Noor Ridyah
The annual citywide light art festival, Noor Riyadh, returned in November 2025, uniting local and international artists in Saudi Arabia to dazzle the city with kinetic pieces of light artworks under the theme of ‘In the Blink of an Eye’.
(UAE) – Now in its fourth edition, the festival continues to expand in both ambition, scale and impact. To date, the festival has showcased 460 artworks, worked with 365 artists, and earned 16 Guinness World Records. In light of its rapid evolution over the last four years, the theme of 2025, ‘In the Blink of an Eye,’ was created to capture the very essence of the festival’s transformation.
The narrative unfolds two interwoven paths: in the historic centre, light-based artworks converse with ancient architecture, bridging the city’s rich cultural heritage with its energetic present. Meanwhile, animated by installations across the metro stations, which reflect the pace and rhythm of urban life, in the form of kinetic sculptures and responsive installations that trace the flow of people, visualising connectivity and interaction. 
The edition was curated by Mami Kataoka, Curatorial Advisory Lead and Director of Mori Art in Tokyo; Sara Almutlaq, Riyadh-based curator; and Li Zhenhua, curator and founder of Beijing Art Lab. In total, the festival presented 60 artworks by 59 artists, which were located from North to South Riyadh across six locations: KAFD Metro Station, stc Metro Station, Al Faisaliah Tower, King Abdulaziz Historical Center, Qasr Al Hokm, and Riyadh Art, Jax District. In addition to this, the event also saw the introduction of more than 36 new commissions from across Saudi Arabia and the world.
One of the standout pieces included Astrum by László Zsolt Bordos, Hungarian artist, who created powerful beams atop Al Faisaliah Tower – designed by UK-based practitioner Fosters + Partners– acting as a moving planetary compass, pointing celestial bodies in real time. With lasers beaming up to 7km, the work turns the city skyline into an astronomical stage, inviting viewers to reconnect with the cosmos through the lens of metropolitan Riyadh.
Bordos also collaborated with French artist Christophe Berthonneau on Synthesis, a single kinetic performance that merges architecture, drone choreography, and mapping. In this piece, the building appears to levitate, its facade a recombinant geometry, while drones extend the light ballet skyward in dialogue between art and engineering.
Meanwhile, the façade of KAFD Metro Station – designed by Zaha Hadid Architects – was transformed into a shifting lattice of light and sound by Romanian artist, Vali Chincișan, through oscillating patterns that fracture into colour to an electronic score. The work offers a precise meditation on perception in motion, as the architecture appears to inhale data, allowing geometry to unfold into music.
Other honourable mentions include Italian art architecture collective, Luna Somnium’s fuse•, which transforms precise lunar data into a cosmic multisensory experience where shifting visuals and atmospheric design turn scientific observation into a meditative dream-like encounter with the celestial. James Clar’s When the Sky Reaches the Ground (Philippines and USA) displays a monumental sculptural bolt of frozen light, constructed from neon and grid scaffolding, symbolising mom
ents of immense speed and intense energy. Algorithms of Light: The Falcon by Ahmad Angawi (Saudi Arabia) explores the heritage, motion and transformation through a calligraphic design inspired by Najdi Sadu patterns and the Saudi falcon, elongating subtly in a quiet space with enduring rhythm and geometry. that elongates to inhabit space.
Speaking on the success of Noor Riyadh, Festival Director Nouf Almoneef says: “Each year, Noor Riyadh grows in ambition and impact. I am proud that we continue to champion artists, strengthen the creative economy, and build connections between Saudi talent and the international arts community. Together we are shaping Riyadh into a Global capital for culture today and for the good of generations to come.”