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Art Works that Redefine Arts and Light at Noor Riyadh Festival

Saudi artist Lulwa Al-Homoud
Saudi artist Lulwa Al-Homoud
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Art Works that Redefine Arts and Light at Noor Riyadh Festival

Saudi artist Lulwa Al-Homoud
Saudi artist Lulwa Al-Homoud

Noor Riyadh festival, which is held in 13 locations in the Saudi capital, aspires to send a message of hope and promote environmental sustainability to the people of Riyadh.

Twenty-six major artists from more than 20 countries across the globe- 40 percent of them Saudis- will participate in the lighting festival on Thursday, which is scheduled to run for 17 days.

Among the names taking part in the festival are the French conceptual artist Daniel Buren and the two Russian artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Germany's Carsten Holler, as well as Yayoi Kusama and Dan Flavin will also be part of the festival.

Rashed Al-Shashai, Lulwah Al-Homoud, Ahmed Mater, Ayman Al-Zedani, Maha Malluh, Dana Awartani, Marwah Al-Mugait, Ali Al-Razza'a, Sultan bin Fahad and Talal Al-Zeid are among the Saudi names that will take part in the festival.

Additionally, the work of the late artist Muhammad Al-Salim, a pioneer in plastic art, will be on display in the exhibition.

Al-Shashai, whose artwork is known to highlight the human existence and the functions of society, told Asharq Al-Awsat about his artwork that will be on display at the festival.

"My work will be under the theme Searching for Darkness."

Al-Zedani pointed out to Asharq Al-Awsat that the festival will be a platform for global cultural exchange, making it a fertile environment for cooperation, learning and entertainment.

He explained that his work is a film under the theme "Earthseed," a three-channel installation video commissioned by the Royal Commission for Riyadh. The short film blends real science and futuristic science fiction to speak about the effects of climate change on the region.

Al-Homoud is proud of taking part in the festival alongside an array of artists from the Kingdom and the world. She indicated that working on her piece has been a new experience, as it is an interactive mobile piece that allows viewers to exist in a world of lines and abstract shapes whose movement resembles that of the universe. An animation displayed on a circular screen, the idea is based on language and the relationship between the finite and the infinite, as it starts from a single point and moves to meanings and ideas without limits.

Malluh submitted a series or group of photographs, "Capturing Light", and she tells Asharq Al-Awsat: "Since I started working with traditional black and white photography, and over the years, I became very interested in the relationship between light and shadow, and the lack of possibilities and places in my city. I built a darkroom for development in order to develop and print my own photos. For me, it was the only way to control both the quality and content, which are the most important qualities in the production of fine art. My fascination with photography grew and developed through my interest in combining collage and photography."

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Varieties

Gabon Forest Elephant Forays Into Villages Spark Ire

(FILES) Forest elephants are seen at Langoue Bai in the Ivindo national park, on April 26, 2019 near Makokou. (Photo by Amaury HAUCHARD / AFP)
(FILES) Forest elephants are seen at Langoue Bai in the Ivindo national park, on April 26, 2019 near Makokou. (Photo by Amaury HAUCHARD / AFP)
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Gabon Forest Elephant Forays Into Villages Spark Ire

(FILES) Forest elephants are seen at Langoue Bai in the Ivindo national park, on April 26, 2019 near Makokou. (Photo by Amaury HAUCHARD / AFP)
(FILES) Forest elephants are seen at Langoue Bai in the Ivindo national park, on April 26, 2019 near Makokou. (Photo by Amaury HAUCHARD / AFP)

In heavily forested Gabon, elephants are increasingly wandering into villages and destroying crops, angering the local population who demand the power to stop the critically endangered animals in their tracks.

"The solution to get rid of the pachyderms is to kill them," said Kevin Balondoboka, who lives in Bakoussou, a mere scattering of wooden huts in the sprawling, lush forest.

Villagers across the central African country live in fear of close encounters with elephants, whether on the road, going to wash in the river or especially in fields where they grow their crops.

Strict conservation policies have made Gabon "the refuge of forest elephants", Lea-Larissa Moukagni, who heads the human-wildlife conflict program at the National Agency of National Parks (ANPN) said, according to AFP.

African forest elephants, which inhabit the dense rainforests of west and central Africa, are smaller than their African savanna elephant cousins.

Poaching for ivory and loss of habitat have led to a decline over decades in their numbers and conservation groups now list the African forest elephant as critically endangered.

But that does not stop villagers from viewing the animals as a pervasive problem.

With a population of 95,000 elephants compared to two million inhabitants, the issue is a "real" one, said Aime Serge Mibambani Ndimba, a senior official in the ministry of the environment, climate and -- recently added -- human-wildlife conflict.

- 'Protecting humans or animals?' -

"What are the men in government protecting? Human being or beast?" Mathias Mapiyo, another Bakoussou resident, asked, exasperatedly.

"I don't know what the elephant brings them," he said.

Some worry their livelihoods will be stamped out.

"We provide for our children's needs through agriculture," Viviane Metolo, from the same village, said.

"Now that this agriculture is to benefit the elephant, what will become of us?"

William Moukandja, the head of a special forest brigade, has grown used to the anti-elephant complaints.

"The human-wildlife conflict is now permanent, we find it across the country, where we are seeing devastation from north to south and from east to west," he said.

Moukagni, from the national parks agency, said people's perception that there are more elephants than before was borne out by the figures.

"It is scientifically proven," she said -- but what has changed is that the elephants no longer shy away from villages and even towns.

To protect crops, the agency has experimented with electric fences, not to kill but to "psychologically impact the animal" and repel it.

Experts have looked into why the "Loxodonta cyclotis" -- the African forest elephant's scientific name -- is venturing out from the depths of the forest.

Climate change is affecting the plants and food available to the animals, Moukagni said.

But humans working the land that is the animals' natural habitat is another factor, while poaching deep in the forest also scatters herds, she said.

- 'Responsibility' -

The population of the African forest elephant plummeted 86 percent over 30 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which has placed it on its red list of threatened species.

While they are still a long way from extinction in Gabon, Moukagni said the country had a dual responsibility "to keep this species alive for the world and for the sustainability of forests".

Last December, just three months after seizing power in a military coup, transitional President Brice Oligui Nguema publicly sided with "victims of human-wildlife conflict", in a shift from the conservation priorities of the previous government.

"I authorise you to kill these elephants... I am a humanist," he told the crowd to applause, also announcing he had asked for "all those jailed for killing elephants to be released without delay and conditions".

Jeremy Mapangou, a lawyer with the NGO Conservation Justice, said the message to the people was "strong" but added: "When the president said 'shoot them', he was referring to self-defence."

Hunting and catching elephants in Gabon is banned and carries a jail term. Ivory trafficking is also severely punished.

But in cases of self-defense, the killing of an elephant is permitted under certain conditions.

The weapon must comply with the law, the relevant administration must be informed, a report written and the ivory handed over as "state property".

Other measures permit the worst-affected communities to file a complaint and request "administrative hunting" to remove the four-legged troublemakers.

"But how can you file a complaint against an elephant?" Marc Ngondet, Bakoussou village chief, asked.

Mibambani Ndimba, wildlife management chief in the environment ministry, stressed that "the protection of elephants remains a priority".

Known as the "forest gardener", the mammals play a crucial role in the biodiversity and ecosystem of the forests of the Congo Basin, which has the second-biggest carbon absorption capacity in the world after the Amazon.

"We must provide help to Gabon so that we do not get to situations where the population rises up and wants to take justice into its own hands," Mibambani Ndimba said.

Otherwise, "elephant heads will roll".