The first Saudi exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s original artworks presented in collaboration with Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan: this exhibition showcased a compelling dialogue between Da Vinci and the world renowned contemporary artist Philippe Rahm, who created a site-specific artwork especially for this exhibition around the theme of ENERGY

The Aimes was commissioned to develop a detailed concept and experience on this topic, including full exhibition production video and graphical content, AV & technology, print assets such as leaflets, interpretation plans, layout designs, custom scenographic production, on site installation and operation of the exhibition for 1 month. Many challenges were faced and overcome:

Time factor: We had only 8 weeks to conceive, build and install the exhibition. This included signing the loan agreements with the lender, an extremely lengthy and challenging process between the Italian government and the Vatican State.

Cultural mediation: Leonardo was presented for the first time in KSA and this demanded the perfect approach emphasising all the links between Arab scholars and Da Vinci. We utilised our curatorial team to dive into the history books and extract provenance linking these aspects.

Logistics: No temporary importation regulation for artworks existed in Saudi at the time and no official international customs clearance procedures for these kinds of valuable artefacts were in place.