RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and France have built a cultural relationship that now spans contemporary art, heritage, language, higher education, research, and a growing network of young professionals. What was once largely driven by state-level diplomacy is increasingly being shaped by institutions, creative communities, universities, and informal people-to-people exchanges.
Cultural exchange remains a key pillar of that relationship, extending across heritage, film, museums, fashion, libraries, performing arts, and visual arts.
In January, Saudi Assistant Minister of Culture Rakan Al-Touq and French Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Patrick Maisonnave reviewed ongoing cooperation in Diriyah, covering projects in heritage, film, culinary arts, libraries, joint exhibitions, and professional training. That same month, Al-Touq met Centre Pompidou President Laurent Le Bon in Diriyah to discuss art loans and exhibition exchanges with the Museums Commission.
A recent example of this evolving relationship is La Fabrique, a Saudi-French cultural platform launched in January by Riyadh Art and the Institut français in Saudi Arabia at the JAX District.
Bringing practitioners together across performance, digital art, photography, music, and cinema, La Fabrique was designed as a co-creative laboratory. Maisonnave described it as a new phase in bilateral cooperation: “By bringing our artists together, we are not only sharing techniques and traditions, we are opening a space where imaginations meet, new forms emerge, and creativity becomes a bridge between our two societies.”
