For its second edition, in November 2022, the groundbreaking Noor Riyadh festival of light and contemporary art presents 190 monumental works signed by 130 artists from 40 countries and scattered in 40 emblematic locations throughout the city.

Curated by Hervé Mikaeloff, Dorothy Di Stefano and Jumana Ghouth and adviser Arnaud Morand, Noor Riyadh brings together Saudi and international artists such as Sarah Brahim, Grimanesa Amorós, Gisela Colón, Douglas Gordon, winner of the Turner Prize, Alicja Kwade, Sabine Marcelis, Muhannad Shono, who represented Saudi Arabia at the Venice Biennale 2022, and French artists Daniel Buren, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Bertrand Lavier.

Entitled "We dream of new horizons", this second edition transforms the city into a dazzling nighttime gallery without walls, welcoming over 2.5 million from international audiences to visitors from all over the globe.

Gathering a dedicated team, Manifesto manages the artist liaison, especially for Sarah Brahim, but also the monitoring of artworks production and installation, here with Comeanddo, their monitoring during the Festival and their dismantling, as well as supplier research for 82 of these monumental artworks in the public space. 

De Anima (2022) is an installation by Riyadh-based choreographer, dancer and artist, Sarah Brahim, featuring a performance film large-scale projection mapped onto the underside of a bridge in the Wadi Hanifa wetlands. 

In the film, which spans the light cycle of a single day, the individual is represented as a “light being”, a discrete entity within a larger world, separated by the porous boundaries of the body but able to extend beyond through the power of their imagination: both limited and limitless at once. The film’s script echoes the artist’s long-term research to understand the body through every possible lens.

The location of the bridge symbolises the gateway between the external and internal worlds, between collective and individual. The audience are invited to make this journey by walking along the shore through the columns of the underpass. Projection functions as an extension of the eye, creating a direct pathway to an imagined world. Individual audio headsets work in combination with the visuals to deepen the immersion in the experience.

The film explores how as individuals we surround ourselves with light, both physical and metaphorical, for balance and harmony. As a tribute to Aristotle’s immense treatise “De Anima”, Brahim offers with her installation an extension of the original philosopher’s theory, further looking at light as the animator of the soul. The location was chosen as the place where the sky and the waters of the wadi converge: “where the celestial body, physical body and body of water can meet”

Directed and produced: Sarah Brahim

Performances by :

- Jalessa Johnston

- Tamzin O’Garro

- Angelica Picco

- Sarah Brahim

- Franco Nieto

Cinematography: Michele Giannantonio

Director of photography: Massimilliano Cosi

Lights/gaffing: Kevin Michaluk, Nate L. Miles

Sound composition: Carmine Calia, Gaio Ariani

Costumes by: Angelica Picco

Photography: Mia Krys

Set, props, special thanks: Noreen Brahim