From 8 to 16 November the German Embassy in Riyadh and the German Consulate General in Jeddah presented a diverse programme with four exhibitions as well as concerts and film screenings on a daily basis.

“We are grateful to the Ministry of Culture and the King Fahad National Library for the opportunity to present the diverse cultural scene in Germany”, explained the German Ambassador Jörg Ranau. “This is our first event in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and our first on a public square in the middle of Riyadh. We are thrilled by the interest of the general public in the concerts and exhibitions.”

The German Cultural Days were launched on 8 November by German Ambassador Jörg Ranau and H.E. Tareq Al Fares, CEO of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City with the opening of four exhibitions. An architecture exhibition shed light on the German architects, planners and landscapers who have left their traces in the Kingdom over the past decades. Among others, the masterplan of the Diplomatic Quarter by Albert Speer and Partners, the public gardens in Riyadh by Bödeker and the King Fahad National Library by Gerber are a testimony to the longstanding fruitful cooperation between Saudis and Germans in the cultural field. Another exhibition showcased scientifically relevant but equally appealing “images of science” from the research of the Max-Planck institutes, Germany’s foremost group of institutes for fundamental scientific research. Urban art being a universal phenomenon a street art exhibition co-presented works of the German artist CREN / Michel Pietsch and the Saudi artists Talal Al Zeid and Turki Alromaih. The German team Casa Magica presented a series of visual panels and objects linked to an augmented reality content which could be accessed through a smartphone application.

On 9 November a Saudi-German peoples’ festival celebrated 30 years fall of the Berlin wall and 90 years Saudi-German treaty of friendship with a panel discussion with Ambassador Jörg Ranau, a street-art live performance, and a concert by a Bavarian brass band. In the following days, three other musical groups offered daily concerts: The Trio Adorno brought classical European music for piano, violin, and cello and the Bigge trio, a Jazz trio from Germany, partnered with the Saudi singers Nawaf and Nourah. Lastly the pop group YeY from Mannheim played their original music combining electronic music with oriental influences.