The Push to Put Community at the Heart of Art

Hoor Al Qasimi of the Sharjah Art Foundation believes in creating solidarities across the world

- Avantika Bhuyan

The 16th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, themed around "to carry," responds to the precarities of our times. Organized by the Sharjah Art Foundation, it is to be held between 6 February and 15 June.

The five women curators—Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz—have elaborated on the theme as, "What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee, or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?" Their curatorial response is an attempt to create a bridge between intergenerational stories and modes of inheritance through residencies, workshops, sonic experiences, and publications.

For Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation—who took over the execution of the Sharjah Biennial in 2002—it is vital that each edition brings in the local context alongside global narratives about identity, movement, and change. "By centering the act of carrying, Sharjah Biennial 16 offers a space for imagining new collective futures while recognizing the weight of shared histories and experiences," she says.

This year, the Biennial will have works by more than 140 artists, including 80 new commissions. The Indian artists whose work will be featured include Anga Art Collective, Pallavi Paul, Rajyashri Goody, Tishani Doshi, and V. Viswanadhan.

Al Qasimi was recently in India for the inaugural program of Asia Society India Centre's Trailblazers series of in-depth discussions with pathbreaking creative practitioners from around the world. She has been winning laurels for the way she pushes the possibilities of ideas in "publicly-focused cultural spaces."