In the middle of the Saudi desert, surrounded by burning sand, Maraya looks like a mirage at the end of summer. This unique concert hall in the world, covered by 9,740 mirrors, disappears among the surrounding nature. An architectural marvel, symbol of Saudi Arabia’s new cultural ambitions.
On this September morning, around twenty horsemen stand at attention in front of the Maraya, sabers drawn. Usually, the room welcomes singing stars like Alicia Keys, the diva Mariah Carey or the tenor Andrea Bocelli. Today, more than 300 researchers are arriving from all over the planet for the first World Archeology Summit. The initiative was decided by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS) in person last June. Its teams had three months to organize this world first in Al-‘Ula and bring together the elite of international research, without spending any money. According to our information, this two-day summit will have cost nearly 10 million dollars, a fraction of what Saudi Arabia spends each month on footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo, but enough to make the kingdom a stronghold of archeology on the international scene.
3770 World Africa “Culture, the other Saudi playground”
© / legends cartography – F. Nureldine/AFP – M. Runkel/Robert Harding RF/AFP – P. BAZ/Red Sea Film Festival – Muvi Studios
“Today the whole world comes to us”
Leaning into a huge blue sofa, Samer Sahlah savors the spectacle while sipping his cardamom coffee. At 75, this professor at King Saud University has stars in his eyes when he talks about his “new Arabia” and its recent opening to the world. “Previously, when talking about history or culture in the Middle East, only Mesopotamia, Lebanon or Egypt counted,” says the academic, wrapped in his white and red shemagh, the Saudi scarf. Arabia Saudi Arabia was seen as a great void, as an uninteresting desert. Today, the whole world is coming to us.”
Giant concerts, international stars, world-renowned exhibitions… In just five years, Saudi Arabia has gone from a virtual cultural desert to a creative oasis. On television, advertisements show young women in full veils painting huge street art frescoes in the streets of the kingdom. In Neom, an insane futuristic city project on the west coast, the first installation to emerge from the sand is a movie set worthy of Hollywood. Saudi Arabia even has its first film breaking box office records: Sattar, a comedy which tells the story of the transformation of a clumsy insurer into the first star of Saudi wrestling – 700,000 admissions on the local market, before spreading to the Middle East.
Prince MBS has decreed a revolution in his kingdom, and this involves culture. “Finally, we see the light!” laughs Samer Sahlah. Saudi Arabia is investing its oil revenues – 151 billion euros in profits in 2022 – to project itself into modernity, attract the global economy and change perceptions of an ultra-conservative country. It is also a way of offering a certain freedom to young people who have until now been confined (70% of the population is under 35), who can now go dancing, boys and girls mixed together, in electronic music festivals in the near Riyadh or Jeddah, with the biggest DJs on the planet. “All these recognized personalities highlight the wonders of Saudi Arabia,” smiles Abdullah Hassan Masry, of the Heritage Commission, the body responsible for preserving Saudi heritage. Our country has long been perceived as marginal, but this is not the case. is no longer the case: we are on the map, at the center, and we are developing quickly. Sometimes too quickly, in the eyes of some.”
Not all of Arabia is involved in this sudden and radical change, in a country which still banned music in public and cinema less than ten years ago. Openness to the world translates into openness to criticism and debate. Not easy, for example for this renowned Saudi archaeologist who, from the podium, castigates his foreign colleagues: “Certain well-known historians are trying to create sub-tribes in Saudi history. This is not normal, these tribes were united .” Translation: it would be better not to talk about the Jewish communities that populated Arabia before the advent of Islam.
Despite its army of Anglo-Saxon communicators, Saudi Arabia struggles to hide its still crushing taboos. Homosexuality remains, for example, a criminal offense. Which did not prevent the kingdom from communicating excessively on its Andy Warhol exhibition last spring in the Maraya. An American artist, homosexual, pop culture icon, in the cradle of Muslim civilization: the image was (too) beautiful. In reality, not all of his works have crossed the border. The thousands of Saudi visitors did not have access to his erotic self-portraits or his work on the death penalty, among other things. “Saudi Arabia excels in the art of spending astronomical sums to distract attention from the treatment it reserves for its citizens,” summarizes Nadia Hardman, of the NGO Human Rights Watch.
The dark side of Saudi Arabia does not cool France, keen to quench the new thirst for Saudi culture – and to obtain the related contracts. Paris is not content with sending a few stars to sing in the desert, like Gims or Gilbert Montagné, but offers a complete cultural offer: exhibitions, cinema (with the Red Sea International Film Festival, copy of the Cannes Festival in Jeddah ), archaeological excavations, museums… “It’s a country that moves a lot, whose youth want culture, cinema, fashion, explained the French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, in June. France has a role of soft power to play in Saudi Arabia, as an alternative to the Anglo-Saxons. The regime is what it is, but the country is changing very quickly.”
France, strong support in international bodies
Six museums are being built in the Al-‘Ula region alone, for which France has been responsible for cultural and tourist development since 2018. For the moment, none are being built, but the locations are planned, the contracts signed. The Contemporary Art Museum, built in partnership with the Center Pompidou, will be located below the old town of Al-‘Ula, currently being renovated. A horse museum will be built, as will a space dedicated to the Arab kingdoms of the North, which will delve into the pre-Islamic history of Arabia, which until recently was still taboo.
But French cultural aid goes further. Paris thus exerts all its weight in international bodies, as shown by its support for Riyadh’s candidacy for the 2030 Universal Exhibition, the award of which will be known at the end of November. Saudi Arabia is also counting on French expertise to register its heritage with UNESCO, with the objective of one new site recognized per year. “It’s very ambitious, each file for UNESCO must contain more than 1,000 pages, with a huge amount of work behind it,” confides a French source. An ambition rewarded, the Uruq Bani Ma’arid nature reserve becoming, on September 20, the seventh Saudi site to appear on the UNESCO world heritage list. This partnership with France is no longer limited to the borders of the kingdom. The exhibition AlUla, wonder of Arabia, audience success at the Arab World Institute in 2019 with more than 80,000 visitors, will be presented in Beijing, in the heart of the Forbidden City, from December. An exceptional new setting, for a new episode of soft power Saudi.