40 years ago, Jeddah mayor Mohamed Said Farsi transformed his city through an urban development scheme that placed contemporary art at its core. This was public art on a grand scale, designed 'to bring delight to the citizen, to give a sense of wonder and stir a sense of history'. Works were commissioned from the world's greatest sculptors and this book documents the restoration and relocation of some 26 major works to a new Open Air Museum. It allows the world a unique glimpse into a city not easily visited and shows Saudi Arabia as a place of vision and innovation in art.

Christoph Schlingensief (1960-2010) was a German film and theatre director, actor, artist and author. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later began staging productions for theatres and festivals, which often were accompanied by public controversies. Edited by his friends and associates Klaus Biesenbach, Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Aino Laberenz and Susanne Pfeffer, "Christoph Schlingensief" is an overview of the artist's works that includes over 500 pages of photographs from Schlingensief's films, plays and projects. In the preface the publication, the editors write: "Just how far ahead of his time Christoph Schlingensief was with regard to artistic, political and social themes and subjects is evident only in retrospect ... He still challenges and overwhelms viewers with his overflowing images, his deliberate confusion of fact and imagination, and the sociopolitical volatility of the issues he tackles."

Mohamed Said Farsi became Mayor of Jeddah in 1972 and rejuvenated the city with public art at its heart. The resulting--and unprecedented--urban landscape is now enriched by a diversity of works from world-famous artists, such as Arp, Cesar, Calder, Lipschitz, Miro, Moore, Pomodoro, and Vasarely, as well as regional artists including Salah Abdulkarim and Shafiq Mazloum. This book shows Saudi Arabia as a place of artistic vision and innovation and allows a glimpse into a city not easily visited. Jeddah has grown since 1972 and now some 53 major pieces are being restored and relocated to the sea front, known as the Corniche.