NEUMA, The Forgotten Ceremony

An installation by artists Sarah Brahim and Ugo Schiavi presented by Villa Hegra

Curated by: Wejdan Reda and Arnaud Morand

Saudi American artist Sarah Brahim and French artist Ugo Schiavi present the results of their collaborative project, NEUMA, The Forgotten Ceremony. This installation marks the culmination of their residency at Villa Hegra. Imagined as a symbolic gesture paying tribute to the ritual practices of the pre-Islamic tribes of AlUla, this installation by Brahim et Schiavi is the result of in-depth research carried out in close collaboration with archaeologists and local communities across the region. Drawing inspiration from the landscape of AlUla, its mythology and heritage, this exhibition fosters a contemplative mood by subtly blending contemporary creation, elements of the site’s ancient history, as well as temporal and spiritual elements across an ensemble of sculptures, videos, photography commissions and a performative activation.

A series of handcrafted blown glass sculptures—shaped to reiterate the contours of AlUla's geology and its metamorphosis—are presented in a scenography evoking an archaeological reserve. These glass vessels, evocative of relics from a forgotten era or a speculative past, become ceremonial and ritualistic objects when activated by the breath of performers. Neuma, the “vital breath” in classical thought, finds its physical embodiment in these works, where the earthly body and breath appear entwined with the celestial body and the soul. For Aristotle, ”pneuma” (πνεῦμα) was regarded as the animating principle of life. Transcending the individual in Stoic thought, “pneuma” became the divine breath of the cosmos. With this proposition, the artists portray breath as the pulse of existence, the soul as an unseen current — flowing through spaces where form and meaning meet.