Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) today announced its summer and autumn 2021 programmes, featuring major solo presentations and group exhibitions by artists from the MENASA region and beyond as well as international collaborations and new editions of annual programmes highlighting the work of regional and international artists, filmmakers and publishers.
Programmes at Sharjah Art Foundation:
Remain Calm: Solitude and Connectivity in Japanese Architecture, (July 24 – October 1, 2021), the third iteration of Sharjapan, the Foundation’s four-year collaboration with curator Yuko Hasegawa introducing aspects of Japanese culture to audiences in Sharjah. Reflecting on the intimate role architecture plays in our lives, Remain Calm explores the work of notable Japanese architects and an artist who uses traditional concepts to create physical spaces with both modern and contemporary resonance.
When I Count, There Are Only You… and The Rain Forever Will be Made of Bullets (July 24 – October 1, 2021), two exhibitions of works drawn from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection. Curated by SAF Director Hoor Al Qasimi, these exhibitions include works selected from past exhibitions or commissioned for Sharjah Biennials as well as recent acquisitions that have not been previously shown at the Foundation.
When I Count There are Only You… takes its title from a video work by Farideh Lashai that was inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War. This exhibition offers an insight into the radical ideas, visions, and perspectives on humanity that inform the works on view. Lashai’s work is installed alongside work by artists Rasheed Araeen, Mandy El Sayegh, Iman Issa, Farhad Moshiri, Rabih Mroue, Prajakta Potnis and Nari Ward.
Work that examines socio-political conditions in the Middle East is included in The Rain Forever Will be Made of Bullets. Paintings, tapestries, sculptures and works on paper by Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal and Lala Rukh shown previously at the Foundation are joined by a selection of newly acquired sculptures and works on paper by Chaouki Choukini.
Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence, (October 30, 2021 – January 30, 2022), the first mid-career survey of photographer and installation artist Hrair Sarkassian includes two major new commissions alongside a broad range of the artist’s works in human-scale photography, sound and moving image. Organised by Sharjah Art Foundation; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; and the Bonnefanten, Maastricht, this touring exhibition is curated by Dr Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation; Dr Theodor Ringborg, Artistic Director, Bonniers Konsthall (April 26 – June 19 2022); and Stijn Huijts, Artistic Director, the Bonnefanten (Fall 2022– Spring 2023).
Xenogenesis (November 13, 2021 – February 13, 2022), presenting works by the art collective The Otolith Group, reflects the artists’ ongoing commitment to creating what they call “a science fiction of the present” through the use of images, voices, sounds and performance. Xenogenesis was first shown at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in May 2019, and was curated by Annie Fletcher. Its presentation in Sharjah is organised by Van Abbemuseum and Sharjah Art Foundation and co-curated by Annie Fletcher, Director, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Hoor Al Qasimi, Director, Sharjah Art Foundation. Original exhibition architecture designed by Diogo Passarinho Studio.
Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11 Residency Programme (September – December 2021) is a continuation of Tarek Atoui’s major solo exhibition Cycles in 11, presented at SAF from September 2020 to April 2021. The artist will invite eight residents from across disciplines and around the world to take part in a residency programme.
The installation of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s Khayyam Fountain (2018), on long-term loan to SAF, opened in Al Hamriyah Studios on June 10, 2021.
Annual initiatives at Sharjah Art Foundation:
Vantage Point Sharjah 9 (September 18 – November 18, 2021), the ninth iteration of SAF’s open call photography exhibition. VPS9 invited photographers to submit their work under the following categories: Conceptual, Photojournalism and Documentary, Experimental and Staged Photography.
FOCAL POINT (December 9–11, 2021), SAF’s art book fair and accompanying publishing grant open call.
Sharjah Film Platform (November 19–27, 2021), encompassing the Foundation’s annual film festival as well as grant-making and career development initiatives for emerging filmmakers.
International collaborations:
Hassan Sharif: I Am the Single Work Artist at MAMC+ St-Etienne (through September 26). Originally organised by Sharjah Art Foundation and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi as the largest and most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date, the fourth iteration of the exhibition’s international tour, co-curated by Al Qasimi and Aurélie Voltz, General Director of MAMC+, is currently on view at MAMC+.
Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared at MCA Chicago (September 4, 2021 — June 5, 2022) reveals Abidi’s biting critique of those who hold power—and the many ways they wield it. As a master storyteller, she uses humor and absurdism to take on issues of militarism and nationalism as well as memory, belonging and self-determination. This major survey spans two-decades of her practice and features formative video, photography and sound works as well as new commissions. Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared is organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. The MCA presentation is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Natasha Ginwala and Bana Kattan. For more information visit sharjahart.org.
School of Casablanca (through June 2024), a collaborative project exploring the legacy of the Casablanca Art School and its innovative pedagogical methods and exhibition strategies in 1960s Morocco, initiated by Sharjah Art Foundation and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Marokko, ThinkArt and Zamân Books & Curating.
Detailed information on the Foundation’s summer and autumn 2021 programmes in Sharjah and around the world can be found at sharjahart.org.
Media contact:
Alyazeyah Al Reyaysa
T +971(0)65444113 / alyazeyah [at] sharjahart.org