CONTINUUM '26 Puts a New Generation of Media Artists in the Spotlight in Diriyah

Virtual reality, artificial intelligence and a great deal of feeling.

The second edition of CONTINUUM has just opened at Diriyah Art Futures in Riyadh, and if you want to take the pulse of new media art in the MENA region right now, this is the place to do it. On view until 7 November 2026, the exhibition brings together work by 16 emerging artists who have spent the past year in the centre's Emerging New Media Artists Programme, alongside work by their two mentors.

First, a little context. Diriyah Art Futures opened on 11 December 2024 in Diriyah, home to At-Turaif, the UNESCO World Heritage site that was the first capital of the Saudi dynasty, and describes itself as the first centre for new media arts in the Middle East and North Africa. Operated by Saudi Arabia's Museums Commission, the 12,000 square metre complex was designed by Schiattarella Associati. Its inaugural exhibition, Art Must Be Artificial: Perspectives of AI in the Visual Arts, curated by Jérôme Neutres, set the tone for what has become a laboratory for art, science and technology.

The engine room is the Emerging New Media Artists Programme, developed with Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains in France. Over a year, artists aged 35 or under receive access to professional equipment, a production budget and personal mentorship from established international digital artists, with training in everything from coding and sensing to machine learning and spatial audio-visual environments. CONTINUUM is where the results go on show.

This year's cohort is proudly international, but our region is out in force. Saudi artists Fai Ahmed and Njood Albawardi, Kuwaiti artist Badria Alsalem, Egyptian artists Omar Adel, Mena El Shazly and Dina Khalil, and Yemeni artist Ezzat Shdad show alongside peers from Hong Kong, India, Uganda, Russia, Mexico, China and the United Kingdom. The mentors, Canadian artist Louis-Philippe Demers and South African artist Rick Treweek, present Radiant Bodies and Ghost Out The Shell respectively. The exhibition is curated by Irini Papadimitriou, with Bushra Alghamdi as assistant curator.

The works are organised around four ideas: memory, systems of power, body and perception, and repetition and collective experience. Expect immersive installations, light and sound, moving image, virtual and mixed reality, and projects generated with artificial intelligence. Notably, Albawardi's This is All a Big Test, an installation about our relationship with automation, reminds us that every layer of our technological landscape is, in the words of the exhibition text quoted by Arab News, "an accumulation of deliberate human choices". Meanwhile Shdad's Does the Sea Die?, a film-based installation set in Aden, explores grief and loss in "the fragile space between holding on and letting go", which feels especially poignant coming from a Yemeni artist.

"Programs like the Emerging New Media Artists Program represent the long-term, deliberate investment needed to shape the future of the Kingdom's museum sector," said Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Hammad, CEO of the Museums Commission, in comments reported by Arab News as the exhibition opened.

Perhaps what is most significant here is the model. Rather than importing blockbuster digital spectacle, Diriyah Art Futures is paying young artists from our region to experiment, fail and make ambitious work with serious kit, and then giving that work a proper museum platform. Encouragingly, the pipeline keeps flowing: a third cycle of the programme, with an open call that closed in May, is due to begin in October 2026.

We can't wait to see where this cohort goes next.

CONTINUUM '26 is on view at Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, until 7 November 2026.

References

Arab News, "Diriyah Art Futures opens second edition of 'CONTINUUM' exhibition", https://www.arabnews.com/art-culture/diriyah-art-futures-opens-second-edition-of-continuum-exhibition-3000469

Arab News, "Highlights from the art exhibition 'Continuum '26'", https://www.arabnews.com/art-culture/highlights-from-the-art-exhibition-continuum-26-3002137

Asharq Al-Awsat, "Diriyah Art Futures Opens Second Edition of 'CONTINUUM' Exhibition", https://english.aawsat.com/culture/5314534-diriyah-art-futures-opens-second-edition-continuum-exhibition

KSA ART, "CONTINUUM '26 Opens in Riyadh With a New Generation of New Media Artists", https://www.ksaart.com/continuum-26-opens-in-riyadh-with-a-new-generation-of-new-media-artists/

Ocula, "New Media Arts Hub Diriyah Art Futures Opens in Saudi Arabia", https://ocula.com/magazine/art-news/diriyah-art-futures-opens-in-saudi-arabia/

Saudi Press Agency, "Diriyah Art Futures Announces Open Call for Third Emerging New Media Artists Programme", https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/N2560260

UNESCO World Heritage Centre, "At-Turaif District in ad-Dir'iyah", https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1329