DUBAI: Saudi artist Muhannad Shono has been selected to take part in the fifth edition of Desert X, the international site-specific art exhibition which will take place across California’s Coachella Valley from March 8 to May 11.
Produced by non-profit organization The Desert Biennial, the event will feature artistic talent from across Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
Shono’s work, “What Remains,” explores the ever-changing nature of identity and land. (Supplied)
Curated by artistic director Neville Wakefield and co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, the 2025 iteration will feature themes of temporality and nonlinear narratives of desert time.
Shono’s work, “What Remains,” explores the ever-changing nature of identity and land. The piece features long strips of fabric infused with native sand, allowing them to move freely with the wind. As the wind shifts, the fabric twists and reshapes while the sand forms dunes.
Muhannad Shono, "On this Sacred Day." (Supplied)
“The land of Desert X is no longer the mythical and endless expanses of the American West but has come to include the effects of our ever-growing human presence,” said Wakefield.
“Artists continue to be inspired by the idea of unadulterated nature but … they have also come to recognize that this is an idea and that the realities of the world we live in now are both more complex and contested. Time, light and space permeate every aspect of this work but so too does an urgency to find new sustainable approaches to living in an increasingly imperiled world.”
Desert X, California. (Supplied)
The full list of participating artists is as follows: Sanford Biggers, Los Angeles, California; Jose Davila, Guadalajara, Mexico; Agnes Denes, Budapest, Hungary; Cannupa Hanska Luger, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota, b. Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota, based in Glorieta, New Mexico; Raphael Hefti, Neuchatel, Switzerland; Kimsooja, Daegu, Korea; Kapwani Kiwanga, Hamilton, Canada; Sarah Meyohas, New York; Ronald Rael, Conejos Country, US; Alison Saar, Los Angeles, California; Muhannad Shono, Riyadh, .
