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Riyadh Art has launched the Open Call for its 7th Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium 2026, inviting sculptors from Saudi Arabia and from around the world to submit proposals. This year’s theme is “Traces of What Will Be“ (see below). The event will take place in an open and live air in January and February 2026 in the outskirts of the country’s capital, Riyadh. Application is open until September 17, 2025.

The name refers to the mountains called Tuwaiq or Tweig visible on the horizon from the city.

25 artists will be selected for the event. They will receive an honorarium (previously lavish), full travel and full accommodation. Their works – expected to be original – will be permanently installed across the capital, enriching its expanding public art collection. Before, the works will be exhibited on the symposium’s site.

New this year is:
* The material is granite with the option to integrate stainless steel elements.
* Recycled metals are also allowed as materials. This mirrors the engagement of the country’s Forum für Sustainability in Public Art.

Sarah Alruwayti, Director of the Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium at the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, states: “Tuwaiq Sculpture invites artists from around the world to leave a lasting mark on Riyadh’s evolving urban landscape. Each edition builds on a growing legacy that connects communities through public art.”

This year’s curators are all women:
* Rut Blees Luxemburg is an artist whose photographic and public practice investigates the poetics and politics of the contemporary city;
* Sarah Staton is a visual artist, educator, and curator whose multidisciplinary practice engages with the social and spatial dimensions of art in public space;
* Lulwah Al Homoud is an award-winning curator, artist, and visual communication expert with a global portfolio of curatorial consultancy and artistic collaborations;
(more on https://riyadhart.sa/en/opencall/tuwaiq-sculpture-2026-open-call/).

Since its inception, Tuwaiq Sculpture has welcomed more than 150 artists whose works now form part of Riyadh Art’s permanent collection – including a significant installation of 35 pieces at King Abdulaziz Historical Center. The initiative continues to shape Riyadh’s global identity as a capital of creativity, civic engagement, and cultural innovation.

“Traces of What Will Be“ as theme

The organizers explain the theme: „Set in Tahlia, a district in Riyadh whose name means desalination, the 2026 edition of the Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium and Exhibition unfolds under the theme Traces of What Will Be. This year’s edition explores transformation as both a physical process and a metaphor for urban renewal. Tahlia is inseparable from its history as the site of Riyadh’s first desalination plant, a pioneering infrastructure that converted scarcity into sustenance, and saltwater into life.
The Kingdom’s journey with desalination began in 1907, when a salvaged shipwreck was repurposed in Jeddah. From that ingenious beginning, Saudi Arabia became the world’s largest producer of desalinated water. This technology now sustains life in coastal cities around the globe. Tahlia’s early embrace of desalination reflects a broader civic urgency, grounded in innovation, adaptability, and collective well-being.
The symposium celebrates this legacy by inviting artists to respond to a site shaped by environmental ingenuity and transformation. Working with local stone and reclaimed metal, materials that hold both memory and potential, artists will create new sculptural works that mark the present while imagining the future. Tahlia will become a shared space for artistic production, reflection, and global exchange, culminating in an exhibition at the very site of their creation.“

Application open until September 17, 2025

Photos: Riyadh Art