DHAHRAN: The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, commonly known as Ithra, this week presents “Echoes of the Familiar,” a new exhibition exploring the meaning of home. The exhibition runs from Oct. 31 to Sept. 1, 2026.
Although the official opening coincides with Halloween, it is not a haunted house — rather, it asks visitors to ponder what constitutes a Saudi home.
Gaida Al-Mogren, curator of the exhibition and artistic director of the Noor Riyadh Festival, spoke to Arab News about the project. An architect and a leading voice in Saudi contemporary art, she brings more than two decades of experience merging architecture, culture and art.
“We were thinking of the house and how the walls hold memory. And actually, in certain places, you can hear the whispers of these walls,” she said. “They can tell us the stories of the people that lived in it, and all the things that happened within these walls. And then, of course, we started thinking about walking on the tiles and the noises these places make. And so, from that, the echo started coming up.”
The exhibition opens with a vibrant red door, a stylistic choice that also serves as a transitional door, reflecting the era when Saudi homes moved from wooden doors in mud houses to aluminum doors with colored glass in concrete homes. Al-Mogren said the door was chosen to resonate across regions, connecting Najdi, Hasawi, and other traditional patterns throughout Saudi Arabia.
