Sharjah Biennial 13 / Tamawuj
Artists : 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
Curated by : Christine Tohmé
Sharjah UAE
March 10 - June 12, 2017
Curated by Christine Tohme, Sharjah Biennial 13, Tamawuj unfolds in five parts from October 2016 through January 2018. Featuring over fifty international artists, the biennial encompasses exhibitions and a public programme in two acts in Sharjah and Beirut; a year-long education programme in Sharjah; projects in Dakar, Ramallah, Istanbul and Beirut; and an online publishing platform.
Tamawuj, a noun in Arabic which is defined as a rising and falling in waves, but also a flowing, swelling, surging, fluctuation or a wavy undulating appearance outline or form, is reflective of SB13’s aims to cultivate collaborations, infrastructures and strategies within Sharjah and the project localities. The Biennial poses questions around, and proposes answers to the conditions for the possibility of an art world. In a region currently being invested with larger institutions and lesser infrastructures, SB13 will cross from the ideal to the material. Vital interventions will stretch the idea of the biennial in order to traverse rooted contexts, harnessing the agility and fragility of present informal networks.
The five parts of SB13 are an online depository of research material, four projects curated by four Interlocutors outside of the UAE, a year-long education programme in Sharjah, a year-long online publishing platform and a public programme in two parts: Act I, the biennial exhibition and programme in Sharjah from March to June 2017, and Act II, the culmination of SB13 taking place in Beirut in October 2017.