The Saudi Arabian government is due to spend $15bn turning the AlUla desert valley into a contemporary arts hub. The former director of London’s Whitechapel Gallery was appointed as the project’s curator last year, and announced the first of around 25 commissions, with public works by James Turrell, Agnes Denes, Michael Heizer, Manal Al Dowayan and Ahmed Mater due to be completed next year. Then there will be two museums, the one dedicated to contemporary art, designed by Beirut-born Lina Ghotmeh, developed in a deal inked this year with the Pompidou (the second institution, the Museum of the Incense Road, is dedicated to ancient trading routes). Blazwick is already buying work by the likes of Yayoi Kusama, Carmen Herrera, Etel Adnan and Ibrahim El Salahi for the walls and floors. Not without controversy, Blazwick also pipped Defne Ayas to be curator of the 2024 Istanbul Biennial, against the advice of the nonbinding independent selection committee (on which she originally sat).
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Iwona Blazwick
Curator - At the helm of AlUla’s Public Art and the 2024 Istanbul Biennial
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