Downtown Design makes its debut in Saudi Arabia 

DHAHRAN: It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, not for Saudi actor, comedian, writer, and musician Ibrahim Al-Hajjaj anyway.  

“Getting into acting was a coincidence,” he tells Arab News. “I used to be in a band. I played guitar and sang grunge rock and blues. But in 2012 a loss pushed me to stop music and look for something new.” 

That something new didn’t come in the form of an epiphany or an elaborate five-year plan. It came quietly, like many meaningful changes do.  

“In 2013, I came across an acting course, just by chance,” he recalls. “Then, in 2015, I took a workshop with Kevin Spacey in Sharjah. That’s when my career really started. That year was the true beginning.”  

Since then, Al-Hajjaj has become one of the most popular comedic actors in the Kingdom, known for his sharp wit, heartfelt roles, and endless commitment to culturally rooted storytelling. But the spark that lit it all was just as humble as his beginnings. 

“The first time I acted on stage, my role was barely two minutes,” he said with a laugh. “I said a line, the actor in front of me responded, and suddenly I improvised. The whole theater burst into laughter. I turned to them, thinking, ‘What’s happening?’ Everyone looked so happy. At that moment, making people laugh was beautiful. I realized that comedy is like doing a good deed.” 

That good deed would grow into 2023’s “Sattar,” a breakout hit and the highest-grossing film in the — admittedly short — history of Saudi cinema. But his new film, the action-comedy “Esaaf,” released last month, may challenge that. “We hope it breaks that record,” he says. “We’ve hit nearly 200,000 admissions.”  

But for Al-Hajjaj, success is about more than numbers. “Success is defined by people,” he says. “It isn’t something artists define for themselves. If audiences are watching and enjoying your work, that’s success. At the end of the day, we make art for people to experience as a family. It has to be both meaningful and accessible.”  

Set in Riyadh, “Esaaf,” helmed by British director Colin Teague, follows two incompetent paramedics — Omar (Al-Hajjaj) and Khalid (Mohammed Al-Qahtani) who unwittingly become entangled in a kidnapping plot.  

The film saw Al-Hajjaj wearing many hats: co-writer, creative producer, and lead actor. 

“I was on set for 14 hours daily, ensuring everything felt right: the dialogue, comedy, and the Saudi details. I was like the mother on set. It was exhausting but fulfilling.” 

It’s clear that for Al-Hajjaj, storytelling is truly personal, and the stakes are high. One story in particular, from a nationwide meet-and-greet tour, stuck with him. “An11-year-old girl gave me a crumpled piece of paper with a black heart drawn on it. I went home and cried,” he recalls. “It reminded me that parents are trusting me with what matters most to them: their kids. And that trust means everything.” 

And that’s what Al-Hajjaj wants to honor every time he walks on set. 

“I hope always to make stories that are real, Saudi, full of heart, that families can enjoy together,” he says. “Because that’s what it’s really about; it’s about bringing people together and letting them laugh side by side. There’s nothing more beautiful than that.” 

DUBAI: Against a black background, parts of a face emerge: a chin, followed by lips, ears and eyes — at times alone and at others in unison — colored in yellow, light pink and purple, accompanied by what appear to be lines of TV static in the same colors.  

This digital work, “Memory Recall,” is the latest creation of Jeddah-based Saudi artist Maryam Tariq, which she presented in the digital section of Art Dubai in April, at the booth of Jeddah’s Hafez Gallery. Over the past five years, Tariq, who was born and raised in Yanbu, has made a name for herself with her mixed-media artworks, often utilizing light and 3D projection mapping. 

“Memory Recall” creates an alluring, dream-like environment. Tariq says it references human perception just after birth. The work was influenced by philosophical theories about early human development, particularly those of German psychoanalyst Erich Neumann.  

“I wanted to bring back the faded memory of when we were first born and our consciousness was still forming,” she tells Arab News. “It’s an abstract memory because our brain is still trying to make sense of the world; it doesn’t know the difference between an eye or an apple. 

“I feel the artwork represents a good place — a place where our ego hasn’t yet been formed,” she continues. “It’s a good place to try and be in from time to time.”  

The work offers a sense of what she calls “mystical participation,” referring to the period where a newborn has yet to identify themselves as an individual and is trying to make sense of the world around them. By prompting the viewer to delve back into such a state through the work’s dynamic interplay of light and shadows heightened with color, Tariq strives to remove the sense of “I” that dominates our collective experience.  

Tariq’s interest in creating art came early in life, she says, inspired by her father. 

“My father is an engineer and also an artist, but it’s more of a hobby for him,” she tells Arab News. As a child she would watch him sketch and paint and wanted to do the same.  

“It was our way to spend time together. As a child I wasn’t especially talkative or social and art became a way for me to communicate with the world, my friends and family,” she explains. 

Tariq studied animation at Effat University in Jeddah, and earned her diploma in visual and digital production, which she describes as being similar to filmmaking, as it has a strong focus on storytelling. 

Since then, her work has largely focused on exploring sacred geometry and the spiritual principles that shape nature, resulting in surreal works bridging the realm of digital and traditional art. 

In 2020 she launched The Golden Ratio, her own media art agency, which has since produced immersive visual experiences for music festivals and concerts alongside DJs and producers across the Gulf region and Europe.  

Her first solo exhibition, “Remembering the Future,” took place at Hafez Gallery in Jeddah in 2021, and was followed by her inclusion in the 2022 exhibition “Re-appearing Imaginaries” at the Misk Art Institute in Riyadh as well as in Noor Riyadh that same year. In 2023, she showed her work at the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival and in 2024 she was part of the Noise Media Art fair in Vienna, Austria.  

Tariq recently completed a stint at the Artist Inn Residency in Ubud, Bali, which prompted her to embrace nature and traditional art forms while also distancing herself a little from the tech that dominates daily life.  

“I feel sometimes I get exhausted from using too much technology and feel like just going back to nature and using my hands. So that’s what I did,” she says. “I learned how to sculpt. And after I took it into the digital world. It was a nice experience to mix both. 

“I feel drawn to the digital realm because it’s fun and you can do so much with it; you can go wild with your imagination,” she continues. “But I also feel more involved with traditional (art). While technology is always being updated — always growing with new things to do and explore — I also love the traditional. I feel, sometimes, the need to strike a balance between both.” 

Through her art, Tariq hopes to offer her viewers an experience of escape, contemplation and possibly a shift in perception. 

“I want to take them to this place where they are calm and are just a baby again, experiencing the world for the first time to make sense of things,” she says of “Memory Recall.” “It’s an experience where color is new, and everything is new. I want to offer this perspective of looking at the world with pure eyes.”