Cirque du Soleil
The Wealth of a Nation
- City : Riyad, Arabie Saoudite
- 2022
Aquatique Show and Cirque du Soleil for Saudi National Day
Aquatique Show incorporated a curved Aqua Graphic water curtain with a linear length of 12 meters into a show celebrating Saudi culture.
To mark Saudi Arabia's 92nd National Day, Cirque du Soleil presented “Sarwat Watan” (The Wealth of a Nation), a creation designed especially for this major event.
Performed in a theater set up for this show in Riyadh, “Sarwat Watan” played to packed houses at every performance, featuring an immersive staging that combined artistic performances, visual storytelling, and stage technologies.
For its premiere performance, the show was broadcast live throughout the kingdom, attracting millions of viewers.
An event show
about the meeting of cultures
Created and directed by Simone Ferrari and Lulu Helbaek, “Sarwat Watan” (The Wealth of a Nation) explores the theme of travel and the meeting of Western and Eastern cultures through the journeys of three travelers.
The show's sets evoke Saudi landscapes, notably Al Naslaa, the famous double mushroom rock located 50 km south of the Tayma oasis in the province of Tabuk.
The artistic and acrobatic performances presented accompany the idea of discovering another culture, its values, and its beauty.
Aquatique Show and Cirque du Soleil in event creation
True to Cirque du Soleil's approach, the show combines acrobatic acts, choreography, original music, and visual storytelling.
The choice of effects, particularly the water effects that accompany and illustrate the narrative, is made with greater peace of mind, as only artistic and technical considerations are taken into account. Unlike a traditional Cirque du Soleil tour, which requires anticipating the transportation costs of these effects and their ease of dismantling and reassembly, Aquatique Show was able to focus on the most appropriate effect in relation to the show's set design and storyline.
Renderings to give a first impression
Aquatique Show responded to Cirque's wishes for water effects with a vivid proposal for the technical and artistic integration of an Aqua Graphic water curtain in a custom format adapted to the intended use.
These visualizations gave the client and artistic teams a clear picture of the upcoming show: the positioning of the water curtain, its dimensions, its interaction with the lighting, and how it would fit in with Cirque du Soleil's performances. This approach ensured consistency between the artistic vision, technical constraints, and venue requirements.
The Aqua Graphic water curtain
For The Wealth of a Nation, Aquatique Show installed an Aqua Graphic water curtain in a semicircle with a diameter of 8 meters. This water effect served as a visual backdrop, stage divider, and projection surface for the show.
Aqua Graphic water curtains are composed of 4 to 8 modules that can be connected in different ways depending on the desired formats and shapes. This modularity offers great freedom of configuration, allowing the creation of straight lines, curves, or specific shapes adapted to each scenography.
For the Saudi National Day celebrations, this flexibility made it possible to design a custom installation in line with the scale of the show.
A renewed collaboration
After several previous collaborations, Cirque du Soleil once again decided to call on Aquatique Show for its custom water effects, demonstrating renewed confidence in the team's technical and scenographic expertise. This collaboration allowed our effects to play an active role in the show, immersing the thousands of spectators present in a memorable moment.
A partner for the development of major international event productions
With The Wealth of a Nation, presented during Saudi Arabia's 92nd National Day celebrations, Cirque du Soleil offered a large-scale show designed for a national celebration and broadcast internationally. In this context, Aquatique Show contributed to the success of the project by integrating its Aqua Graphic water curtain, custom-designed to meet the artistic and technical requirements of the show.
This new collaboration illustrates Aquatique Show's position as a trusted partner for international productions, capable of supporting the largest artistic institutions in the creation of water effects tailored to shows, cultural events, and large-scale ceremonies.
