Vibha Galhotra

Future Fables is a continuation of Vibha Galhotra's ongoing site-specific iterations that engage with new-age global phenomena and the repurposing of contemporary waste. The work extends a larger inquiry; how can the discarded matter of our time be transformed into monumental structures that compel us to think, remember and re-imagine? In this iteration, concrete debris becomes both material and metaphor: rubble of cities, ambitions turned residue, the bones of progress now stripped bare.

The sculpture grows through participation. Local debris carries the resonance of place; visitors are invited to leave words, grief, hope, turning the work into a living archive. In this desert of deep time, Future Fables becomes a fable of resilience, a relic of what remains, a space where ruins speak and tomorrow breathes through sand.

Desert X AlUla 2026 was curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, under the vision of Founding Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and returning 2026 Artistic Director Raneem Farsi. Commissioned by the Royal Commission for AlUla.

The exhibition brought together 11 artists whose diverse and monumental works reflect a wide spectrum of ideas, materials and traditions. From monumental kinetic sculpture to sound-based explorations above and below ground, each commission is deeply rooted in relationships to AlUla’s dynamic and distinctive environment.