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Sharjah 24
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sharjah 24
Now streaming: Biennial Bytes season two
Biennial Bytes 2 kicks off with a conversation between the five curators of SB16—Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz. Moderated by Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, the episode explores the synergies between curators' individual projects, the diverse formats in which audiences can experience the art at SB16, and how a Biennial can be a space of encounter and collective processing. Subsequent episodes spotlight specific works and projects presented at SB16 through conversations between individual curators and various participating artists, including Bint Mbareh, an artist and sound researcher working around songs of resistance in relation to land and water sovereignty in Palestine, and Joe Namy who sheds light on his collaborative approach to creating sound installations and performances. Yhonnie Scarce speaks about the historical context of nuclear testing on Aboriginal lands in Australia, and Tabu Osusa, founder of Singing Wells, dives into the group's decolonial mission to platform and preserve East African music, while Citra Sasmita talks about her collaboration with Kamasan maestra Mangku Muriati. Tune in to the podcast to listen to personal anecdotes and the stories behind their artworks. Other SB16 artists featured in the podcast are: Stephanie Comilang, Hellen Ascoli, Ana Iti, Naeem Mohaiemen, Pratchaya Phinthong, Adelita Husni-Bey, Mahmoud Khaled and Kapulani Landgraf. Convening under the title to carry, a multivocal and open-ended proposition, SB16 presents over 650 works by nearly 200 participants, including more than 200 new commissions. Exploring the ever-expanding questions of what to carry and how to carry it, SB16 is an invitation to encounter the different formations and positions of the five curators, as well as the resonances they have gathered. The Biennial runs until 15 June 2025 across several venues in Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, Kalba and other locations in the Emirate of Sharjah. New episodes are released every Monday on Apple, Spotify, Anghami, Google and other podcast platforms.
Sharjah 24
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sharjah 24
April Acts 2025: to carry new formations
How can we reimagine and critically investigate our current situations or positions to construct and manifest new approaches to resistance, reciprocity, communal networks and life-enabling systems and structures? to carry new formations explores this overarching question through the exchange of ideas and practices, bringing together conversations, performance, cultural expression, art and activism. April Acts 2025 takes place as a key extension of Sharjah Biennial 16, which features more than 650 works by nearly 200 participants, including more than 200 new commissions. Curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz, SB16 convenes under the title to carry . A multivocal and open-ended proposition exploring the ever-expanding questions of what to carry and how to carry it, SB16 is an invitation to encounter the different formations and positions of the five curators as well as the resonances they have gathered. Using SB16 as both a platform and an instrument, April Acts 2025 engages with the works at the Biennial to highlight independent and collective dialogues around systemic transition, societal shifts, ruptured and recovered histories, forms of collective organising, leadership (including communal leadership) and old knowledge reimagined in new forms. Encouraging practices of new and experimental methodologies, self-organisation and deep reflection and listening, the programme explores collaborative cultural production, acoustic heritage, creative infrastructures under threat, and the spatial and psychic boundaries that limit the movement of people and ideas. The programme builds off Sharjah's proximity to the sea to bolster discussions on belonging, mobility and marine traffic. Through panel discussions, artist talks, participatory workshops, film screenings and live music performances, April Acts 2025 aims to create a polyphonous space that invites multiple perspectives to co-exist and thrive. Among the offerings are guided walks; a listening session with Singing Wells; Risograph printing workshops; Self-Publishing workshops using several printing techniques such as Risograph, including a workshop led by Bhumika Saraswati and Siddhesh Gautam (founders of the magazine All That Blue ); discussions with artists such as Brian Martin, Yhonnie Scarce and Megan Cope; and a screening of First Horse (2024) by Awanui Simich-Pene. Başak Günak, Berke Can Özcan, Sandy Chamun and Hauptmeier I Recker will collaborate in a performance based on their sound installation in the Biennial; Koleka Putuma will offer a performance titled WATER (reprise) ; and there will also be a series of performances based on the SB16 work He Kōrero Pūrākau mō te Awanui o te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river (2011), the red, fully carved Steinway concert grand by Māori artist Michael Parekōwhai. Additionally, an invitation-only curatorial workshop anchored in the ethos of the Biennial creates space for collective wayfinding, offering a moment to reflect on what we inherit, what we hold, and what we must reimagine in order to carry forward new formations of support, resistance and continuity. For more information on Sharjah Biennial 16, please visit List of Participants Akinbode Akinbiyi, Akram Zaatari, Al MacSween, Albert L Refiti, Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Andrew J. Eisenberg, Avni Sethi, Başak Günak, Berke Can Özcan, Bettina Ng'weno, Bhumika Saraswati, Bint Mbareh, Brian Martin, Caroline Courrioux, Claudia Martinez Garay, Christianna Bonin, Daniela Castro, Dawn Chan, E.N Mirembe, Engseng Ho, Fatma Belkıs, George Jose, Georgina Velasco (The Voice of Domestic Workers), Gita Rani, Grace Hussein Karima and Leah Ndahani Zawose (Zawose Sisters), Hauptmeier I Recker, Hsu Fang-Tze, John Clang, Jo-Lene Ong, Koleka Putuma, Mahmoud Khaled, Marigold Quimoy Balquen (The Voice of Domestic Workers), Mariam M. Alnoaimi, May Adadol Ingawanij, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, One Sudan One Sound of Solidarity (OSOS), Raafat Majzoub, Red de Reproducción y Distribución (Reproduction and Distribution Network), Rosie Olang' Odhiambo, Sa Tahanan Collective, Sandy Chamoun, Sarathy Korwar, Seema Alavi, Siddhesh Gautam, Sophia Tintori, Tabu Osusa, Taloi Havini, Tara Al Dughaither, Yasmine El Rashidi, Zeynep Öz.
What's On
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- What's On
Explore thought provoking artworks at Sharjah Biennial 16
Sponsored: Don't miss this fascinating journey of art across Sharjah… Explore a stunning showcase of art and culture that will feature an impressive array of over 650 works by almost 190 artists from around the world, over 200 new commissions. From February 6 until June 15, and planned across 17 venues in the emirate, this year's edition of the Sharjah Biennial will bring art to life at a series of new and innovative locations, transforming the city and its surrounding towns into an immersive cultural experience for both residents and visitors. The biennial is curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz, under the title 'to carry'. The exhibition encourages you to think about how you move through life and shape the world around you, while taking a deeper look into how cultural traditions and personal stories are passed along, even when people transcend borders. The display also focuses on what people carry with them as they go through various life experiences and will invite viewers to explore how art connects to shared experiences like migration, displacement, and resilience. The Sharjah Biennial's works will be presented to the public in this exciting cultural showcase, alongside a dynamic programme of performances, music, and film productions across historical and contemporary venues in Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Kalba, Al Madam, and Al Hamriyah, to name just a few. Iconic sites in the emirates such as Al Mureijah, Arts Square, and The Flying Saucer will host major installations, while emerging space such as Al Madam's buried village and Kalba Ice Factory will serve as a platform for unexpected venues, deepening the Biennial's connection to the region's history and cultural identity. The Biennial is all set to welcome visitors from February 6 to June 15. Throughout the Biennial, there will also be a range of exciting programmes including evening talks at March Meeting in Al Qasimiyah School from March 7 to 9 (10pm to 1am), and April Acts, a new weekend programme activating different aspects of the Biennial from April 18 to 20. Sharjah Biennial, Saturday to Thursday, 9am to 9pm, Fridays 4pm to 9pm, various locations, Sharjah, UAE.
Gulf Today
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Sharjah Biennial's ‘to carry' explores constancy and change in 16th edition
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer Sharjah Biennial 16 (SB16) with the theme 'to carry' has been launched (Feb. 6 — June 15). It unveils more than 650 works by nearly 200 participants, including over 200 new commissions. Curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz, SB16's subject explores the ever-expanding questions of what to carry and how to carry it. It is an invitation to view the different perspectives of the curators, as well as understand their interactions with the artists. The works in the Biennial are presented alongside activations, performances and music and film in more than 17 venues across the emirate of Sharjah, including sites in Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid and Kalba. SB16 looks at how we navigate within spaces that are not our own and how we respond to these spaces through the cultures we carry. The title 'to carry' connects stories and traditions across generations and cultures, asking what we bring with us when we travel, flee, survive or stay. The Biennial is thus a space for collective way finding, helping audiences make sense of the world by reflecting inwards and across, in times of transition. Alia Swastika focuses on the interplay of power, poetics, politics and the foundational role of women's knowledge, as well as speculative futures through technological intervention. Amal Khalaf proposes storytelling, song and divination as rituals for collective learning and resistance in times of political and environmental crisis. Working from an indigenous standpoint, Megan Tamati-Quennell brings together poetic projects exploring concepts related to land, impermanence and conjectural futures as well as reciprocity and respect. Natasha Ginwala centres littoral sites in the Indian Ocean and water wells in Sharjah as reservoirs that carry ancestral memory and place-making, echoing with sonic remembrance. Finally, Zeynep Öz turns a historical lens on societal and economic systems, specifically those developed in response to accelerated changes in technology and science. Among the themes addressed by the curators are oceanic crossings, regional affinities and cultural continuities - many considered in the context of Sharjah's coastal geographies and maritime history. Mariam M. Alnoaimi's work, for example, thinks of the Gulf region's relationships with water bodies as living entities and re-performs local observances in sites affected by land reclamation. Approaching the littoral as a source of visual stories, Akinbode Akinbiyi's photograph series Sea Never Dry (1982–ongoing) is spread along the corniche of Sharjah City in the form of urban interventions. The garments, objects and public gestures created by Serapis Maritime, a hybrid art, design and fashion entity, use materials and imagery from Sharjah's shipyards and industrial facilities. Megan Cope's sculpture Kinyingarra Guwinyanba (2024), meaning 'place of oyster rocks', is situated in Buhais Geological Park - a reference to deep geological time and the shallow sea that covered Sharjah millions of years ago. Alia Farid shares two works based on her multi-year research on ancient wetland communities in the southern marshlands of Iraq, which have been impacted by the aftermath of war and oil industry. Septina Layan, to move on, performs the lament during opening week at Kalba Ice Factory and knowledge, mythologies and political narratives carried by women artists, manifest through different expressions in the Biennial. Building on her research on Syrian-Egyptian singer Asmahan who died in a mysterious accident in 1994, Helene Kazan attempts to reclaim feminist histories through song and poetic testimony. Rajni Perera's works feature femme hybrids and protagonists inspired by South Asian mythology and speculative cosmologies. Womanifesto presents a quilted shelter-like structure produced by women's communities around the world, including one in Sharjah's Al Madam, to offer a transnational space for them to share their stories and build platforms for solidarity. Pratchaya Phinthong experiments with solar energy to enhance coral growth in the reefs around Sharjah. Installed in a courtyard in Al Mureijah Square, Joe Namy's sonic installation, Dub Plants (2024–2025), probes the historically connected fields of radio culture and agriculture. Under the name The Weaving Project, Güneş Terkol, Salima Hakim and Yim Yen Sum, travelled together into villages in eastern Indonesia's mountains to trace the ancient history of humanity and the tradition of weaving; their residency resulted in three distinctive new works. Raven Chacon collaborated with Bedouin singers for his site-responsive sound work in a deserted neighbourhood in Al Madam, originally constructed as public housing for a local tribe. Ayşe İdil İdil, Betül Aksu and Okyanus Çağrı Çamcı, with curator Merve Elveren, present their project Day to Day in two ways — as publication and as an exhibition. Concrete Thread Repertoire, a project group composed of artists, researchers and communities based in Indonesia, assembles an archive of political action and resistance in various states of emergency. Different sonic experiences form core moments in the Biennial. Michael Parekōwhai's He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river (2011), a carved and playable Steinway concert grand piano, invites different music communities to perform. Other Biennial projects include a work by Aotearoa New Zealand musician and sound artist Mara TK and The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain, an album conceived by Natasha Ginwala and Sarathy Kowar. Zeynep Öz's YAZ Publications is a series of 13 books created in parallel with her Biennial exhibition; it goes to Al Dhaid, where six sound artists respond to the presence or lack of trees, water and irrigation systems, in a former date orchard.
The National
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Inside Sharjah Biennial 2025: Colonial board game, celebration of the mandala and migrant stories
Verbs are not often used as thematic titles for art festivals, but the one selected for the Sharjah Biennial is elegantly equivocal. "To Carry", this year's theme, reflects on the many aspects we individually carry, from memories and homes to languages, histories, wounds and ruptures. Yet, by its nature of being a verb, the title also evokes an active state of being and development. To carry something is not a passive act. The artworks at the biennial boldly explore this concept. The event has been curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Oz. The curators come from disparate practices and backgrounds. Their research ranges from the role of storytelling in collective learning and activism to explorations of societal and economic systems. As such, each curator has brought a distinct focus to the biennial and its theme. Ginwala says: 'This idea of return is something that I think about in the long past, really looking at ancestral memory, place-making, cultural histories. How we ourselves are vessels of the past and the imminent futures, whether as immigrants, as those in exile, or as those preparing to travel.' More than 650 artworks are on show. The works are being presented in 17 locations across Sharjah, extending beyond the city to include sites in Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid and Kalba. The works are each deeply personal, responding to the theme in an idiosyncratic manner. Some reflect migrant experiences or overlooked pockets of history. Others re-examine age-old customs and traditions with a novel twist. In her Pacha textile series, for instance, Peruvian artist Claudia Martinez Garay draws inspiration from Andean cosmovision, an idea that suggests that everything in the cosmos is interconnected. The title of the series, Pacha, is also a word in Quechua, an indigenous Andean language, that refers to the three cosmological realms of the upper world, the living world and the underworld. Garay's textiles contain elements that denote these realms, often with a touch of humour and with a collagist's visual sensibilities. One of the works, Chunka Tawayug Pacha, features a floating llama that gawks back at the viewer with a hint of annoyance. The animal is carrying a series of objects, from chilli peppers to toilet paper, a corn cob to a baby and a human head. The objects are tethered in a network of ropes with a blossoming peak that rises towards the sky. Lebanese artist Raafat Majzoub, meanwhile, carries his background as an architect within his work. Streetschool Prototype 1.1, Everything-in your love-becomes easy is part of an ongoing project by Majzoub to create a "school" from salvaged materials. In this iteration, the artist, collaborating with a local team, has utilised materials sourced from architectural sites under renovation across Sharjah. Interlocked tiles, discarded tyres and cinderblocks come together to form a communal space. At the centre is a video that shows an earlier version of the project, which took place in Lebanon, and provides insight into the process. Majzoub says: 'The project started with a personal story. I had a garden in front of my house. The municipality wanted to turn it into a parking lot, and no one was fighting for a garden. I thought that maybe we turn it into a school. People with my first school, but I failed.' Yet, the experience inspired an idea he has sought to replicate in different cities across the region. In Tripoli, the school was built out of garbage. In Abu Dhabi, it was made out of palm leaves. And in Ramallah, the project was materialised using trashed artist materials. The project, Majzoub says, is aimed at bringing people together with an artwork where resources are scarce, not paying anything for materials and paying everyone involved an equal fee. British artist Olivia Plender, on the other hand, is taking on the history of British colonialism with a satirical board game. Set Sail for the Levant: A Board Game about Debt (or a Social Satire) is described as 'a rigged board game that parodies the effects of British land privatisation, debt and colonisation". 'I wanted to create an artwork that people would have to inhabit,' she says. 'When you're playing a game, you're engaged in it. Your emotions are engaged with it. This sort of sense of the system being rigged, if you're in the game, you feel that very acutely. I've made versions of it which are playable. And people get quite angry, they start to feel that there's something something wrong here.' The game, she says, is also meant to spark conversations about a period of British history that most in the UK don't talk about. 'Within the context of Britain, people don't talk very much about the British Empire,' Plender says. 'When it comes to the Middle East region, there's very thin awareness about the British history in the region and colonial presence. In the time period when I was making the game, there was so much going on in the Middle East that had to do with British intervention.' The biennial is also giving a platform to pioneering artists from the Global South, including Velu Viswanathan. A space has been devoted to the Indian painter, showing his unique take on abstraction. The works, dating back to the 1980s, are inspired by the sacred geometry of yantras and mandalas, but depict a propensity towards abstraction that is wholly unique. Triangular forms emerge out of dark swirls and swathes of red. Tiles of teal and orange are rendered in arrangements that evoke lilting, and at times dizzying, feelings. 'It is a form of abstraction that is very rooted in spirituality, coming from southern India, coming from Kerala,' Ginwala says. 'His family also was making mandalas, making temple sculptures, doing carpentry work, making jewellery.' The exhibition space is unique and instils the feeling of being in one of Viswanathan's works." There are also several works of monumental and awe-inspiring scale. Kuwaiti artist Monira Al Qadiri, for instance, is presenting Gastromancer. The work features two colossal seashell sculptures that are suspended in a red room. 'It follows my practice around the topic of oil and its cultural legacies and social legacies,' she says. 'I found this amazing story of how in the 1980s they discovered that the reddish paint on oil tankers seeps into the water and causes changes in the marine population. One of these changes, which I found very interesting and almost science fiction, was that it would cause the seashells to change their genders, from female to male.' Al Qadiri was engrossed by this phenomenon, wondering how the seashells dealt with the change. 'I started imagining a conversation between the two seashells about what happened to them,' she says. For Gastromancer, she used excerpts from the 1994 novel The Diesel by Thani Al Suwaidi. The book was an apt choice, namely in how it explores concepts of identity and transformation in the Gulf. 'I thought it was super fascinating to work in text, so I adapted it into a dialogue,' Al Qadiri says. Sharjah Biennial is running until June 15. More information is available at
