PARIS.- A table can be many things: a place to share a meal, a surface on which to work, a gathering point for family and friends, or a quiet witness to conversations and rituals that have long since ended. These familiar associations form the starting point for Tables Around — Six Proposals from Saudi Arabia, an exhibition bringing together seven women artists whose works explore the relationships between everyday objects, cultural memory and contemporary life.

Presented by Villa Hegra at Asia Now 2026, the exhibition takes place at the Monnaie de Paris from October 20 to 24, with a VIP preview on October 19. Curated by Basmah Felemban and Gaël Charbau, it features six newly conceived artistic proposals spanning sculpture, textiles, moving images, scent and furniture.

Rather than presenting a single narrative about contemporary art in Saudi Arabia, the exhibition offers seven individual perspectives on an object found in virtually every culture. The artists examine how tables can bring people together while also revealing social hierarchies, personal histories, domestic routines and the complexities of human relationships.

The participating artists are Raghad Al-Ahmed and Reem Olyan, Latifa AlBokhari, Reem Ali, Reem Al Nasser, Zahra Bundakji and Bashaer Hawsawi. Their approaches differ considerably, but each finds in the table a way to reconsider the relationship between material objects and lived experience.

Raghad Al-Ahmed, an experimental multimedia artist based in Jeddah, collaborates with Palestinian architect and ceramic artist Reem Olyan on Harut and Marut (2026), a work made from mahogany wood and handcrafted marquetry inlay. Al-Ahmed's practice draws on her Hejazi heritage, Islamic patterns and cultural memory, while Olyan, co-founder of Rejo Studio, explores the meeting point between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary furniture design.

For Latifa AlBokhari, questions of memory and belonging are central to Breaking Bread (2026), a work incorporating sunprints on cotton, embroidery and video. Born in 1994, AlBokhari has spent a significant part of her life abroad, an experience that has informed her interest in cultural identity and the ways people establish connections with places and communities. Her work considers how personal histories can be preserved and communicated through images and textiles.

A more unsettling perspective emerges in Reem Ali's Her Mental Tools (2026), a two-channel video installation incorporating a modified domestic table fan fitted with kitchen-knife blades. Ali, whose practice encompasses moving images, photography, installation and text, frequently investigates the psychological dimensions of domestic life. By transforming an ordinary household appliance into an object that appears both familiar and threatening, she draws attention to the contradictions that can exist within seemingly comfortable spaces.

Reem Al Nasser approaches the theme through the sensory qualities of flowers and collective activity. Her installation A Ground of Gathering (2026), made with jasmine flowers and threads, reflects an artistic practice grounded in personal observation, anthropological research and the study of social relationships. Her wider body of work has examined movement, cultural change, gender and the sometimes difficult tensions that shape human interaction.

Jasmine, with its associations with fragrance, ceremony and everyday life, becomes a material through which the artist can explore the connections between individual experience and collective memory. The work also highlights how traditional materials can acquire new meanings when introduced into contemporary artistic settings.

In Threshold (2026), Zahra Bundakji uses metal and silicone to develop a sculptural exploration of social practices. Born in Jeddah in 1990, Bundakji combines fieldwork, visual ethnography and long-term observation in a practice concerned with the ways people communicate meaning through shared experiences.

Her interests extend from hospitality and food to dance and other forms of collective expression. Alongside her artistic work, she develops curatorial and community-based projects intended to encourage encounters across generations and cultural backgrounds.

Bashaer Hawsawi's Her First Steps "Second Life" (2021–2026) brings a vintage table together with dried lemons, transforming familiar materials into a sculptural meditation on memory and domestic tradition. Based in Jeddah, Hawsawi works with found objects and everyday substances, often drawing inspiration from family rituals, inherited practices and the materials that surrounded her during childhood.

Her work exemplifies one of the exhibition's central ideas: that an ordinary object can carry meanings extending far beyond its immediate practical function. The table becomes more than furniture, while the materials associated with it evoke experiences of belonging, nostalgia and cultural continuity.

The exhibition is part of the AlUla Cultural Season in Paris, presented by Arts AlUla, Villa Hegra and the French Agency for AlUla Development (Afalula). The program also includes In the Bellies of the Rocks, an exhibition by Saudi artist Ayman Zedani, presented by the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum at Paris Internationale from October 20 to 24.

These presentations follow cultural events organized during Paris Design Week in September, including Life of Forms at Lafayette Anticipations and AlUla: Designing from the Land at the Institut du monde arabe.

Villa Hegra, established through a Saudi-French intergovernmental agreement signed in 2021, is based in AlUla and supports artistic exchanges between Saudi Arabia and France. Its cultural center, which opened in 2025, includes exhibition spaces, workshops, artist studios, residences, a cinema and facilities for performing arts.

Through its participation in Asia Now, the institution continues to introduce contemporary artistic practices connected to Saudi Arabia to international audiences.

At the heart of Tables Around is a simple proposition: objects encountered every day can hold stories that are not immediately visible. By examining the table through different artistic languages, the exhibition invites visitors to consider the gestures, memories and relationships that accumulate around it, turning an ordinary piece of furniture into a space for reflection on how people live together.