Saudi Handicrafts Week set for November/node/2619115/saudi-arabia
Saudi Handicrafts Week set for November
The third edition of the Saudi International Handicrafts Week, also known as Banan, will be held from Nov. 13 to 26 in Riyadh, under the patronage of Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan. (SPA/File)
The gathering will feature participation from more than 40 countries
The event aims to empower local businesspeople
Updated 16 October 2025
SPA
RIYADH: The third edition of the Saudi International Handicrafts Week, also known as Banan, will be held from Nov. 13 to 26 in Riyadh, under the patronage of Culture Minister Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan.
The gathering will feature participation from more than 40 countries, alongside over 400 local craftspeople and 20 partners, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.
The event, part of the Year of Handicrafts 2025, aims to empower local businesspeople, enabling them to enhance their market presence and leverage their skills.
China, the guest of honor, will showcase the nation’s rich tradition of crafts.
Prince Bader, who is also chairman of the Saudi Heritage Commission, has announced that Syria will participate for the first time, featuring its traditional arts and products.
A spotlight will also be placed on the House of Artisans, an initiative that supports craftspeople in the Kingdom.
This year’s lineup features 30 publishers selected after extensive research by the Biennale team
Updated 07 November 2025
Jasmine Bager
DIRIYAH: Rows of art books, a DJ spinning records and an endless sea of colorful posters can mean only one thing — the second annual Paperback Art Book Fair is back at JAX District in Diriyah, running for three days and ending this Saturday.
Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the now-annual event has become a fixture in its cultural calendar and will continue to take place during the first week of November each year.
Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the now-annual event has become a fixture in its cultural calendar. (AN photo)
“Paperback happens at JAX — a very creative district that houses multiple creative tenants across the board, from artists to creative organizations, businesses, you name it,” Sybel Vazquez, director of public programs at the Biennale, told Arab News.
“Paperback is happening between the two biennales,” she said, referring to the Islamic Arts and Contemporary Art Biennales, which now open in January each year over the past half decade.
HIGHLIGHT
Two new book launches headline the event: ‘Raw, Print, Scripted Spaces’ by Jeddah-based architecture and design studio Bricklab, co-founded by brothers Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, and ‘Dwelling Futures: Future of Gulf Housing’ by the UAE-based Sawalif Collective.
“We have a lot of contemporary artists who are self-published or work with books as a medium — there’s at least one artist that is in the biennale that actually also has a booth at Paperback.”
The second annual Paperback Art Book Fair is back at JAX District in Diriyah, running for three days and ending this Saturday. (AN photo)
Vazquez added that the fair is designed to encourage curiosity and creative experimentation.
“Paperback is also to nurture print culture. It is really a celebration of creative publishing,” she said.
Organized by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation, the now-annual event has become a fixture in its cultural calendar. (AN photo)
“The reason why Paperback exists is because we want to create a gathering for print culture … Paperback is intended to spark conversation, exchange and learning for what is still very nascent locally.”
When the first event debuted last year, the response far exceeded expectations.
“We had no idea if there would be a demand for art books,” she confessed — but her worries were unjustified.
“People came by the thousands. We ran out of books very quickly — too quickly,” Vazquez said. “It’s a good problem to have but nonetheless a problem because people kept coming in. There was nothing left.”
This year’s lineup features 30 publishers selected after extensive research by the Biennale team.
Three Saudi participants: Rawdah Print, Bin Atiah Studio and Misk Art Institute join international exhibitors from places such as Spain, Italy, Japan, the US, Egypt, Greece, China and Malaysia, among other countries.
Two new book launches headline the event: “Raw, Print, Scripted Spaces” by Jeddah-based architecture and design studio Bricklab, co-founded by brothers Abdulrahman and Turki Gazzaz, and “Dwelling Futures: Future of Gulf Housing” by the UAE-based Sawalif Collective.
Workshops during the three-day program include “Making Zines for Kids” and “Bookmaking: Pamphlets, Concertinas, Japanese Binding,” both by Saudi-based Creative Girls Club, as well as sessions led by other publishers.
Among the returning participants is “Reliable Copy,” a publishing house and curatorial practice founded in Bangalore, India, in 2018.
Sarasija Subramanian of “Reliable Copy” told Arab News that the atmosphere at Paperback stood out from larger fairs abroad.
“Last year was amazing,” she said. “This is very different from the other fairs that we’ve done because usually we do fairs in Europe and the USA, which are exponentially larger — like 200 publishers instead of 30. It’s a lot more warm and friendly because it’s smaller and easier to access.”
She added that the more intimate setting allows readers to interact one-on-one with publishers.
“Everything (for sale at their booth) is an artist’s book — everything is either by an artist or with an artist. But what the individual books are is a very wide range; there’s a cookbook, a bunch of photo books, some science fiction.”
“I think the general audience response is really, really great. Even last time, most of the publishers sold out— that’s not something you often experience,” she added.
Also returning is Shashasha, an online bookshop based in Tokyo that specializes in photobooks and artbooks. They came armed with just under 100 books last year and sold-out quickly, so they doubled their offerings this time around.
A Japanese graduate student — who had a badge adorned with the name-tag Keishin — told Arab News about his sophomore participation.
“Since last year, Shashasha has been invited to this event, and I was the only one studying Islam, so I was entrusted with this. I’m at an age where anything I experience is useful, so I’m enjoying it,” he said.
For Vazquez and the Biennale Foundation, the goal remains simple; to make books accessible, tactile and a catalyst for community.
“Print is not dead — print is back on Nov. 6-8!” she said.
