Maghras: A Farm for Experimentation
Triennale Milano
2025
This was Saudi Arabia’s inaugural participation at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition with a pavilion dedicated to Al Ahsa, an agricultural oasis that has been home to diverse civilizations since the third millennium BCE.
The pavilion unfolds as a site of reflection and response, shaped by research, programmes, and artistic interventions cultivated at Maghras, a farm and interdisciplinary community space in Al Ahsa. An ancient oasis once defined by water abundance, Al Ahsa has undergone ecological, environmental, and social shifts that resonate with rural landscapes and agrarian communities worldwide.
Conceived as an immersive terrain of process, discourse, and experimentation, the pavilion is structured as a transplanted Maghras—a traditional unit of land demarcated by four palm trees—symbolically framing the conversations, material traces, soundscapes of field recordings and speculative gestures emerging from the space. This spatial and conceptual grafting invites audiences into the core of Al Ahsa’s living histories and evolving agro-ecosystems.
The pavilion proposes a series of reflections and propositions: How do we preserve the threads of a rural condition under the pressures of homogenous urban expansion? How can we connect and protect decentralised and fragile systems of knowledge at risk of disappearance? Engaging with the urgencies of adaptation, and reimagination, it maps trajectories of repair and revival that work toward a more integrated bond between people, place, and ecology.
Visit Maghras website for more information.
The pavilion unfolds as a site of reflection and response, shaped by research, programmes, and artistic interventions cultivated at Maghras, a farm and interdisciplinary community space in Al Ahsa. An ancient oasis once defined by water abundance, Al Ahsa has undergone ecological, environmental, and social shifts that resonate with rural landscapes and agrarian communities worldwide.
Conceived as an immersive terrain of process, discourse, and experimentation, the pavilion is structured as a transplanted Maghras—a traditional unit of land demarcated by four palm trees—symbolically framing the conversations, material traces, soundscapes of field recordings and speculative gestures emerging from the space. This spatial and conceptual grafting invites audiences into the core of Al Ahsa’s living histories and evolving agro-ecosystems.
The pavilion proposes a series of reflections and propositions: How do we preserve the threads of a rural condition under the pressures of homogenous urban expansion? How can we connect and protect decentralised and fragile systems of knowledge at risk of disappearance? Engaging with the urgencies of adaptation, and reimagination, it maps trajectories of repair and revival that work toward a more integrated bond between people, place, and ecology.
Visit Maghras website for more information.
Collaborators:
Lulu Almana, curator
Sara Al Omran, curator
Leen Ajlan, artist
Mohammad Al Faraj, artist
Sawtasura, artist
Adriana Barcenas, co-exhibition designer
Frank Mondragón, graphic designer
Khaled Esguerra, graphic designer
Latifa Alkhayat, editorial lead
Black Engineering, fabrication and project management
Other Maghras contributors found here.
Photography by Valentina Sommariva and Marco Previdi
Lulu Almana, curator
Sara Al Omran, curator
Leen Ajlan, artist
Mohammad Al Faraj, artist
Sawtasura, artist
Adriana Barcenas, co-exhibition designer
Frank Mondragón, graphic designer
Khaled Esguerra, graphic designer
Latifa Alkhayat, editorial lead
Black Engineering, fabrication and project management
Other Maghras contributors found here.
Photography by Valentina Sommariva and Marco Previdi