Tuwaiq International Sculpture Symposium (TISS)

uwaiq International Sculpture Symposium (TISS) will consist of 20 sculptors from around the world coming together to produce a series of permanent public sculptures. The 22-day Symposium (10th November– 2nd December 2021) is a platform for international and Saudi artists to create public sculptures in a live setting. The work will be on view for 5 days at the end of the Symposium (2nd – 6th December 2021) before moving to various outdoor locations across the city.

The entire creative process will be open and accessible to the public with a program of different events and talks.

Applications are open to stone sculptors of all nationalities with at least 5 years of experience exhibiting works permanently or temporarily in outdoor spaces or galleries. A highly respected expert panel comprised of five renowned members will review each application, and a final list of 20 artists will be commissioned to create new works at TISS.

The 2021 expert panel includes: Cristiana Collu (director of National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy); Nicholas Cullinan (director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK) Yuko Hasegawa (artistic director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan); Marina Loshak (director of The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia) and Eike Schmidt (director of Uffizi Galleries, Florence, Italy) including the Symposium’s curator Ali Jabbar.

The theme for Tuwaiq International Sculpture Symposium 2021 is “The Poetics of Space”. Exploring the connections between matter and emptiness, light and shadow, TISS invites participating artists to create mesmerizing sculptures that imply poetry and create their own space while being in harmony with the surrounding public realm of JAX District, Al Diriyah.