The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and the French Agency for AlUla Development (Afalula) joined together to create a second artists’ residency in AlUla: Palimpsest of the Time. Working closely with these two institutions, Manifesto manages the residency, sharing its expertise in artistic direction and providing support for the artists.

As for the first residency - Oasis Reborn - Palimpsest of the Time residency program encourages dialogue, discussions and collaborative work between the artists in residence and experts working in the field in AlUla (geologists, architects, archaeologists, botanists), local stakeholders and other members of the local community. For this second session, the artists focus their research and work on the rediscovery of AlUla's rich past, its abundance of archaeological remains and this natural environment that conditions most human activities. This collaborative work will help AlUla become a “destination designed by artists”. In the long term, AlUla will develop a thriving ecosystem of artists from around the world, who will benefit from production facilities and effective support when it comes to curating and artistic direction.

In addition to supporting the research and production projects of artists in AlUla, a public event was held each week. An exhibition, open days, workshops and meetings provided an opportunity for the public and the artists to discuss the progress of their work at different stages of the residency.

Manifesto provides artistic support, coordinates the project (from identifying experts and their links with the artists to involving the local residents of AlUla), organizes and runs events, and manages the residency on site (organizing the workshop spaces, etc.).

The Palimpsest of the Time exhibition presents anopen-air programme as a singular view into the AlUla Artist Residency and the works of the artists who have called this spectacular oasis-city home over the past several months. It is here, in the guest house and palm grove of Mabiti AlUla, that two groups of artists were invited to live and create. Palimpsest of Time unites the artists of the former residency that took place from October to December 2022 and the ones currently in residence until March 2023.

A palimpsest is a manuscript or a folio whose writing was erased and replaced with another in a process that seeks to take advantage of the medium as reusable. Historians and archaeologists often rediscover, centuries later, texts that were thought to be lost, thanks to the trace that the first ink had deeply left in the fibres. Time always buries memories to make room for new stories and to better preserve older ones. AlUla, with its intricate blend of momentous layers from the past, present, and future vision, is itself a palimpsest. Here, the accumulation of narratives over eras composes a prosperous heritage that can be maintained and reinterpreted through the creative process offered by this residency programme. Artists today employ new languages, materials, and references that speak of our world and time. Yet, their works, especially in AlUla, harbour layers upon layers of storytelling of all sorts that form the bedrock of the Hejaz region and its culture.

Indeed, for artists, residing in AlUla is an invitation to rediscover their musings and experiments in a time and space made distinct by the profound proximity to a rich past, an abundance of archaeological remains, and a natural environment that conditions most human activities. The special place that ecologies, both natural and cultural, occupy in this city — or rather, the special place this city occupies in this landscape — prompts an everlasting rethinking of our position within the Earth and amongst other living beings. In considering the landscape a resource and ourselves integral parts of it, we reinvent our working techniques, our subjects of creation and conversation, and our perceptions of ourselves and of what and who is around us.