And All That Is In Between

The Diriyah Biennale Foundation announces the opening of the second edition of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale, titled And All That Is In Between. The Islamic Arts Biennale takes place in Jeddah, a city that has been a meeting point of cultures for centuries. The site is the Western Hajj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport, which echoes with memory and emotion for millions of Muslim pilgrims embarking on their sacred journeys for Hajj and Umrah every year. By juxtaposing historical objects from Islamic cultures with contemporary art, the Biennale explores how faith is experienced, expressed, and celebrated through feeling, thinking, and making. The exhibition will be on view through May 25, 2025.

Led by Artistic Directors Julian Raby, Amin Jaffer, and Abdul Rahman Azzam, alongside Saudi artist Muhannad Shono as Curator of Contemporary Art, the Biennale offers insights into the ways cultures from around the world interact and endure. The exhibition unfolds in the context of the transformations taking place today in Saudi Arabia and adopts a global frame of reference.

And All That Is In Between is part of a verse that appears several times in the Quran: “And God created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in between.”  It describes the absolute and all-encompassing majesty of God’s creation as perceived and experienced by humankind. Across five exhibition halls and outdoor areas, occupying 100,000 square meters of dedicated exhibition space, and with more than 500 objects and contemporary artworks on view, the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale explores how we endeavor to comprehend the wonder of what the divine has brought into being.

The exhibition brings together loans from the world’s leading institutions of Islamic arts, from Tunis to Tashkent, and from Timbuktu to Yogyakarta. The participation of this global network of institutions offers a broad perspective on Islamic arts, past and present, and opens new channels for dialogue and collaboration. Treasured historical artifacts, religious objects, and works of art, as well as collections devoted specifically to Islamic arts and cultures have been loaned from major international museums and archives. Additionally, the Biennale brings together leading institutions from across Saudi Arabia and offers visitors a chance to see objects and works of art that come from the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah. This year, the Biennale witnesses the first-ever display of the entire Kiswah—the cloth that covers the Holy Kaaba—outside of Makkah. The exhibition scenography is designed by the international architecture firm OMA.

The Biennale features the participation of over 30 artists from Saudi Arabia, the wider Gulf region, and around the world. This participation includes 29 new commissions, demonstrating the Diriyah Biennale Foundation’s work to offer a global stage for Saudi artists. 

The Islamic Arts Biennale consists of seven unique components—AlBidayah (“The Beginning”), AlMadar (“The Orbit”), AlMuqtani (“Homage”), AlMidhallah (“The Canopy”), AlMukarramah (“The Honored”), AlMunawwarah (“The Illuminated”), and AlMusalla. This year, the Biennale features the realization of the winning design of the inaugural AlMusalla Prize. Created by EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with engineers AKT II and artist Rayyane Tabet, the prize-winning design features a structure inspired by regional weaving traditions and relies on waste materials derived from local date palm trees.

The Biennale features a series of public programs throughout the exhibition period, including talks, workshops, community initiatives, and symposia. These programs create an inclusive and dynamic space for learning, dialogue, and cultural exchange.

LIST OF PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
The David Collection (Copenhagen, Denmark); the Museum of Islamic Art (Cairo, Egypt); The Al Thani Collection (Paris, France); the Louvre Museum (Paris, France); the Benaki Museum (Athens, Greece); the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art (Hyderabad, India); the National Library of Indonesia (Jakarta, Indonesia); the State Museum of West Nusa Tenggara (Mataram, Indonesia); Sonobudoyo State Museum (Yogyakarta, Indonesia); the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art (Genoa, Italy); Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, al-Sabah Collection (Kuwait City, Kuwait); the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research (Timbuktu, Mali); the National Museum - Sultanate of Oman (Muscat, Oman); the Khalidi Library (Jerusalem, Palestine); Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Lisbon, Portugal); the Maritime Museum (Lisbon, Portugal); the Museum of Islamic Art (Doha, Qatar); the Qatar National Library (Doha, Qatar); the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia); the King Abdulaziz Complex for Endowment Libraries (Madinah, Saudi Arabia); King Fahad National Library (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia); the Trust for the Alhambra and Generalife, Alhambra Museum (Granada, Spain); Institute of Valencia de Don Juan (Madrid, Spain); the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid, Spain); National Heritage Institute (Tunis, Tunisia); the Manuscript Institution of Türkiye (Istanbul, Türkiye); the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts (London, United Kingdom); the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, United Kingdom); the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford, United Kingdom); the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford (Oxford, United Kingdom); the Hispanic Society Museum and Library (New York, United States); the Abu Rayhan Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies and the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, of the Art and Culture Development Foundation Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Uzbekistan); and the Vatican Apostolic Library (Vatican City).

Participating artistis
Fatma Abdulhadi, Bilal Allaf, Nasser Alzayani, Ahmad Angawi, Abdelkader Benchamma, Gabriel Chaile, Saeed Gebaan, Louis Guillaume, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Bashaer Hawsawi, Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser), Essam Jameel, Nour Jaouda, Tamara Kalo, Raya Kassisieh, Asif Khan, Lúcia Koch, Takashi Kuribayashi, Ahmed Mater, Mehdi Moutashar, Timo Nasseri, Hayat Osamah, Nohemí Pérez, Imran Qureshi, Anhar Salem, Arcangelo Sassolino, Slavs and Tatars, Iqra Tanveer and Ehsan Ul Haq, Charwei Tsai, Asim Waqif, Ala Younis, and Osman Yousefzada.

Curatorial team
The curatorial team of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale is led by Julian Raby, a distinguished scholar, former lecturer in Islamic art and architecture at the University of Oxford, and former director of the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian Institution who also served on the curatorial team of the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale; Amin Jaffer, in his ongoing role as Director of The Al Thani Collection, whose academic and curatorial work is focused on the meeting of European and Asian cultures; and Abdul Rahman Azzam, an acclaimed author and historian who served as Senior Expert Advisor for AlMadar in 2023. Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, whose work deals with questions of spirituality and the role of imagination in shaping reality, and who represented Saudi Arabia at the 59th International Venice Biennale in 2022 and was a participating artist in the first edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale, serves as Contemporary Art Curator.

The curatorial team includes Masa Al-Kutoubi (AlMadar Lead), Rizwan Ahmad (Curator), Heather Ecker (Curator), William Robinson (Curator), Marika Sardar (Curator), Joanna Chevalier (Associate Curator), Amina Diab (Associate Curator), Sarah Al Abdali (Assistant Curator), Bilal Badat (Assistant Curator), Faye Behbehani (Assistant Curator), Bill Greenwood (Assistant Curator), and Wen Wen (Assistant Curator).

About the Diriyah Biennale Foundation
Inspired by the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia and the heritage site of Diriyah, and Chaired by H.H. Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al Saud, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation (DBF) assumes a critical role in nurturing creative expression and instilling an appreciation for culture and the arts and their transformative potential. The Foundation aspires to be a catalyst for lifelong learning and serves Saudi Arabia’s communities by offering opportunities to engage with the burgeoning local art scene. Central to the Foundation’s mandate is to stage two recurring world-class Biennales of contemporary and Islamic arts, year-round interactive educational programs, and overseeing the activation of JAX, a creative district with industrial heritage in Diriyah. At this historical moment of evolution and growth in Saudi Arabia, DBF’s Biennales showcase some of the world’s leading artists, drive cultural exchange between the Kingdom and international communities, promote dialogue and understanding, and further establish Saudi Arabia as an important cultural center.

Press contact
For press inquiries, please contact mediaqueries [​at​] biennale.org.sa