Held every year, the Hayy Jameel Façade Commission is a special programme: just one of the participating artists gets the opportunity to create a public artwork on the front of the Hayy Jameel building. For the programme’s 2nd edition, an open call was announced in August 2022. More than 80 proposals from Saudi and Saudi-based artists were considered by the jury. It consists of Saudi artist Dr Ahmed Mater; Aric Chen, General and Artistic Director of Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam, the Netherlands); Elina Kountouri, NEON Director; and Art Jameel curator Rahul Gudipudi. It was interdisciplinary artist Mohammad Alfaraj who was selected for the commission.
In his proposal The Face of the City, Alfaraj considers Hayy Jameel’s façade a canvas for expressing oneself, inspired by the walls of Jeddah which unofficially record the city’s history and serve as a site for its residents’ expression. With community involvement put first, Alfaraj has worked on the project with facilitators and volunteers from different backgrounds in Jeddah with whom he has collaborated before. “I wanted to challenge this ego-driven approach to art […] by having as many contributors […] included as possible,” Alfaraj said. “We included a list of 100 contributing artists all credited next to the installation.”
In addition, three of the shortlisted proposals were granted with Jury Special Mention. These were the proposals by artist Obaid Al-Safi and two collectives. The first one features artist and architect Alaa Tarabzouni; multidisciplinary artists Fahad bin Naif and Sarah Abu Abdullah; and Interior and graphic designer Afia bin Taleb. The other collective comprises artist Ali Hashmi; designer and researcher Majed Munshi; graphic designer Leila Zahid; and artist, calligrapher, and graphic designer Bayan Barboud.
16 1/2 × 23 3/5 in. | 42 × 60 cm. Editions 2-3 of 3.
About Mohammad Alfaraj
Mohammad Alfaraj (b.1993, Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia) is an artist and filmmaker residing in Al Hassa whose art practice encompasses not only filmmaking but also installation, sculpture, writing and photography. In 2017, he received his BA in Mechanical Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia).
As an artist, Alfaraj strives to create a world charged with stories, poetry, and the search for truth. Attentive to Saudi Arabian oral traditions and legends, he gets his inspiration from the social practices and architectures of daily life. Exploring the relationship between form and concepts, Alfaraj produces artworks that draw from fictional and non-fictional sources and are dedicated to today’s social and ecological issues.
Alfaraj’s art has been displayed in different solo and group shows and art events, such as the Islamic Arts Biennale (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2023); Find Me Through the Fog (Al Muftaha Village, Abha, KSA, 2022); 16th Biennale de Lyon (France, 2022); Alserkal Art (Dubai, UAE, 2021); Still Life and Plastic Dreams (ATHR Gallery, Jeddah, KSA, 2020); Le Murate Pac (Florence, Italy, 2019); 21, 39 Jeddah Arts (2017 and 2019); Saudi Film Festival (Dammam, Saudi Arabia, 2015), where he won the first place for his documentary, Lost, within the student category; and others. In 2019, Alfaraj took part in the Can Serrat – International Art Residency, Barcelona, and the AlUla Art Residency in 2022.
The Face of the City will be on view until 11 December 2023. To learn more, please visit the official website of Hayy Jameel.
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