Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj

Titled “Tamawuj” and curated by Christine Tohme, Sharjah Biennial 13 is divided in five part, from October 2016 to October 2017: 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.
The biennial is featuring over fifty international artists, encompassing exhibitions and a public programme in two acts, one in Sharjah and one in Beirut; this year, the biennial asked four interlocutors outside of the UAE to develop four different off-site projects: Artist Kader Attia in Dakar, Senegal; curator Lara Khaldi in Ramallah, Palestine; Zeynep Oz in Istanbul, Turkey; and the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, Lebanon. The program includes a rich educational schedule.

“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.

Dates:

October 15, 2016:
Launch of SB13 School, a year-long educational programme taking place in Sharjah.

Launch of Chip-ship, a digital research platform.

January 8, 2017:
Off-site project in Dakar (around the keyword of water).

March 10 – 14, 2017:
Opening of Sharjah Biennial 13 Act I, featuring the SB13 exhibition and programme in Sharjah; exhibition runs through June 12, 2017.

May 13, 2017:
Off-site project in Istanbul (around the keyword of crops).

August 10, 2017:
Off-site project in Ramallah (around the keyword of earth).

October 15, 2017:
Off-site project in Beirut (around the keyword of culinary).

October 19, 2017:
Sharjah Biennial 13 Act II, culminating exhibitions and programmes in Beirut.