Azimuth Festival
From 5-7 March 2020, some of the most notable talents from East and West converged on this historical site. Music, food and cultural collaboration celebrated at the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the historical old town of Al Ula in Saudi Arabia. The event marked the end of Winter at Tantora, a festival that has been running every weekend since December 2019.
The main day for the music part of the festival, featured performances from international electronic dance artists, The Chainsmokers; as well as Jean Michel Jarre, Tinie Tempah, Super Junior D&E, Hollaphonic, and local talent such as Omar Bassad and Hamza Hawsawi.
MTArt Agency’s artists created 11 sculptures linked to the historical heritage of the site and its special location.
Lauren Baker
Frequency Of The Sun (126.22 Hz), 4.1×2.4m
The surface pattern of the sculpture was formed using experimental software taking a segment of the visual frequency of 126.22. Since creating the artwork from mid 2019, new high-resolution images of the sun were released from an advanced solar telescope in Maui in Jan 2020, with astonishing similarity.
Frequency Of The Moon (210.42Hz), 4.1×2.4m
The armillary sphere consists of a spherical framework of rings, centered on the Sun, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features.
Shuster+Moseley
Horizon of Day and Night,
Horizon of Day and Night is intended to interact with the path of the sun so as to orient our presence in light, space and time. As axial points on the horizon’s circle, the glass monoliths are oriented towards the rising and setting of stellar lights on the horizon and their relational ‘Azimuth’. Of these lights, the sun is chief, being the symbol of consciousness, governing the temporalities of astronomical and seasonal cycles and illuminating experience.
Photos by Roman Scott