Hector Zamora, “Tar HyPar” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Nearly 700 miles from the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh lies AlUla, a lush oasis valley enshrined by towering sandstone mountains. The desert region has long drawn visitors to its ancient cultural sites, ranging from a labyrinth of 12th-century mudbrick homes to Dadan, one of the Arabian Peninsula’s most developed first-millennium BCE cities. This month, though, AlUla offers yet another attraction: Desert X.
Now in its fourth edition, Desert X AlUla once again gathers an innovative assortment of site-specific installations. Scattered across the sand are monumental works by Saudi and international artists alike, each of which responds to the 2026 theme “space without measure.” This guiding framework translates into immersive pieces that contend with history, memory, and imagination, all while critically responding to the surrounding landscape.
“For this edition of Desert X AlUla, artists have engaged with its valleys and historic routes to create works that honour its landscape while opening new spaces for imagination,” Wejdan Reda, co-curator of the 2026 exhibition, said in a statement. “Each commission invites visitors to discover AlUla through fresh perspectives and moments of reflection shaped by its land, light, and history.”
To engage with AlUla’s vast canyons, dramatic vistas, and rugged rock faces is also to reflect upon the area’s material culture. It should come as no surprise, then, that materiality and sustainability figure strongly within this year’s exhibition, seeing artists incorporate rammed earth techniques, wood and stone carving, botany, and other organic imagery. Agnes Denes, for instance, presents The Living Pyramid, a plant-filled installation blooming with local species. Its earthy color palette seamlessly blends in with the sand around it, while its pyramidal silhouette transports us back in time and reminds us of ancient structures. Basmah Felemban also experiments with sculptural forms, all of which are rooted in Islamic geometry. Murmur of Pebbles, originally commissioned for the exhibition’s 2024 edition and now revised, captures this impulse beautifully, its geological surface mimicking the ancient rivers that shaped AlUla’s desert.
Other artists play more directly with AlUla’s landscape. Mohammad Alfaraj offers an intricate piece of land art titled What Was the Question Again?, which is composed of concentric circles carved into the sand. In the center is a palm tree made from several grafted trunks, suggesting that everything in nature originates from this single entity. Tarek Atoui’s The Water Song, on the other hand, explores archaeology and discovery, featuring half-excavated instruments that gently peek out from the earth below.
“Desert X AlUla is such an expansive context for artists’ ideas to be realized,” co-curator Zoé Whitley added. “A stone’s throw from a UNESCO World Heritage site, vast history meets the contemporary moment. It’s been a remarkable collaborative process to see how the artworks were each conceived, inspired by and in harmony with the surrounding landscape.”
Alongside AlUla, Desert X also stages exhibitions in California’s Coachella Valley. The 2025 edition considered the vital, and at times fraught, relationship between nature and humanity, confronting the “immaterial” and “nonlinear” narratives of desert landscapes. Desert X will return to Coachella Valley in 2027, marking the organization’s 10th anniversary.
“In its first ten years, Desert X became a living experiment in how art can shape our understanding of place,” Jenny Gil, executive director of Desert X, remarked. “The next decade is about deepening that work—rethinking how we collaborate, how we share space, and how we make art an intrinsic part of the public imagination.”
Desert X AlUla will be on view through February 28, 2026. To learn more and plan your own visit, check out the Desert X website.
For this year’s Desert X AlUla, held in Saudi Arabia, a lush oasis valley has become home to 11 installations that explore their surrounding landscape.
Agnes Denes, “The Living Pyramid” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Works by Mohammed Al Saleem throughout Desert X AlUla (On loan courtesy of Riyadh Art collection and the Royal Commission for Riyadh City)
Mohammad AlFaraj, “What Was the Question Again?,” detail (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Mohammad AlFaraj, “What Was the Question Again?” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Vibha Galhotra, “Future Fables,” detail (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Vibha Galhotra, “Future Fables” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Basmah Felemban, “Murmur of Pebbles” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
The fourth edition of Desert X AlUla will be open through February 28, 2026.
Sara Abdu, “A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Ibrahim El-Salahi, “Haraza Tree” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Bahraini-Danish, “Bloom” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Tarek Atoui, “The Water Song,” detail (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Tarek Atoui, “The Water Song” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, “Imole Red” (Photo: Lance Gerber)
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, “Imole Red,” detail (Photo: Lance Gerber)
