When the Wind Turns East
Common Ground Festival – Riyadh 2026
24 December 2025 – 6 January 2026
Curated by Jérôme Sans, assisted by Julia Fabry and in collaboration with the Sigg Art Foundation.
Exhibition presented as part of the Common Ground Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia and produced by Benchmark.
Featuring:
Saudi artists:
ABDALLAH Sara Abu, ABDU Sara, ABULJADAYEL Nabila, AL MUREH Hams, AL MUTLAQ Khaled, Al SAFI Obaid, ALAMOUDI Ahaad, ALBAZEI Alia, AL DOWAYAN Manal, AL FARAJ Mohammad, AL GHAMDI Zahra, AL HOMOUD Lulwah, ALISSA Nora, ALMILLI Hana, ALOFI Moath, ALSALEH Daniah, AL SALEM Nasser, ALSHASHAI Rashed, AL SUDAIRY Sharrifah, ALYOUSEF Majid, ANGAWI Ahmad, ANGAWI Alhassan, DAYDBAN Ayman Yossri, FELEMBAN Basmah, GAMHAWI Saeed, HAFIZ Ayman, JAMAL Aziz, MAKSHOUSH Khaled, MALLUH Maha, MATTER Ahmed, AL MASHAT Zaina, SHONO Muhannad.
Chinese artists:
JIA Aili, CHEN Ronghui, XUE Feng, HU Xiaoyuan, KAN Xuan, LI Shurui, LIAN Jinyong, LIN Zhipeng, LIU Wei, QIU Xiaofei, SHEN Wei, TACA Sui, WANG Ningde, WANG Guangle, WANG Xiyao, WANG Yuyang, WEIGANG Gao, XU Qu, XU Zhen, YANG Xinguang, YIN Yunya, ZHANG Ruyi, ZHAO Yao, ZHUANG Hui, CHEN Kun.
When the Wind Turns East
When the Wind Turns East unfolds as a contemporary journey between two ancient worlds, China and Saudi Arabia, where the threads of memory, nature, and imagination intertwine. The exhibition draws its spirit from the great historical route of exchange, to evoke a renewed encounter between the East and the East. It brings together a generation of artists whose works open a dialogue between the tangible and the spiritual, the past and the present, the local and the universal.
In this shared space, painting, sculpture, installation, and media art reveal the subtle correspondences between two cultures that have long looked to the horizon as both destination and promise. The desert and the mountain, the wind and the water, the calligraphic gesture and the silent stone, all become metaphors of transformation and continuity. The exhibition does not aim to fuse identities, but to allow them to resonate in proximity, to reflect one another in their distinctness.
As visitors move through the spaces, they follow a fluid itinerary that recalls the ancient pathways of caravans and travelers, where art, scent, and sound weave together in an atmosphere of quiet openness. Each zone of the exhibition proposes a meeting point, as a crossing where shared values of beauty, endurance, and renewal emerge.
When the Wind Turns East is thus not only an exhibition, but a cultural landscape in motion. An invitation to rethink dialogue as a living process, carried by the winds of time, from one horizon to another.
Works by Ahmad and Alhassan ANGAWI.
Works by Ahmed MATTER and Ronghui CHEN
Works by Ahmed MATTER
Works by XU Zhen, Nabila ABULJADAYEL, Hana ALMILLI, Manal AL DOWAYAN, Ayman HAFIZ, KAN Xuan.
Work by Ayman HAFIZ.
Works by Nabila ABULJADAYEL, Hana ALMILLI, Manal AL DOWAYAN.
Works by Maha MALLUH, Basma Zainab AL MASHAT, Sarah ABU ABDALLAH, QIU Xiaofei, ZHUANG Hui, WEIGANG Gao, Sherrifah ALSUDAIRY.
Works by QIU Xiaofei, ZHUANG Hui, WEIGANG Gao, Aziz JAMAL, LIN Zhipeng, XUE Feng.
Works by Ayman HAFIZ, Majid ALYOUSEF, Khaled AL MUTLAQ, Saeed GAMHAWI, CHEN Kun.
Work by Saeed GAMHAWI
Works by Zahrah AL GHAMBDI, WANG Xiyao, Alia AL BAZEI, Moath ALOFI
Works by Moath ALOFI, HU Xiaoyuan.
Work by Zahrah AL GHAMBDI.
Works by Lulwah AL HOMOUD, Hams AL MUREH, WANG Guangle.
Work by WANG Xiyao.
Works by Lulwah AL HOMOUD, Hams AL MUREH, WANG Guangle.
Works by LIU Wei, LI Shurui.
Works by LIU Wei, LI Shurui, YANG Xinguang, Khaled MAKSHOUSH, Rashed ALSHASHAI, XU Qu.
Works by XU Qu, WANG Yuyang, ZHAO Yao, Rashed ALSHASHAI.
Work by Daniah ALSALEH.
Work by Muhannad SHONO.
Works by ZHANG Ruyi, Obaid AL SAFI, JIA Aili.
Works by Ahaad ALAMOUDI and YANG Xinguang.