What is an artist’s role in building a city? The inaugural Artists in Residence programme at NEOM addresses this question, and there is hardly a better place to investigate the subject than a city that is in the process of being built. A $500 billion project, NEOM has made international headlines over the past few years for its mega-developments that include THE LINE, OXAGON and TROJENA.

Once completed, the area in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk region will effectively be transformed into what is routinely being advertised as “the land of the future”. However, while these projects will certainly give NEOM the appearance of a futuristic city, art and culture are what will give it a soul.

“When you're building a city, it's not just about building roads and buildings,” says Michael Lynch, executive director of entertainment, culture and media at NEOM. “The original intention behind what we wanted to do was to embed the idea that artists have a place and role in the Saudi of the present and the Saudi of the future.”

Four Saudi artists – Bilal Allaf, Ahaad Alamoudi, Abdulmohsen Al Bin Ali and Ayman Zedani – took part in the Artists in Residence programme. They were joined by four international artists: Eduardo Cassina from Spain, Tamara Kalo from Lebanon, Giulia Bruno from Italy and Liva Dudareva from Latvia.

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