Tamawuj
October 2016–2017
Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) is pleased to announce the list of over 60 artists participating in Act I of the forthcoming Sharjah Biennial 13, Tamawuj (SB13):
Noor Abuarafeh, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Abbas Akhavan, Tamara Al Samerraei, Allora & Calzadilla, Maria Thereza Alves, Kader Attia, Tonico Lemos Auad, Ismaïl Bahri, Sarnath Banerjee, Yto Barrada, Abdelkader Benchamma, Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Jonathas de Andrade, Mariana Castillo Deball, Roy Dib, Vikram Divecha, Barış Doğrusöz, Koo Donghee, İnci Eviner, Em'kal Eyongakpa, Harun Farocki, Fehras Publishing Practices, Future Farmers, Daniele Genadry, Deniz Gul, Shadi Habib Allah, Taloi Havini, Takashi Ishida, İz Öztat and Fatma Belkıs Işık, Lamia Joreige, Christoph Keller, Samir Khaddaj, Mahmoud Khaled, Nesrine Khodr, Basim Magdy, Metahaven, Hind Mezaina, Mochu, Oscar Murillo, Joe Namy, Uriel Orlow, The Otolith Group, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Khalil Rabah, Raqs Media Collective, Stéphanie Saadé, Abdullah Al Saadi, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Ghassan Salhab, Roy Samaha, Massinissa Selmani, Setareh Shahbazi, Nida Sinnokrot, Walid Siti, Monika Sosnowska, Zhou Tao, Mario García Torres, Jorinde Voigt, James Webb, Rain Wu and Eric Chen, Paola Yacoub, Fathi Zamroud
SB13 curator, Christine Tohme, draws on her informal networks and personal bonds to critically rethink the role of the biennial. Rearranging and expanding Sharjah Biennial’s structure—both in terms of time and space—Tohme questions the format of large-scale, centralised exhibitions with a vision that is dynamic, discursive and locally rooted. Her vital interventions take place against the backdrop of infrastructural fragility within regional institutions, and channel friendships and collaborations—a practicality which has been necessary for the survival of many art landscapes, institutions and individuals.
Underway since the launch in October 2016 of SB13 School, a yearlong educational programme focusing on local infrastructures and empowering various communities in western, central and eastern Sharjah, and chip-ship, a web-based collaborative research platform with programmes running through October 2017, Tamawuj extends far beyond Act I in Sharjah (March 10–June 12, 2017). Tohme draws on Sharjah’s unique positioning in the region in order to expand the biennial through various nodes, inviting four "interlocutors" to create varied permutations of artistic conversation and production across four other sites: Dakar, Senegal; Ramallah, Palestine; Istanbul, Turkey; and Beirut, Lebanon.
These localities were selected not for their geopolitical attributes, but rather for the long-standing affiliations, as well as the common history and vision Tohme shares with the interlocutors. These four actors will each envision and conceive a different programme, rooted in their local context and engaging with a particular keyword, to which a body of researchers, artists and thinkers will also respond. The thematic focus of SB13 is grounded in the four keywords water, crops, earth and culinary, which form the foundations of social interaction and exchange. Between January 8 and 9, 2017, artist Kader Attia will launch the first off-site project around water in Dakar, a workshop taking place at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD); curator Zeynep Oz will lead the Istanbul programme related to crops (May 13, 2017); curator Lara Khalidi will address the subject of earth in Ramallah (August 10, 2017); and Ashkal Alwan will organise the closing Act II of the biennial alongside a project around the keyword of the culinary, both in Beirut (October 15, 2017).
Just as the thematic keywords are porous and feed into one another, SB13 places researchers and interlocutors in conversation with one another, and with Sharjah. Its multi-city, multi-part programmes are envisaged as infrastructures to channel knowledge transmission and information sharing between artists, curators, editors, researchers and the general public. This fluidity of knowledge irrigates new, enduring terrains of collaboration and references the threefold meaning of Tamawuj: a rising and falling in waves; a flowing, swelling, surging or fluctuation; and a wavy, undulating appearance, outline or form.
The talks, performance and film programmes will be released at a later stage.
Sharjah Biennial opening week programme
Sharjah Biennial opening week programme in 2017 will begin with the professional preview on March 10, followed by the evening Opening Gala Dinner and Biennial Awards ceremony on March 11. The full schedule of events from March 10–14 will include performances, films, lectures, and the annual March Meeting, featuring presentations by artists, art professionals and institutions focused around the main curatorial framework of SB13.
March Meeting 2017 open call
In conjunction with SB13’s opening week, SAF will host the tenth annual March Meeting (March 10–14, 2017). SAF is pleased to announce an open call for participants to correspond to a series of talks, keynote lectures and performances.
SAF welcomes applications from artists, writers and researchers working on topics related to SB13’s conceptual framework. Interested parties should submit a text or image-based proposal related to their existing research or practice, alongside the completed application form, to marchmeeting@sharjahart.org by January 10, 2017.
To receive updates on the SB13 Programme, please email registersb13@sharjahart.org.
About Christine Tohme
Christine Tohme is the director of Ashkal Alwan, a nonprofit organisation established in 1993 that initiates and supports contemporary artistic practice. She is the recipient of the Prince Claus Award (2006) and CCS Bard Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence (2015). For more information please visit our website.
About Sharjah Biennial
Sharjah Biennial is organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, which brings a broad range of contemporary art and cultural programmes to the communities of Sharjah, the UAE and the region. Since 1993, Sharjah Biennial has commissioned, produced and presented large-scale public installations, performances, and films, offering artists from the region and beyond an internationally recognised platform for exhibition and experimentation. For more information about Sharjah Biennial please visit our website.
For more information, visit www.sharjahart.org.
Media contacts:
Sharjah Art Foundation: Alyazeyah Al Reyaysa: T +971 6 544 4113 / alyazeyah@sharjahart.org
FITZ & CO: Katrina Weber Ashour: T +1 212 627 1653 / kweber@fitzandco.com
