Sharjah Art Foundation presents Sharjah Biennial 11 on March 13–May 13, 2013 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Pablo Lobato, Overturned Bronze, 2011. Video installation, single-channel; 4:52 minutes, loop, color, stereo, 16:9 (vertical), HD. Image: Pablo Lobato
Last month, it was announced that Yuko Hasegawa has invited over 24 artists to create site-specific works. Among the confirmed new commissions are works by artists and filmmakers including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Saâdane Afif, Tiffany Chung, Yang Fudong, Lucia Koch, Nasir Nasrallah, Ernesto Neto, Wael Shawky, Shahzia Sikander, and Ana Torfs. The Biennial will also feature a collaborative work by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Seigen Ono, and Shiro Takatani.
Hasegawa has now announced that the following artists will also be included in the Biennial: Ravi Agarwal, Nevin Aladag, Francis Alÿs, Jananne Al-Ani, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton, Luz Maria Bedoya, David Claerbout, Olafur Eliasson, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Shilpa Gupta, Yu-ichi Inoue, Lamia Joreige, Jesper Just, Amar Kanwar, Kan Xuan, Pablo Lobato, Basir Mahmood, Cinthia Marcelle, Taus Makhacheva, Angelica Mesiti, Otobong Nkanga, Gabriel Orozco, Khaled Sabsabi, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Fumito Urabe. A performance by Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda has also been confirmed and will take place in April as part of an ongoing programme of performances that will be presented throughout SB11.
OFFICE Kersten Geers and David Van Severen will create a multi-site urban project. The OASIS project links SB11 Biennial venues and the North-East and South-West parts of Sharjah’s historic centre, which is divided by Bank street, a wide thoroughfare dating from the 1970s. The four OASIS gardens will have varying degrees of public accessibility, each creating a dialogue with specific urban contexts and their users.
Interventions will also include works by SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa; Studio Mumbai, Bijoy Jain; and SUPERFLEX, Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen, and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen.
Film Programme
A film programme curated by filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul will feature programming by leading figures in the film industry, including Steve Anker, Tilda Swinton, Mehelli Modi, Alcino Leite Neto, Khavn De La Cruz, Jean-Pierre Rehm, Ali Jaafar, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The programme will include evening screenings in an outdoor courtyard cinema in the new SAF spaces.
Sharjah Art Foundation New Art Spaces
The opening of SB11 will mark the inauguration of SAF’s five new multi-functional art spaces in the Sharjah Heritage Area, which have been in development since 2009. With approximately 20,000 square feet of interior space, connected by open-air courtyards and roof-top terraces, these new spaces will provide venues for SAF’s growing activities and the increasing needs of its community.
SB11 Curatorial Concept
Inspired by the courtyard in Islamic architecture—in particular the historical courtyards of Sharjah, where elements of both public and private life intertwine—Hasegawa proposes a new cultural cartography that reconsiders the relationships between the Arab world, Asia, the Far East, through North Africa to Latin America.
Sharjah Biennial Opening Week Programme & March Meeting Dates:
The Opening Week Programme will begin with the professional opening on March 13, 2013, followed by the evening Opening Gala Dinner and Biennial Awards ceremony. A full schedule of events March 13–17 will include performances, films, lectures, and the annual March Meeting, a three-day symposium. Visit [email protected].
About the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF):
SAF brings a broad range of contemporary art and cultural programmes to the communities of Sharjah, the UAE and the region. Since 2009, SAF has built on the history of cultural collaboration and exchange that began with the first Sharjah Biennial in 1993.
For more information on SAF and its programmes, visit www.sharjahart.org.