Hayy Arts in Jeddah Explores How Navigation Shapes Memory and Identity

The “Global Positioning System” exhibition, hosted by Hayy Arts at Hayy Jameel in Jeddah, takes visitors on an artistic experience that moves beyond the concept of navigation as a means of reaching destinations. It offers a contemporary perspective on the relationship between people and place, and how maps, transport networks, and infrastructure have helped shape memory and identity and redefine borders and distances.

 Running through October 26, the exhibition presents multimedia artworks that explore navigation systems from diverse intellectual and visual perspectives. It traces transformations in movement through space and the accompanying changes in perceptions of the surrounding environment through narratives spanning land and sea routes, infrastructure, and cosmic trajectories, offering visitors an experience where art intersects with geography, history, and technology.

 The exhibition reexamines maps as tools that extend beyond their navigational function, opening a discussion on their role in shaping people’s perceptions of the world. It also explores how digital navigation technologies have changed the concept of mobility, transforming it from a sensory experience connected to place into a process reliant on data and coordinates.

 The exhibition features more than 40 artworks by artists from more than 20 countries, ranging from installations and research-based works to conceptual practices. It links transport, trade, urban transformations, and human memory, making the journey itself a subject of reflection and underscoring that finding one’s way is not limited to reaching a destination, but also involves rediscovering place and creating new meanings for the world around us.