zeroes in on the culture of Yemen, highlighting its connection with Saudi Arabian culture.

It delves into various aspects like fashion, visual arts, architecture, design, and culinary arts, aiming to enhance cultural exchange and collaboration between the Kingdom and Yemen.

Designed based on the concept of intersectionality, the exhibition guides visitors towards boundlessness, displaying cultural exchanges at these intersections through two fundamental concepts.

The first concept is clarity, which illuminates the facets of resemblance, divergence, and shared elements. The second is transparency, symbolizing the openness between cultures.

The exhibition’s immersive experience promises an enriching exploration for visitors, beginning with the entrance where intersecting geometric forms embody the foundational creative essence of the show.

Attendees will encounter a captivating array of images and dynamic visuals that vividly illustrate the shared aspects between Saudi and Yemeni cultures.

A heartfelt resonance is evoked through a backdrop of music from both Saudi and Yemeni traditions, enhancing the overall inspirational ambiance.



Lebanese 'Orphaned of Their Land' as Israel Blows up Homes

Aita al-Shaab is just one south Lebanon village where homes have been demolished - AFP
Aita al-Shaab is just one south Lebanon village where homes have been demolished - AFP
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Lebanese 'Orphaned of Their Land' as Israel Blows up Homes

Aita al-Shaab is just one south Lebanon village where homes have been demolished - AFP
Aita al-Shaab is just one south Lebanon village where homes have been demolished - AFP

The news came by video. Law professor Ali Mourad discovered that Israel had dynamited his family's south Lebanon home only after footage of the operation was sent to his phone.

"A friend from the village sent me the video, telling me to make sure my dad doesn't see it," Mourad, 43, told AFP.

"But when he got the news, he stayed strong."

Mourad's home in Aitroun village, less than a kilometre from the border, is seen crumpling in a cloud of grey dust.

His father, an 83-year-old paediatrician, had his medical practice in the building. He had lived there with his family since shortly after Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon ended in 2000.

The family fled the region again after the Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on September 23 after a year of cross-border fire that began with the Gaza war.

South Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, has since been pummelled by Israeli strikes.

Hezbollah says it is battling Israeli forces at close range in border villages after a ground invasion began last month.

For the first 20 years of his life, Mourad could not step foot in Aitroun because of the Israeli occupation.

He wants his two children to have "a connection to their land", but fears the war could upend any remaining ties.

"I fear my children will be orphaned of their land, as I was in the past," he said.

"Returning is my right, a duty in my ancestors' memory, and for the future of my children."

- 'Die a second time' -

According to Lebanon's official National News Agency, Israeli troops dynamited buildings in at least seven border villages last month.

Israel's Channel 12 broadcast footage appearing to show one of its presenters blow up a building while embedded with soldiers in the village of Aita al-Shaab.

On October 26, the NNA said Israel "blew up and destroyed houses... in the village of Odaisseh".

That day, Israel's military said 400 tonnes of explosives detonated in a Hezbollah tunnel, which it said was more than 1.5 kilometres (around a mile) long.

It is in Odaisseh that Lubnan Baalbaki fears he may have lost the mausoleum where his mother and father, the late painter Abdel-Hamid Baalbaki, are buried.

Their tomb is in the garden of their home, which was levelled in the blasts.

Baalbaki, 43, bought satellite images to keep an eye on the house which had been designed by his father, in polished white stone and clay tiles.

But videos circulating online later showed it had been blown up.

Lubnan has not yet found out whether the mausoleum was also damaged, adding that this was his "greatest fear".

It would be like his parents "dying for a second time", he said.

His Odaisseh home had a 2,000-book library and around 20 original artworks, including paintings by his father, he said.

His father had spent his life savings from his job as a university professor to build the home.

The family had preserved "his desk, his palettes, his brushes, just as he left them before he died", Baalbaki told AFP.

A painting he had been working on was still on an easel.

Losing the house filled him with "so much sadness" because "it was a project we'd grown up with since childhood that greatly influenced us, pushing us to embrace art and the love of beauty".

- 'War crime' -

Lebanon's National Human Rights Commission has said "the ongoing destruction campaign carried out by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon is a war crime".

Between October 2023 and October 2024, locations "were wantonly and systematically destroyed in at least eight Lebanese villages", it said, basing its findings on satellite images and videos shared on social media by Israeli soldiers.

Israel's military used "air strikes, bulldozers, and manually controlled explosions" to level entire neighbourhoods -- homes, schools, mosques, churches, shrines, and archaeological sites, the commission said.

Lebanese rights group Legal Agenda said blasts in Mhaibib "destroyed the bulk" of the hilltop village, "including at least 92 buildings of civilian homes and facilities".

"You can't blow up an entire village because you have a military target," said Hussein Chaabane, an investigative journalist with the group.

International law "prohibits attacking civilian objects", he said.

Should civilian objects be targeted, "the principle of proportionality should be respected, and here it is being violated".