Not Deserted : AlUla’s Archives in Movement – AlUla Arts Festival 2026

From 15 January to 14 February 2026, Villa Hegra presented the photographic exhibition Not Deserted: AlUla’s Archives in Movement in the heart of AlJadidah’s arts district. Featuring early 20th-century photographs by French traveller Rony André, shown for the first time in Saudi Arabia, the exhibition placed these images in dialogue with a contemporary film work by Saudi filmmaker and Villa Hegra resident Saad Tahaitah.

Together, these representations of desert landscapes outlined a hybrid cartography of AlUla, a multifaceted territory in constant transformation. The desert was approached as a living archive through the juxtaposition of historical photographs and contemporary, experimental imagery.

This initiative was developed in collaboration with the ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) in Rome, which holds the photographic collection.

It attracted more than 6,000 visitors.