Desert X AlUla 2026 returns to northwest Saudi Arabia with a fourth edition that scatters contemporary art across within the valleys, canyons, and oases of AlUla. Presented by Arts AlUla in collaboration with Desert X, the exhibition runs from January 16th to February 28th, 2026 as part of the AlUla Arts Festival. It brings new site-responsive sculptural commissions into conversation with the scenic desert.

The curatorial theme, Space Without Measure, shapes an edition that attends closely to scale, distance, and perception across a vast landscape. Works are positioned across Wadi AlFann and the surrounding oasis zones, where shifts in light and wind are a part of the experience. Desert X AlUla 2026 approaches the site as an active participant, asking visitors to move slowly and read materials in relation to desert and sky.

Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

site-responsive artworks scatter across the desert

Sustainable production methods inform Desert X AlUla 2026 at every level. Rammed earth, carved stone, and locally sourced wood appear across multiple projects, produced in Saudi Arabia through collaborations with regional artisans and cultural centers.

Partnerships with the locally-based arts and design center Madrasat Addeera and the AlUla Music Hub extend this emphasis on local knowledge, while consultation with the AlUla Native Plant Nursery guides the integration of plantlife into the ‘oasis’ environment.

The exhibition is co-curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with artistic direction led by Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi. Their approach favors works that respond to specific conditions of AlUla, from ancient water routes to cultivated palm groves.

Bahraini-Danish, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

eleven participating artists for 2026

Among the Saudi artists participating in Desert X AlUla 2026, Budapest-born artist Agnes Denes contributes The Living Pyramid, a planted structure situated within the oasis. Continuing a project developed across multiple geographies, the work emphasizes cycles of growth and regeneration through its changing surface. 

Sound plays a central role in several commissions. The collective practice Bahraini-Danish introduces Bloom, a kinetic sculpture animated by sunlight and shadow. Its rotating elements register the passage of time across the day, producing a shifting visual rhythm that aligns with the desert’s cycles. Participation remains gentle and open-ended, inviting viewers to linger rather than perform.

Basmah Felemban’s Murmur of Pebbles enlarges geological fragments into carved limestone forms. Installed along pathways shaped by ancient rivers, the work draws attention to sediment, erosion, and time embedded within stone. Originally commissioned for a previous edition, the installation returns with renewed emphasis on scale and spacing under the current curatorial framework.

Basmah Felemban, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

In a nearby valley, Héctor Zamora’s Tar HyPar introduces percussion-inspired forms that respond to collective movement. Visitors activate the installation through sound, producing a low, resonant energy that travels across open ground.

Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Haraza Tree responds to acacia species found across the region, translating their resilience into sculptural forms that gather individually while standing as a unified artwork.

Mohammad Alfaraj contributes What was the Question Again?, a living installation centered on a palm structure assembled from grafted trunks. Referencing the agricultural landscapes of Al Ahsa, the piece reflects long-standing relationships between cultivation, storytelling, and renewal.

Héctor Zamora, Tar HyPar, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu presents A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance, a sculptural installation formed through layered rammed earth walls. Poetry and geology intersect within its surfaces, drawing attention to construction techniques shared across cultures and eras. The work reads through touch and proximity, its mass tempered by subtle shifts in tone and texture.

Future Fables by Vibha Galhotra encloses fragments of demolished buildings within a steel framework. The structure shelters traces of recent change, transforming debris into a place for reflection and shared narratives.

Several works in Desert X AlUla 2026 engage directly with ecological systems. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons shows Imole Red, an installation inspired by AlUla’s sunsets and Yoruba spiritual traditions. Color and planting combine within a garden-like structure that acknowledges water as a sustaining presence within the valley. The work carries a sense of continuity between land, ritual, and care.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui presents The Water Song, continuing his research into listening practices initiated during the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. Instruments emerge partially from the ground, encouraging visitors to attune to subtle vibrations carried through soil and air. The landscape becomes an acoustic field shaped by movement and attention.

Nearby, rare sculptural works by the late Mohammed AlSaleem appear for the first time, including The Thorn and AlShuruf Unit. Created during the 1980s, these geometric forms extend upward with a measured sense of aspiration, shaped by desert horizons and celestial reference points.

Mohammad AlFaraj, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Vibha Galhotra, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Tarek Atoui, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

works by Mohammed Al Saleem throughout the exhibition are on loan courtesy of Riyadh Art collection, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City

project info:

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

on view: January 16th to February 28th, 2026

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

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Artist Kapwani Kiwanga presents Plotting Rest, installed at Desert X 2025 in California’s Coachella Valley, as both an architectural echo and an historic whisper. Set against the jagged mountains north of the Palm Springs Visitor Center at Tramway Road, the sculpture gestures toward shelter without ever quite providing it. A geometric canopy of interlocking triangles floats overhead. It forms a porous roof that offers no escape from the sunlight, wind, and dust, but instead opens viewers up to them while casting shifting shadows on the desert floor below. It’s a structure that speaks of Palm Springs’ iconic modernism and its promises of protection, yet delivers only the illusion of safety.

In this minimalist pavilion, Kapwani Kiwanga weaves the legacy of the Underground Railroad into the fabric of Desert X. The roof pattern, drawn from the ‘flying geese’ quilting motif, transforms into a cipher of survival. Historically, these quilts served as covert navigation tools — hung from porches and lines, their patterns silently signaling safe passage north for enslaved people seeking freedom. In this context, Kiwanga’s sculpture is a rest stop in a speculative journey, a place to pause and reflect amidst the harsh and historically fraught landscape. Desert X 2025 will be on view in the Coachella Valley until May 11th, 2025 — see designboom’s coverage here.

images © Lance Gerber

kapwani kiwanga critiques midcentury desert architecture

Kapwani Kiwanga’s work for Desert X 2025 is built on the push and pull between endurance and fragility. Columns made from imported stone and local palm fronds support the overhead lattice, emphasizing contrasts — what is transported and what is native, what stands firm and what yields. The piece offers a counterpoint to the polished optimism of midcentury desert architecture, revealing the darker subtext of exclusion that accompanied its aesthetics. Beneath the clean lines and open spaces were legal and social structures that barred access to safety and ownership for many. Kiwanga’s sculpture surfaces this complexity with quiet power.

With Plotting Rest, the artist contributes to Desert X’s ongoing interrogation of land, time, and migration. Her work reminds visitors that the desert has always been a place of movement — for pioneers, migrants, and those forced to flee. While Manifest Destiny expanded the nation westward, others were moving northward under duress, chasing an uncertain freedom. Kiwanga’s sculpture captures this tension: the dream of a better life etched into a place where shelter is both symbol and mirage.

Kapwani Kiwanga’s Plotting Rest is installed in the desert north of Palm Springs for Desert X 2025

the Landscape of Desert X 2025

Kapwani Kiwanga’s installation is one of eleven new commissions in Desert X 2025, a biennial that turns the vast and remote landscape into a sprawling exhibition of site-responsive public art. Other notable works include To Breathe — Coachella Valley by Kimsooja, which uses light and diffraction to explore invisibility and perception, and Adobe Oasis by Ronald Rael, a speculative habitat that merges ancestral building methods with environmental resilience. Together, these pieces introduce a dialogue with the desert’s past and future, reflecting themes of Indigenous futurism, climate resistance, and the porous boundaries between the built and natural world.

the open lattice roof references Palm Springs design while offering no real shelter

the sculpture acts as a symbolic rest stop for those on imagined journeys toward freedom

Kiwanga uses the ‘flying geese’ quilt motif as a symbol of covert navigation during the Underground Railroad

materials like imported stone and local palm fronds emphasize contrasts between permanence and fragility

Plotting Rest critiques the exclusionary history behind midcentury desert architecture

the work evokes historical patterns of migration and displacement across the American landscape

project info:

name: Plotting Rest

artist: Kapwani Kiwanga

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: Coachella Valley, California

dates: March 8th — May 11th, 2025

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

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For Desert X 2025, Kimsooja transforms the landscape into a luminous mirage with To Breathe – Coachella Valley, an iridescent glass installation that interacts with the surroundings. Located along Pierson Boulevard in Desert Hot Springs, the work is wrapped in a diffraction film that refracts natural light into a shifting spectrum of colors, immersing visitors in an ephemeral experience of light, air, and space.

Expanding on the artist’s exploration of bottari—traditional Korean fabric bundles used for carrying belongings—the spiraling piece also forms a connection with AlUla, Saudi Arabia, where another of her light-based works is located (find designboom’s previous coverage here), uniting the two arid regions.

Desert X 2025 installation view of Kimsooja, To Breathe – Coachella Valley | all images by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X

to breathe – coachella valley connects landscapes

Throughout her multidisciplinary practice, conceptual artist Kimsooja examines themes of movement, materiality, and interconnectedness. The transparent, textile-like film covering To Breathe – Coachella Valley features a grid of vertical and horizontal scratch lines, akin to warp and weft, which dissolve the boundaries between structure and environment. As the desert sun moves across the sky, the installation becomes a living canvas, continuously transforming in response to shifting light.

The work also forms a conceptual bridge between two distant landscapes: the Californian desert and AlUla, Saudi Arabia, where another of Kimsooja’s light-based installations is situated. This dialogue between sites reflects her ongoing engagement with the universality of natural elements—air, light, and land—while subtly referencing the Light and Space movement’s historical roots in the American West. Infused with philosophies from Chinese Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, the piece incorporates an East Asian perspective into the lineage of site-specific light-based art.

Kimsooja transforms the vast expanse of Coachella Valley into a luminous mirage

‘To Breathe – Coachella Valley’ is an iridescent glass installation that interacts with the landscape

the work is wrapped in a diffraction film that refracts natural light into a shifting spectrum of colors

immersing visitors in an ephemeral experience of light, air, and space

Kimsooja examines themes of movement, materiality, and interconnectedness

the spiraling piece also forms a connection with AlUla, where another of her light-based works is located

the film covering To Breathe – Coachella Valley features a grid of vertical and horizontal scratch lines

dissolving the boundaries between structure and environment

as the desert sun moves across the sky, the installation becomes a living canvas

continuously transforming in response to shifting light

infused with philosophies from Chinese Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism

at dusk, the installation reflects the desert landscape

the glass acts as a filter, altering the appearance of the surroundings when viewed through it

To Breathe – Coachella Valley is located along Pierson Boulevard in Desert Hot Springs

project info:

name: To Breathe – Coachella Valley

artist: Kimsooja | @studiokimsooja

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: Coachella Valley, California

dates: March 8th – May 11th, 2025

supported by: Ed Campanaro and Alan Weisberg, Ron Florance, Marcy and Harry Harczak, the Posner Foundation, Janelle Reiring, Melissa and John Russo, Roswitha Smale, and Richard H. Wood

photographer: Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post kimsooja floods coachella valley in iridescent light with glass installation at desert X appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Ronald Rael’s Adobe Oasis rises from California’s Coachella Valley as a cluster of ribbed, earthen passageways that bridge indigenous construction practices with digital fabrication. Created for Desert X, the installation reinterprets the mud-building traditions of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, a historic borderland between the U.S. and Mexico before 1848, through the precision of 3D printing. Layered in rhythmic ribbons of red adobe, the walls mimic the texture of the surrounding palm trunks, anchoring the work in both its landscape and architectural heritage aligned with the 2025 exhibition’s call for interventions that reimagine the desert as a site of memory, transformation, and resistance.

With this work, equal parts land art and architectural experiment, the US-based artist and architect further challenges industrial construction’s reliance on carbon-heavy materials like concrete and steel. By revitalizing ancestral knowledge and harnessing adobe’s natural insulating properties, non-toxicity, and fire resistance — qualities refined by various civilizations over centuries — Rael proposes a return to a more sustainable built environment shaped from the land.

all images by Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X

ronald rael’s adobe oasis envisions sustainable construction

‘I envisioned about 16 years ago, a future of earthen construction that involved 3D printing,’ Ronald Rael reflects, describing his ongoing exploration of how ancient, low-impact materials can be revised as an ecological imperative in the face of the climate crisis. For the artist, working with the robotic printer is a ‘delicate dance’ — one where he remains in constant dialogue with the mud, adjusting and responding as the structure takes shape. The process is sensory and tactile, and deeply connected to place, he says, with the scent, texture, and malleability of the material all becoming tools in bridging the past with the future.

‘We naturally have a visceral connection to earthen structures. We feel them and we understand them because we evolved to build them,’ he continues. As such, the work continues to position earth as both an ancient and radically contemporary material, using robotic programming to advance an evolution of a construction method that has shaped human settlements for over 10,000 years. From the mudbrick ziggurats of Mesopotamia to the rammed-earth mosques of Mali and the vaulted homes of Nubia, civilizations have continuously refined adobe architecture to suit their environments. In the 20th century, architects like Hassan Fathy solidified its potential, demonstrating its viability for low-cost, climate-responsive housing. Rael builds on these histories as an evolution with a focus on engagement and tactility, integrating 3D printing to refine the labor-intensive nature of earthen construction while maintaining its adaptability to site and climate.

Ronald Rael completes Adobe Oasis

a cluster of ribbed, earthen passageways that bridge indigenous construction practices with digital fabrication

located in California’s Coachella Valley for Desert X 2025

3D printed in rhythmic ribbons of red adobe

the work is grounded in both its landscape and architectural heritage

the walls mimic the texture of the surrounding palm trunks

for Rael working with the robotic printer is a ‘delicate dance’ where he remains in constant dialogue with the mud

using robotic programming to reimagine an evolution of an ancient construction method

Adobe Oasis is equal parts land art and architectural experiment

project info:

name: Adobe Oasis

artist: Ronald Rael | @rrael

location: Coachella Valley, California

event: Desert X | @_desertx

on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025

photographer: Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post ronald rael 3D-prints cluster of earthen walls for ‘adobe oasis’ in coachella valley at desert X appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edition of Desert X transforms the desert into a living conversation between art, land, and time. Through eleven newly commissioned installations, artists from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. The artworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while speculating on its future, addressing themes of Indigenous futurism, design activism, and the imprint of human intervention.

Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asserting a presence in the shifting terrain, while others embrace the ephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of flux. In a region where wilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge perceptions of permanence, inviting visitors to reconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transformation, and resistance. The works will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025

Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber

monumental artworks draw from ancestral wisdom

From Sanford Biggers’ explorations of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ meditations on ecological stewardship, each installation for Desert X 2025 offers a distinct lens on the complexities of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alternative ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael Hefti, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shifting boundaries between technology and nature.

At once speculative and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across time — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interrogating the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelerating impact of emerging technologies. In its fifth iteration, Desert X continues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reflects, reframes, and reimagines our relationship with the world we inhabit.

Kimsooja, To Breathe — Coachella Valley, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

To Breathe — Coachella Valley is an installation by artist Kimsooja that invites viewers to engage with the elemental qualities of the desert — the sensation of sand beneath their feet, the movement of air, and the ever-shifting play of light. Known for her use of bottaris — bundles wrapped in fabric that speak to themes of migration and memory in Korean culture — the artist describes this work as a ‘bottari of light.’ By enveloping the glass structure in a specially engineered optical film, she transforms the architecture into a luminous prism, shifting with the sun and surroundings. Installed in Desert Hot Springs, the piece echoes its sister installation in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and time through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialectics, the artist establishes a relationship between absence and presence, migration, and transformation.

As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibilities, appearing as if splintered across time and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — inviting reflection on human transience within an expansive and shifting landscape.

Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installation that merges analog and digital technologies to explore perception and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the artist‘s work harnesses ‘caustics’ — light patterns formed by refraction and reflection — projecting sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape.

Inspired by ancient timekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installation features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poetic phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shifting projections, illusions, and patterns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse.

Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Kapwani Kiwanga’s Plotting Rest stands as a pavilion-like structure that both evokes and challenges the iconic design language of Palm Springs. Suggesting refuge while offering none, the sculpture features a canopy of interlocking triangular forms that form a delicate lattice overhead. This open roof lets sun, wind, and rain filter through, casting shifting geometric shadows on the earth below. Drawing from the traditional ‘flying geese’ quilting motif — historically linked to the covert codes of the Underground Railroad — the artist imbues the piece with layers of meaning. Located near the Palm Springs Visitor Center, Plotting Rest becomes a site for reflection and quiet resilience, evoking the hopes and hardships of those who’ve migrated in search of freedom across generations.

Kapwani Kiwanga, Plotting Rest, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstration of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installation reimagines the potential of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innovative 3D-printing process.

Drawing inspiration from Indigenous and earthen construction traditions, the artist’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alternative to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s affordability, energy efficiency, and resilience. 

Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transformation, and interconnection.

Reflecting sunlight and shifting with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narratives. Rooted in the artist’s broader practice of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed after the displacement of residents from Section 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a meditation on freedom and a symbol of resilience.

Alison Saar, Soul Service Station, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Station’ is a desert resting place that offers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas stations of the American West, the artist’s station brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protection.

Inside, an assemblage of devotional objects and furnishings crafted from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transformative practice with community collaboration, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harryette Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s exploration of cultural memory, Black female identity, and spiritual traditions, Soul Service Station is a refuge for weary travelers, inviting them to pause, reflect, and recharge.

Raphael Hefti, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Swiss artist Raphael Hefti’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-specific installation in Palm Desert that explores perception and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, Hefti employs a black woven polymer fiber — originally designed for fire hoses — coated with a reflective finish.

Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an artificial horizon, oscillating in the wind like a vibrating guitar string. This kinetic movement distorts spatial perception, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shifts — into an evolving visual phenomenon, inviting viewers to engage with the poetic interplay of distance, proximity, and perception.

Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian artist Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental intervention at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integrating Denes’ long-standing exploration of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reflects both mathematical precision and organic transformation.

Planted with native vegetation, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civilization. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diplomatic hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfection. Activated through educational programs, it creates environmental awareness and collective stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement.

Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installation that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through speculative fiction. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the artist transforms it into a reflective, camouflaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment.

Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a tipi, the vehicle integrates speculative water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adaptive, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its time-traveling occupants — a family from an undefined future — prompting reflections on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the relationship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narratives of extraction, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-time wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure.

Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-specific installation for Desert X that explores the fluid nature of identity and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with native sand, the artist harnesses the desert wind as an active force, allowing the material to shift and tangle like dunes in motion. The work challenges notions of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, creating a landscape in constant flux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transformation.

project info:

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: Coachella Valley, California

artists: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael Hefti, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono

on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valley appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Desert X, the site-specific international art exhibition, has announced The Living Pyramid as its first major commission for 2025. The large-scale artwork is designed by 92 year-old, Hungarian-American artist Agnes Denes — widely regarded as a pioneering environmental artist and philosopher. This monumental sculpture, currently on display at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, sets the stage for Desert X’s fifth edition, running from March 8th to May 11th, 2025, across California’s Coachella Valley. The exhibition will remain free and open to the public.

‘Agnes Denes’s The Living Pyramid is a profound and transformative work that embodies her commitment to exploring the connections between humanity, nature, and knowledge,’ said Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield.

installation views of The Living Pyramid by Agnes Denes at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, images © Lance Gerber

Agnes Denes’ Interplay Between Nature and Structure

Born in Budapest in 1931 and a longtime New York resident, artist Agnes Denes is celebrated as a trailblazer of conceptual art since the 1960s. Her practice fuses scientific inquiry, philosophical exploration, and environmental activism. As Denes explains, her art reflects ‘a dynamic, evolutionary world where objects are processes, forms are patterns, and reality is forever changing.’

This ethos is evident in The Living Pyramid, an iteration of her celebrated pyramid structures specific to Desert X and its context. The work balances mathematical precision with organic growth, presenting a transformative commentary on the cycles of life and death. ‘While the pyramids are based on mathematics and achieve a kind of perfection, they contain all the imperfections they are dealing with or representing,’ said Denes.

Desert X 2025 unveils the Living Pyramid by Agnes Denes as its first major commission

an artwork blooming with native vegetation

The Living Pyramid takes root in the desert environment, planted with native vegetation that evolves over time. Its appearance and structure shift as plants sprout, bloom, and decay, embodying the slow rhythms of the desert ecosystem. ‘The Coachella Valley is far from an empty expanse,’ remarked Co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. ‘It is a living archive of deep time and evolving narratives, where ancestral knowledge collides with contemporary vision.’

Wakefield added, ‘The pyramid form, echoing Sunnylands’ history as a space for global dialogue, becomes a living, breathing monument to growth and renewal.’

Denes’s pyramids extend beyond physical form, serving as ‘visual philosophy’ that addresses ecological and social issues. As the artist explained, her pyramids represent ‘structures of thought, humanity, survival, and social constructs’ rather than mirroring the ancient pyramids of Egypt. In this spirit, The Living Pyramid engages its surroundings and its caretakers, creating a micro-society of individuals responsible for its ongoing care. The work underscores vital issues like water conservation and invites philosophical reflection on biological and geological time.

the monumental environmental artwork is currently on view at Sunnylands Center and Gardens

Since its original 2015 commission by Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City, The Living Pyramid has traveled to documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul, the Hayward Gallery in London, and will appear at MUDAM Luxembourg in 2025. Each iteration incorporates indigenous plants and reflects the local environment, reinforcing Denes’s global vision for her work.

‘This new iteration of The Living Pyramid is not just about planting vegetation; it’s about planting the paradox — a structured edifice of soil and grain, which speaks both to human ingenuity and the cycles of nature,‘ Denes explained. ‘It transforms into blossoms, renewing itself as evolution renews our species.’

Curated by Neville Wakefield and Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, Desert X 2025 explores themes of ‘indigenous futurism, design activism, and the interplay between ancestral wisdom and emerging technologies.’ Through newly commissioned works, the exhibition touches on narratives of displacement, sovereignty, and adaptation, reframing the desert as a canvas for knowledge and imagination.

the pyramid incorporates native desert vegetation that evolves over time

the work highlights cycles of life and death while addressing water conservation

Agnes Denes’s pyramids are known to represent social constructs and address global issues

the Living Pyramid has been exhibited worldwide and features plants native to each location

Desert X 2025 will focus on ‘indigenous futurism and design activism’

project info:

project title: The Living Pyramid

artist: Agnes Denes | @agnesdenes

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: Coachella Valley, California

on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post the living pyramid to bloom in the coachella valley: agnes denes commissioned for desert X appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Following the success of the original site-specific art exhibition in AlUla, Desert X AlUla Visitor Center in 2020, KWY.studio was commissioned to design the 2022 edition, building upon the iconic circular courtyard, axial integrity, and deference to the encompassing landscape. Drawing from the acclaimed original structure, the design process for the 2022 Visitor Center begins with a deliberate focus on maintaining clarity and simplicity while reimagining key features for a new context. The project evolves as a unique iteration rather than a mere replica, allowing for the addition of North and East volumes to accommodate expanded program elements while preserving the essence of the original design. New volumes introduce corner shops, expanded event areas, indoor café seating, and upgraded staff amenities, enriching the visitor experience while maintaining architectural coherence.

all images by Colin Robertson

center achieves interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces

An elliptical roof opening optimizes solar exposure, emphasizing the diagonal character of the redesign and enhancing the interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces. Four new courtyards introduce varied levels of privacy and alternative circulation paths, enriching spatial relationships and providing new perspectives of the surrounding landscape. While retaining the singular essence of its predecessor, the 2022 Visitor Center takes on a slightly more complex architectural character, continuing to serve as a captivating landscape viewing device. KWY.studio enables the exploration of typological concepts and the expansion of successful design ideas, resulting in a refined and nuanced architectural expression. The 2022 edition of the Desert X Visitor Center marks another chapter in the ongoing tribute to the AlUla landscape and its people, setting the stage for the upcoming 2024 exhibition.

KWY.studio draws from the iconic 2020 structure to reimagine the 2022 Visitor Center

the center evolves uniquely, adding North and East volumes to enhance program elements

new volumes introduce corner shops, expanded event areas, indoor café seating, and upgraded staff amenities

four new courtyards in the 2022 Visitor Center offer varied levels of privacy and alternative circulation paths

an elliptical roof opening optimizes solar exposure and enhances the interplay between indoor and outdoor spaces

the 2022 edition retains the original essence while adopting a slightly more complex architectural character

KWY.studio’s deliberate focus on simplicity ensures a refined and nuanced architectural expression

enhanced solar exposure and spatial relationships contribute to the captivating nature of the center

the expansion houses commercial functions enriching the visitor experience

2022 Visitor Center sets the stage for the upcoming 2024 exhibition, continuing the celebration of AlUla’s landscape

project info:

name: Desert X AlUla Visitor Center 2022
architect: KWY.studio | @kwy.studio

design team: Ricardo Gomes, Rebecca Billi and Luise Marter

commissioner: Royal Commission for AlUla

management: Aecom

contractor: Nesma

location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

photography: Colin Robertson | @colinjr

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

The post elliptical roof opening invites natural light within desert x AlUla visitor center 2022 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Desert X is back for its third edition, transforming the otherworldly landscapes of AlUla, Saudi Arabia, into a canvas for contemporary sculpture and land art. This year’s exhibition, titled ‘In the Presence of Absence,’ challenges visitors to explore the unseen and inexpressible elements within this ancient desert region. For the first time, Desert X AlUla expands across three distinct locations — the vast desert expanse of Wadi AlFann, the dramatic black lava terrain of Harrat Uwayrid, and the historic AlManshiyah Plaza surrounding the AlUla Railway Station. This diversity invites visitors on a journey through various landscapes, each shaping the artistic dialogue. The exhibition will occupy the landscapes of AlUla from February 9th to March 23rd 2024.

Kimsooja, To Breathe — AlUla | all images © Lance Gerber, courtesy The Royal Commission for AlUla

from vast deserts to Volcanic Craters

Curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, with artistic direction from Raneem Farsi and Neville Wakefield, the Desert X AlUla 2024 features fifteen newly commissioned artworks. Each artist, inspired by the theme of ‘In the Presence of Absence,’ explores the desert’s hidden stories, intangible forces, and the whispers of history woven into its fabric. Complementing the artistic installations, the exhibition offers a diverse program of events. Curator and artist talks, educational workshops for children, and music ranging from traditional Saudi dance to ambient compositions create a vibrant atmosphere for both visitors and local communities.

Entering the cylindrical form of Kimsooja’s work, To Breathe – AlUla, visitors are drawn between iridescent walls, in and out to the center of a spiral. The chromatic walls distill light that has travelled aeons into prisms that dance across the visitor and the landscape.

Faisal Samra, The Dot

a future of permanent land art

This year’s edition marks a significant chapter in AlUla’s cultural development. Desert X AlUla paves the way for Wadi AlFann, a groundbreaking initiative launching in 2026. This expansive site will become a global hub for monumental, permanent land art, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and engaging audiences for generations to come. Desert X AlUla spotlights the power of art to unveil the unseen, foster dialogue, and connect us with the unique spirit of place. 

With The Dot, Faisal Samra shows how the Wadi AlFann valley originated from an ancient crack, revealing the small forces that shape grandeur over epochs. The illusion of time is symbolized by a line composed of rock fragments. 

Aseel AlYaqoub, Weird Life_ An ode to desert varnish

Aseel AlYaqoub’s Weird Life: An ode to desert varnish is inspired by the ‘desert varnish’ that naturally appears in landscapes like AlUla’s, evolving into a luminous veneer with yellow, orange, red and black, and bemusing scientists for centuries.

Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem’s installation focuses on honoring the traditional crafts of the region, creating a refuge made from rammed earth jars. Dubbed Reveries, each jar in the tower bears geometric cuts, allowing nature and light to shift and cast ever-evolving patterns within.

Rana Haddad and Pascal Hachem, Reveries

Ayman Yossri Daydban, A rock garden in the shape of a full-sized soccer field

Ayman Yossri Daydban draws the contours of a football pitch with white stones and rocks gathered by the AlUla community from across the valley. Placed in a remote, rocky area, the football field is a mysterious and suspicious presence, provoking collective memory and considering the social role of football.

Composed of vessels, Ibrahim Mahama’s terracotta pots are scattered across the landscape, suggesting new ecosystems emerging from the relics of history. Mahama’s works can be viewed from multiple sites across Desert X AlUla.

Ibrahim Mahama, Gabli Din Pali — A Full Gourd Does Not Rattle_ It Is Only a Partially Filled Gourd Which Rattles

Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi, Invisible Possibilities

Sara Alissa and Nojoud Alsudairi turn the landscape into a self-reflective arrangement in Invisible Possibilities: When the Earth Began to Look at Itself. Through different viewpoints and approaches, the work aims to reshape viewers’ understanding of the site’s ecological transition and its physical geographies. 

For When I saw my reflection, Bosco Sodi gathered volcanic rocks from across the landscape. Wrapped in gold, they have been placed in rock faces that tower above the desert to draw the viewer’s eyes to the beautiful organic formations and accidents that already exist in the rock formations.

Bosco Sodi, When I saw my reflection

project info:

project title: Desert X AlUla

location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

on view: February 9th — March 23rd 2024

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post desert X alUla 2024 brings contemporary art to saudi arabia’s ancient deserts appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

discover fresh shots of the desert X AIUIa 2022 installations exhibited in saudi arabia

running until march 30, 2022, the desert X AlUla 2022 edition has invited 15 artists to explore the concepts of mirage and oasis through dream-like installations. italian photographer roberto conte shares with us today a new set of images, revealing fresh angles of the exhibition set in AlUla, saudi arabia and curated by reem fadda, raneem farsi, and neville wakefield. you can read the full and original story on designboom here. 

‘angle of repose’ by jim denevan | all images © roberto conte 

capturing the innovative blend of structures and materials in a new light 

for this year’s theme, sarab, the participants at desert X AIUIa 2022 experimented with an array of materials, patterns, and structures that took over the al mutadil valley in saudia arabia’s majestic alula desert. from migration to waveforms, human scale, desert biota, and cultural soundscapes, the artworks, captured in a new light by roberto conte (see more here), welcome visitors into ephemeral worlds that nod to ancient narratives and man-made realities. 

‘where the dwellers lay’ by dana awartani

‘dark suns, bright waves’ by claudia comte

‘coral alchemy I and II’ by shezad dawood

‘I have seen thousands of stars and one fell in AlUla’ by shadia alem

‘in blur’ by alicja kwade

‘geography of hope’ by abdullah alothman

‘gold falls’ by serge attukwei clottey

project info:

name: desert X AlUla 2022

dates: now through march 30, 2022

location: AlUla, saudi arabia

photography: roberto conte

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lea zeitoun | designboom

The post new images of desert X AlUla 2022’s dream-like artworks, captured by roberto conte appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

from now through march 30, 2022, desert X AlUla is taking place in saudi arabia. the second edition of international art exhibition features 15 artists exploring ideas of mirage and oasis under the theme sarab. following its inaugural edition in 2020 (read more on designboom here), the free and open to all site-responsive exhibition has been curated by reem fadda, raneem farsi and neville wakefield.

set amidst the majestic AlUla desert in saudi arabia, the artists were invited to consider the concepts of mirage and oasis, and to respond with new works that address dreams, camouflage, fiction, dis/appearance, extraction, illusion and myth while examining the dichotomy between natural and man-made.

(main) jim denevan, angle of repose installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber
(above) serge attukwei, gold falls installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

DRAWING ON PRINCIPLES OF LAND ART

building on the legacy of desert X in coachella, desert X AlUla draws on principles of land art, offering a profound opportunity to experience art on a monumental scale in dialogue with nature. this year’s exhibition takes place in a different location in the AlUla desert in comparison to the previous edition, and has been situated in the al mutadil valley, with visitors invited to wander through and experience landscapes as they weave their journey between the works.

‘the desert concepts of mirage and oasis have long been tied to ideas of survival, perseverance, desire and wealth,’ said reem fadda, curatorial advisor to desert X AlUla 2022. ‘the oasis pertains to ideas of finding prosperity or heaven, while the mirage is a universal symbol of the mysteries of imagination and reality. they also connote the incomprehensible beauty and abundance of nature in its most bereft state – the desert – and humans’ obsessive desire to capture and control it. under the theme of ‘sarab’, the artists presented in the exhibition – all of whom have spent time in the alula region – have developed ambitious and strikingly innovative, site- specific responses, all of which address profound issues, that emerge from the local context but also resonate with audiences the world-over.’

claudia comte, dark suns, bright waves installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

serge attukwei clottey’s installation addresses the experience of globalization, migration and water equity by shrouding slabs of rock in meticulously crafted tapestries made from yellow kufuor gallons, which are plastic containers used in ghana for storing and transporting water.

claudia comte’s work features a progression of walls imposing their architectural presence within the natural order of the alula canyons, with each carrying a section of a larger algorithmic pattern relating to the waveforms that shape the sound and surface of the desert.

zeinab alashemi, camouflage 2.0 installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

shezad dawood’s work explores ideas of deep time and the geo-biological relationship between the desert floor and nearby red sea through a pair of coral-like forms whose temperature-sensitive surfaces reflect the effects of climate change and mankind’s continuing struggle to find a sustainable relationship with a rapidly changing ecosystem.

land artist jim denevan creates ephemeral drawings whose interlocking patterns speak to the shifts in magnitude and scale that so often shape our experience of the desert and our attempts to position ourselves within the vastness of unbounded space.

abdullah alOthman, geography of hope installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

stephanie deumer has created an underground greenhouse; hinting at the lush sanctuary of native plants below, a large puddle-shaped array of solar panels mounted flush with the desert floor creates an energy feedback loop where the energy of the sun is captured, stored and transformed through photosynthesis into growth and transformation.

sultan bin fahad’s mud structure is shaped like a desert kite, with mirrors on the façade that create the look of a mirage, and houses an urn-like sculpture embossed with four protective symbols traditionally used in nabatean tombs.

khalil rabah, grounding installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

zeinab alhashemi’s interactive sculpture uses discarded camel skins on an abstract, geometric base, resembling a rock formation in the desert; like a camouflage, these camel hide sculptures merge into the mountains.

alicja kwade’s architectural structures reflect and frame the natural artifacts she encountered on the desert floor, which she rearranged and supplemented to create constantly changing perspectives that strike the fine line between reality and illusion.

shaikha al mazrou’s lengthy steel-made inflated structures are wedged in the voids of rocks, tensely balanced in the landscape, occupying the liminal state between stasis and movement, creating a silent yet imposing composition suspended in inertia.

shezad dawood, coral alchemy (dipsastrea speciosa) installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

abdullah alothman’s piece references theories of light refraction rooting back to the early days of desert civilisation and culture, with stainless steel plinths that interact with the light and create a radiant space that seeks to manifest the experience of capturing the mirage for the first time.

khalil rabah creates a mirage of an orchard of olive trees, which stand here in the desert as living things displaced from their indigenous land and longing to be repatriated, as an exploration of territory, survival and citizenship.

stephanie deumer, under the same sun installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

monika sosnowska’s sculptural exploration of memory speaks to alula’s historical position as a hub and passage of trade and its more recent cultural re-awakening; using heritage rails from the hejaz railway, that ran from damascus to medina, the linear steel forms have been transformed into giant dried grasses replete with possibilities of growth and transformation.

ayman zedani’s soundscape installation in a rocky cavern comprises horizontal sculptural wires and an audio projection of music, voices and footsteps, creating a cacophony of sounds that add to the chimes of nature.

dana awartani, where the dwellers lay installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

shadia alem, I have seen thousands of stars and one fell in AlUla installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

alicia kwade, in blur, installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

ayman zedani, the valley of the desert keepers installation view, desert X AlUla 2022, courtesy of the artist and desert X AlUla, photo by lance gerber

project info:

name: desert x AlUla

dates: now through march 30, 2022

location: AlUla, saudi arabia

The post desert X AlUla 2022 explores ideas of mirage and oasis appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.