Artists Invited to Reimagine Archives at Diriyah’s Microresidency

More often than not, archives reveal just as much through what they omit as what they record. This question lies at the heart of a new six-day research residency facilitated by The Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the Anthropology Bel3Araby Lab, and will seek to engage with the gaps and silences within the archives of nations and institutions.

The microresidency, ‘The Counter-Archive Lab', invites artists, writers, curators, researchers and interdisciplinary practitioners to reconsider how archives are read, interpreted and engaged with.

Divided into two core sections, the residency will take place between April 17th to April 22nd, 2026. The first half will focus on research and critical inquiry, encouraging participants to question archival authority and reflect on themes such as preservation politics and nostalgia during curation. The second half will shift toward production and public engagement, preparing participants to present their ideas in a public showcase that can be anything from a performance to an installation.

Bringing together practitioners from artistic, academic, and community contexts, ‘The Counter-Archive Lab’ aims to foster collaborative knowledge-making and experimental approaches to archival production to produce new forms of knowledge.

The residency will be conducted in Arabic and English, with applications open until March 22nd, 2026.