The Sharjah Biennial, the emirate-wide art exhibition that happens every other March in Sharjah has a whole new format for the next edition.
The event that normally consists of an extended art exhibition for three months across Sharjah will, this year, last for 12 months and start with an education programme with local schools in the UAE beginning in October.
Christine Tohme, a prominent Lebanese curator who has been tasked with curating the entire event wants to investigate the regional art scene and propose a globalized art world, where she considers the importance and fragility of informal communication networks. To do this, she has subtitled the event with the Arabic word Tamawuj that means flowing waves or fluctuation and has spread the event to four other cities in the wider region.
In Dakar, Istanbul, Beirut and Ramallah, researchers will work on projects under four sub-themes: water, earth, crops and culinary. The research will then be categorized in a centralised digital storage space, housing various media, images, and texts. A year-long online publishing platform will also publish articles and essays responding to the four keywords.
In March, the central exhibition will open in Sharjah with 15 artists commissioned to create work based on the research collected in the four cities and under the four themes. In total, over 50 artists will show in the three month exhibition in Sharjah and then, in October next year, the event will culminate in two exhibitions in Beirut coupled with a programme of performances, film screenings, talks and panels.
For more information, visit www.sharjahart.org
