DIRIYAH: The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale — enticing with groundbreaking art installations, countless canvases and tapestries, and endless stories — closed last month, but its final act is sure to also leave a sustainable mark in the world.
The Studio Youth event “Upcycling Wonderground” transforms the iconic B1 Gallery into a playground for children, to let their creativity run wild across cardboard kingdoms, painted arenas, puppet parades, tumbling performers, and caravans built from reclaimed biennale materials.
Rayanne Zaim, associate director of public programs at the biennale, told Arab News: “What happens at the end of every Biennale is we dismantle, works go to where they need to go, materials get recycled, so everything’s taken apart.
“And we’ve been in the works of thinking about it for a couple of years: How do we let it live on? So we (thought), what better than to create an upcycling event where we let the kids come, take over, and also learn about recycling, sustainability, and making the most out of things that you already have that’s in your house?”
They collaborated with “knowledge providers,” or vendors, to find the best way to utilize various leftover materials, which ultimately led to deciding the circus-inspired theme “The Upcycling Wonderground.”
“You’ll see that everything is based around a circus theme. We now have 11 vendors, KPs, who have come and each area has a different purpose and a different material that’s being used,” she said.
At “The Wonder Portal” designed by Noor Alwan, children can weave fabrics into the walls to create their own stories, while a tent nearby hosts “Theater of Dreams” and “The Little Clown Atelier” by Kan Ya Makan and Nour Hourani, respectively, who put on puppet miming shows and storytelling.
At “Symphony Square,” musician Cindy Xue introduces little ones to the world of music as they create their own rhythms, while “Tumble Town” by FN Lab is a large canvas where the children’s simple play and movement paints a whole new story.
“They give the kids an opportunity to roll around in the tubes and use the balls and the foam to create part of a mural. Every day, they add to it, so by the end of the three days, they create a massive painting; a collective piece by all the children that came through,” Zaim said.
All around the venue, children can be seen wearing capes and crowns, all made at the “Costume Caravan” station by Roaa Alsahhaf. “We have little butterfly wings, wands, tiaras that the kids are creating, and then on the third day, everyone is invited to come and take part in a parade that we’re going to host as a closing event,” Zaim explained.
The “Tapestry of Tiny Thoughts” is a space that gives children the opportunity to draw their wildest beasts and animals from a circus. The tapestries are then hung from the venue’s ceiling to create a backdrop for the parade on the Saturday.
All of the stations utilize leftover materials from the show, whether it is fabrics from the stenography that became the tent, partitions, platforms, or posters. The sandpits and wood from Exhibition Gallery 3 becomes a play area for the children where they can use building blocks and tools to build castles of their own.
In “A Mythical Beastiary,” they are encouraged by artist Ahmad Haddad to make their own circus beasts or puppets using cardboard, paint, glitter, and much more. “Every child creates a body part of an animal or a beast and then they assemble it with all the body parts together and create a beautiful mythical beast,” Zaim said.
The children can use wooden pieces, fabrics, and paint, to bring their own wooden imaginary character to life at “Circus Toy Factory” by Rejo Design Studio. “All of the timber that you see and the MDF (Medium-Density Fiberboard) is all recycled,” she said.
Inside the “Miniature Puppet Theater,” set up by Quote Studio, the children can assemble and paint their own tiny puppet stages using pre-cut wooden pieces.
“The beauty of it is, 80 percent of what we’re doing here, the kids get to take home with them. Everything lives on past the Biennale, so this is the purpose of the upcycling,” Zain said.
“There are no parameters around what they can make. There are no guidelines; they’re free to do what they want, which is the beauty of being creative. A child’s imagination takes into wherever they want to go.”
Finally, at the venue’s upper wing, a “City of Dreams” comes to life, demonstrating a playful and poetic act of empowering Saudi’s youth. Overseen by the Makers Learning School, children become the architects of an ever-growing imaginary skyline.
Out of the 11 vendors, 10 of them are based in Saudi Arabia in order to pay homage to local talent.
Zaim said: “For us, the most important thing is that kids take away the idea of recycling. It’s such an important point in everything that they do in reusing, sustainability, and understanding that everything has a place to live. It doesn’t all have to be thrown away.
“Giving them the opportunity to discover the different ways to reuse things, I think, is a really important tool and lesson to teach kids from a young age.
“The Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale is a historical moment in the region, so now they have a piece of something that will always be spoken about.”
The event runs until June 6, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday.
