Selections Magazine

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025, Photo by Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025: AlMuqtani

The Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 in Jeddah stands as a celebration of Islamic artistic heritage, bringing together masterpieces from across the Muslim world. Among its most anticipated sections is AlMuqtani, an exhibition that pays homage to two renowned art collectors:…

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025: AlMidhallah

The second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 in Jeddah presents AlMidhallah (The Canopy) as one of its sections, transforming the outdoor spaces of the Biennale into an immersive exploration of the Islamic garden. Curated by Muhannad Shono and…

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025: Al Madar

The second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 in Jeddah introduces Al Madar as one of its key sections, redefining how Islamic art is experienced in the contemporary era.  Al Madar challenges the conventional biennale framework, shifting the focus…

The Last Garden of Khidr is the imagined sculptural and illustrative aftermath of restricting the human imagination, a contemporary rendition of the character Khidr, an elusive figure spoken of in various Islamic narratives and found across many world myths and traditions. The origins of the name “Khidr” are obscure, with roots spreading from Quranic traditions into wider cultural lore, as well as traced through Western literary and architectural motifs dating back to the medieval age. One reading is that his name comes from akhdar (green, in Arabic), and he is, therefore, “The Green One” or “The Verdant One,” from whose head a garden grows. The artist mines this abundant tradition to explore ideas of creative freedom. Aniconism is the avoidance of images of sentient beings in some forms of Islamic art. In more stricter interpretations, this ban extends to God and deities to fictional characters and the depiction of the self. In this stricter uncompromising law, all living beings, and everything that exists fall under a prohibition of the mimicry of life. The artist recalls how, as a child, art teachers in Saudi Arabia would instruct him and other students to strike a line through the necks of illustrated drawings. This was a technical “work-around” to this religious prohibition conjured up by his teachers, but to Shono’s mind this contemporary commandment constituted a violent act, an attempted beheading of his imagined world and the living creations that dwell within it. The Last Garden of Khidr is the story of those who choose to reclaim their creative and imaginative minds and refuse to be silenced. Commissioned by the Saudi Art Council for the group show ‘I love you urgently’ curated by Maya El Khalil.

Being Muhannad Shono: Last Garden of Khidr

This article appeared in Being Muhannad Shono Issue #70 which delves into the world of Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, exploring his creative journey, artistic process, and global impact. Through visuals and an in-depth interview, it highlights Shono’s works that connect…

The Teaching Tree, 2019, Sculptural installation, Palm fronds, pigment, pneumatics and metal structure. Photo ©️ Artur Weber.

Being Muhannad Shono: The Teaching Tree

This article appeared in Being Muhannad Shono Issue #70 which delves into the world of Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, exploring his creative journey, artistic process, and global impact. Through visuals and an in-depth interview, it highlights Shono’s works that connect…

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