/ Of The Earth:

Earthly Technologies to Computational Biologies

Of The Earth: Earthly Technologies to Computational biologies is an exhibition commissioned by Diriyah Art Futures under the Ministry of Culture Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, curated by Irini-Mirena Papadimitriou.The exhibition design investigates how artificial and organic systems co-evolve, entangle, and reconfigure our understanding of life, agency, and materiality. Inspired by new materialist thinking and post-natural aesthetics, the scenography is a living installation—where machines breathe, plants compute, and visitors become part of the metabolic circuit. The entire exhibition space is conceived as a continuous, constructed landscape—not neutral, but active. It’s a terrain where natural and technological features co-exist, collapse, and recombine. Rather than referencing “nature” as something outside or external, the space becomes its own post-natural landscape—a constructed ecology shaped by reflections, entanglements, and contradictions. 

Participating Artists:

Agnes Meyer-Brandis, Alex May & Anna Dumitriu, Aseel Al Yaqoub, Ayoung Kim, Ayman Zedani, Design Earth (Rania Ghosn & El Hadi Jazairy), Dima Srouji, Disnovation (Maria Roszkowska, Nicolas Maigret, Baruch Gottlieb), Elnara Nasirli, Entangled Others (Sofia Crespo & Feileacan McCormick), Gabriela Hirst, Gilberto Esparza, Jacob Kudsk Steensen, Jawa El Khash, Kasia Molga, Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler, Khalid Bin Afif, Laura Cinti, Liam Young, Marina Otero Verzier, Martin Messier, Matt Collishaw, Mohammad Alfaraj, Reel Al Nasser, Robert Hengeveld, Robertina Šebjanič, Zahrah Al Ghamdi

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#affordances    

01.AFFORDANCES

The gallery is conceived as a spatial system in motion, where artwork, audience, and architecture operate as a continuous assemblage. A diaphragm of vertical mirrored fins, arranged in a curvilinear formation, act as a permeable boundary, generating layered reflections and shifting visual fields, guiding movement while maintaining spatial ambiguity. This geometry extends to bespoke scenographic elements, including plinths counterweights, and display cases whose formal rhythm and aesthetic language align with the central structure. Through reflection and repetition, the installation constructs a fluid perceptual field, where architecture transitions from a passive container into an active, mediating presence.

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 what    

OF THE EARTH

ART EXHIBITION

 

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 how big    

600 sqm

 

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 why    

EXPERIENCE ART MACHINES 

 

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 where    

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

 

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 process    

01.AFFORDANCES

02.ATMOSPHERES

03.NON-VISIBLE 

 

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 LEVEL 0 | MAIN SCENOGRAPHIC ELEMENT AND CUSTOM PLINTH    

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 LEVEL -1    

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 LEVEL -1 | MIRROR DIAPHRAGM    

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 LEVEL 0 | PANORAMIC VIEW    

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#atmospheres    

02.ATMOSPHERES

A dynamic interplay of light, reflection, and movement defines the space, where vertical mirrored fins operate as spatial instruments. Paired with a calibrated lighting strategy, they capture the presence of the audience and exhibits—bodies, fabrics, robotic elements, and video projections—while projecting elongated shadows of the fins onto the ground. With the gallery open to natural light, the space maintains a continuous exchange with its surroundings. As daylight shifts and artificial lighting takes over, shadows and reflections intersect across the floor, forming a rhythmic, layered field. These patterns evolve alongside the exhibited works, extending their presence and reinforcing a condition that is immersive, temporal, and continuously shifting.

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 LEVEL 0 | CUSTOM MADE PLINTH SYSTEM    

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 LEVEL -1 | DETAILING    

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 LEVEL -1 | PANORAMIC VIEW    

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 LEVEL -1 | CUSTOM MADE ELEMENTS    

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 SOUR LEVEL -1    

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#non-visible    

03.NON-VISIBLE

The mirrored diaphragm structures on each floor of the gallery space are complemented by bespoke elements developed for each artwork, following the same aesthetic language and amplifying the interplay of reflections, fragmented vistas, and perceptual assemblages. These elements—comprising seating, benches, plinths, plinth systems, and display cases in brushed inox steel, clear acrylic, and mirrored acrylic—extend the spatial logic of the central system. Operating as mediating devices, they continuously reframe vision, recomposing views between audience, exhibits, and architecture, while collapsing distinctions between observer and observed.

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 LEVEL 0    

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 LEVEL -1    

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 LEVEL 0    

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 LEVEL 0 | COEXISTENCIES    

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 PHYSICAL MODEL | LEVEL O    

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 SPATIAL DIAGRAM | LEVEL O    

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 STRUCTURAL DIAGRAM   

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 PHYSICAL MODEL | LEVEL 0   

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 what    

PLĀSMATA: BODIES, DREAMS, AND DATA

DIGITAL ART EXHIBITION

 

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 how big    

1.5 Km

 

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 why    

EXPERIENCE ART MACHINES 

 

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 where    

ATHENS, PEDION TOU AREOS

 

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 process    

01.VIRTUAL MAP

02.CONNECTIONIST MODEL

03.ARTWORK DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

 

 

 

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