"Noor Riyadh 2025 brought large-scale light installations to public sites across the Saudi Arabian capital, temporarily transforming transit hubs, historic districts, and significant landmarks into illuminated urban environments. From November 20 to December 6, 2025, Riyadh became a citywide gallery of light, motion, and shifting perception. The festival's fifth edition featured 60 artworks by 59 artists from 24 countries, including more than 35 new commissions, responding to the theme "In the Blink of an Eye.""
"The program embeds creativity within everyday life by placing artworks in parks, squares, transit hubs, and public areas, supporting a cultural transformation that is reshaping the city socially, spatially, and economically. Noor Riyadh demonstrates this mission at an urban scale, turning the city itself into a living canvas for several weeks each year. Since its launch, Riyadh Art has presented over 500 artworks and welcomed more than 6 million visitors, establishing the capital as a hub for contemporary art and public engagement."
"The 2025 theme, "In the Blink of an Eye," reflects the speed at which Riyadh is evolving. The curators shaped a program that bridges the city's historic core with its emerging infrastructure, including the new metro network, reflecting a city that is always in motion. Many installations invited visitors to slow down and focus on subtle shifts in light, rhythm, and atmosphere. Light functioned not only as material but also as a tool to explore time, memory, and the relationship between built form and perception."
Noor Riyadh 2025 activated public sites across Riyadh from November 20 to December 6, 2025, with large-scale light installations that temporarily transformed transit hubs, historic districts, and landmarks into illuminated urban environments. The fifth edition presented 60 artworks by 59 artists from 24 countries, including more than 35 new commissions, under the theme "In the Blink of an Eye." The program continued Riyadh Art's public-art initiative launched by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City in 2019 as part of Vision 2030, embedding creativity in parks, squares, transit hubs and public areas while contributing to social, spatial, and economic cultural transformation.
Read at ArchDaily
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