Ocean Space and TBA21–Academy host a presentation of “After Rain, the visual reader of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024” (DCAB 2024), with the participation of Ute Meta Bauer – artistic director of the Biennale and editor of the volume – alongside artists and architects featured in DCAB 2024 who are also taking part in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale or its collateral events.
Highlighting the many collaborations between artists from across the globe and local experts in Saudi Arabia – including conservation specialists, farmers, botanists, artisans, architects, musicians, and chefs – After Rain is a richly illustrated compendium of artistic processes and research-based practices that shaped the second edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. Through an image-led format, the book captures the breadth and vitality of diverse artistic approaches, revealing how artist commissions and community-driven works interact with the complex and rapidly shifting context of contemporary Saudi Arabia.
Organized around keyword entries, the publication features annotated photographic material provided by participating artists, documenting their studios, fieldwork, local encounters, and site-specific presentations, while also underscoring the thematic core of the 2024 Biennale. The reader includes a photographic walk-through of the exhibition, as well as insights into Biennale Encounters – a public program of talks, workshops, performances, poetry readings – along with the film program and the Learning Garden online platform. Conceived as an open glossary, a pedagogical tool, and a living archive, the book positions the Biennale not as a finished product, but as a dynamic structure for reflection, future dialogue, and ongoing exchange within a fast-evolving cultural ecosystem.
Participants in the book presentation include:
– Ute Meta Bauer, Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media and Senior Principal Research Fellow at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
– bahraini—danish, architecture studio working across cultures and disciplines, Manama / Copenhagen
– Bricklab, experimental studio for architecture, design, and research, Jeddah
– Rachaporn Choochuey, design director of all(zone), a collective of Bangkok-based design professionals
– Alexander Eriksson Furunes, architect and co-founder (with Sudar Khadka) of mutualsupport, Trondheim / Manila
– Armin Linke, artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
– Sissel Tolaas, scent researcher and artist, Berlin
– Liam Young, filmmaker and speculative architect, Program Lead of Fiction & Entertainment at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles
The event will be held in English.
Free admission without reservation until maximum capacity is reached.
