• Readings from Julie Tieke and Maria Alem as part of the exhibition Nothing As Planned, Yet We Sang - 1

    Readings from Julie Tieke and Maria Alem as part of the exhibition ‘Nothing As Planned, Yet We Sang’, a sawtasura sonic intervention to Bricklab’s ‘Saudi Modern’ show. Jeddah, March, 2022. 

  • Readings from Julie Tieke and Maria Alem as part of the exhibition Nothing As Planned, Yet We Sang - 2

    Kurd Al Tha’alba by Roaa Lamfoon, audio installation as part of the exhibition ‘Nothing As Planned, Yet We Sang’, a sawtasura intervention to Bricklab’s ‘Saudi Modern’ show. Jeddah, March, 2022 

  • View of ‘oral history with Dr. Hind Baghafar’ for Eid w Tahaweed

    View of ‘oral history with Dr. Hind Baghafar’ for ‘Eid w Tahaweed’, a sawtasura research-based exhibition around traditional folk songs at Ithra, King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture. Dhahran, June, 2022 

  • View of visitors reading curatorial statement at INTERMIX

    View of visitors reading curatorial statement at INTERMIX, Open Studio. Riyadh, February, 2023 

  • View of Grounding Elysar, by Tamara Kalo, as part of the INTERMIX Open Studio exhibition

    View of ‘Grounding Elysar’, by Tamara Kalo, as part of the INTERMIX Open Studio exhibition. Riyadh, February, 2023

Tara Al Dughaither (Saudi Arabia) in her curatorial practice engages with listening as a primal mode of acquiring knowledge about the self and others. In addition to mediating artist practices in writing and exhibition making, she regularly works with musicians on vocal improvisations and a developing practice in performance, stemming from research done through sawtasura, a platform Tara founded for artistic research into women’s folk music and oral histories and culture in Saudi Arabia. One of Tara’s main missions is to help empower independent voices and informal art practices in the Kingdom in connection to the wider world.

During her residency, Tara intends take time to reflect on her practice as a mediator in music and the arts through collaborative music and song writing alongside a written expansion of Folk Futurisms. This is a developing pedagogy through which she hopes to build on theoretical strings drawn from Black Futurism and Gulf Futurism, integrating spiritual and native knowledges into curatorial and artistic practice.

Recent projects include guiding 26 artists in the first interdisciplinary arts residency in the Kingdom, titled Intermix. Prior to that, Tara curated artist-led research for the exhibition Eid w Tahaweed, showcased at Ithra (King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture), which combined the documentation of traditional folk tales and lullabies in the Eastern and Western provinces of the Kingdom with collected and commissioned visual artworks. Shortly before that, Tara curated Nothing As Planned, Yet We Sang, a small-scale intervention with five artist as part of the Jeddah-based exhibition Saudi Modern by bricklab, which showcased audio and video recordings of women in urban settings subject to expropriation. This documentation was a result of a listening/recording workshop Hospitable Ear, conducted with Julia Tiekke.

Tara was born and is based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 

With support from

Delfina Foundation’s Family of Supporters

Residency Season

Spring 2023

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Please note all biographies are accurate at the time of the residencies. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.