Riyadh, 10 Rajab 1447 AH (30 December 2025)

Riyadh is currently hosting the "Between Two Cultures" festival, offering a rich cultural experience that reflects the depth of Chinese civilization and the diversity of its cultural heritage, while highlighting points of convergence and harmony with Saudi culture, in a creative showcase that embodies shared values in heritage and identity and strengthens human connection through culture as a universal language that transcends borders.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture at Masar Hall in Mohammed bin Salman Nonprofit City (Misk City), the festival's third edition hosts the People's Republic of China, coinciding with the Saudi-Chinese Cultural Year 2025, in a step aimed at reinforcing civilizational dialogue and strengthening cultural and knowledge exchange between the two countries.

Saudi and Chinese cultural heritage blend to form a bridge of intellectual and artistic connection for visitors, with the festival running until 6 January 2026 and offering an integrated experience across three main sections that reflect the diversity of creative visions and the deep relationship between humans, environment and memory.

The first section, titled "Desert and the Sea of Memory," explores the close relationship between humans and place, examining how natural elements such as desert and sea help shape artists' visual memory and turn it into artistic vocabulary expressing identity and belonging.

The second section, "A Fabric of Light and Clay," focuses on exploring the relationship between the material and the immaterial, through artworks that reinterpret concepts of light, clay and textile, revealing the interplay between matter and spirit and the connection between artistic creativity and the environment as an authentic source of inspiration.

The third section, "Traces of the Future," is dedicated to reinterpreting traditions through a contemporary lens, blending cultural memory with artistic innovation, as artists present creative visions linking past and present and envisioning a future grounded in cultural heritage as a foundation for renewal.

"Between Two Cultures" has offered a comprehensive cultural experience highlighting the richness of Chinese civilization and the diversity of its heritage, alongside points of convergence with Saudi culture, reflecting the Ministry of Culture's commitment to building bridges of civilizational connection, strengthening the Kingdom's cultural presence regionally and internationally, and cementing its standing as an active hub for global cultural dialogue, in line with the goals of the National Culture Strategy under Saudi Vision 2030.

The festival has targeted a wide range of audiences, including families and individuals, tourists and foreign visitors, official delegations, and professionals in cultural sectors, through a comprehensive program featuring an art exhibition that strengthens human connection and affirms culture's role as a universal language uniting peoples.