July 8–September 11, 2022
Metroland Cultures, a charity that platforms the voices of people across the London Borough of Brent, is pleased to announce the dates of the second edition of the Brent Biennial, as well as a new curatorial team.
Eliel Jones, a curator, writer and organiser based in London, was appointed over the summer as the Curator of the Brent Biennial 2022, and will head up a curatorial committee of invited artists: former Brent Biennial alumni Abbas Zahedi and Adam Farah; and London-based artist, writer and researcher Jamila Prowse.
Metroland Cultures was established to deliver Brent 2020, Brent’s year as London Borough of Culture and its legacy. Following the successful launch of the Brent Biennial in 2020, the second Brent Biennial will take place from July 8–September 11, 2022.
Metroland Cultures also announces the appointment of Lauren A Wright, PhD as Head of Programmes. Lauren leads the artistic programme at Metroland Cultures and its work alongside communities and with partners, including delivery of the Brent Biennial. Lauren was formerly Programme Director at Siobhan Davies Dance and Artistic Director of the 2015 Biennial of the Americas in Denver, Colorado. She was Curator at Turner Contemporary during the first three years following opening in 2011. She holds a PhD in Humanities and Cultural Studies from the London Consortium, University of London and has lectured at Birkbeck, University of London.
Eliel Jones, a curator, writer and organiser based in London, has been appointed Curator of the Brent Biennial 2022. Jones’ research interests and methodologies stem from intersectional approaches to queer and feminist discourse and are guided by his involvement in direct community action and solidarity, such as through his organising work with Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants. Recent projects include: Queer Correspondence, a worldwide mail-art intiative; Do You Host?, Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Acts of Translation, Mohammed and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan; and Experiments on Public Space, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas. He has previously held curatorial positions at organisations including Chisenhale Gallery, London, and writes on contemporary art and performance for various international publications. Jones was a finalist for the 2019 Bonniers Konsthall Curator Award in Stockholm, Sweden.
Brent Biennial 2022 curatorial committee
Jones and the Metroland Cultures team have developed a curatorial framework for the Brent Biennial 2022 which acknowledges the value of working closely with artists from the outset of a project, and meaningfully centres communities as part of the commissioning process.
At the core of this framework is the appointment of an invited curatorial committee consisting of three artists who bring invaluable insights and local knowledge; an expansive network of engagement with communities in and out of the arts; and nuanced and personal experiences of migration, queerness and community care.
Adam Farah
Adam Farah is an artist, composer and sauce-maker who was born n‘ raised in London. They are a Capricorn Sun, Leo Moon and Cancer Rising. They also practice under/within the name free.yard—a project set up to engage with and merge curatorial, research, artistic and equitable communal practices; with a focus on the ever expansive and nuanced creative endeavours/ potentials that emerge from endz. free.yard casts a side-eye onto the oppressive and supremacist structures upheld within the complacent and performative liberal bubbles of the artworld/s, and in the long term desires to create collaborative moments for artists to connect, manifest and exhale under such weight.
Jamila Prowse
Jamila Prowse is an artist, writer and researcher who works across moving image and textiles to consider methodologies for visualising mixed race identity and the lived experience of disability. She is drawn to stitch making and patchwork as a tactile form of processing complex family histories and mapping disability journeys, and moving image as a site of self-archiving and autoethnography. Most recently, Jamila made the first iteration of a series of three films, An Echo For My Father. She was in a group exhibition at Hordaland Kunstsenter, Norway (October 2021) and was studio residency artist at Gasworks (JanuaryApril 2021). Jamila is a columnist for Frieze and British Journal of Photography. Her reviews and essays have appeared in Frieze, Elephant, Dazed, GRAIN, Art Work Magazine and Photoworks. She is an Associate Lecturer at University Arts London.
Abbas Zahedi
Abbas Zahedi’s interdisciplinary practice blends contemporary philosophy, poetics, and social dynamics with sound, sculpture, and other performative media. With an emphasis on how personal and collective histories interweave, Zahedi makes connections whenever possible with those around, in proximity to, or involved with the particular situations upon which he focuses. Through a non-approximate approach, one foregrounding the multiple specificities of a cite/ site and those beyond sight, Zahedi invites others into an ongoing conversation. It is through careful gestures that Zahedi’s practice is enunciated.
For further information or images, please contact:
Mary Doherty, Mary [at] sam-talbot.com / Nafisah Javed, nafisah [at] metrolandcultures.com
