Plot for a Biennial- Sharjah Biennial 10

1 February 2011

Marking its 10th Anniversary, the Sharjah Biennial is undertaking the most ambitious program to date with more artists participating and creating new work, commissioned films, music, performance, talks and publications

'Plot for a Biennial' is curated by Suzanne Cotter and Rasha Salti in association with Haig Aivazian

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), February 1, 2011 — The Sharjah Art Foundation announces the programs of Sharjah Biennial 10, Plot for a Biennial. Cocurated by Suzanne Cotter (Curator, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project) and Rasha Salti (Creative Director ArteEast), with Associate Curator Haig Aivazian (Chicago-based independent curator, artist and writer), Plot for a Biennial will feature more than 65 Sharjah Biennial Commissions as well as a broad selection of existing works across the disciplines over the course of its two-month run. One of the oldest contemporary arts initiatives in the Middle East, Sharjah Biennial 10 will commence with an official opening ceremony in the presence of HH Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah and HH Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Art Foundation, along with Sharjah Art Foundation Director Jack Persekian.

Over the course of eight weeks, Plot for a Biennial will unfold in a multivalent presentation of works and programs spanning the disciplines of visual art, film, choreography, music, video and publishing. The 2011 Sharjah Biennial will feature works by artists and participants from across the globe for an international gathering of 'plot' makers and visionaries. Sharjah Biennial Commissions, film premieres, and other intriguing works will be presented in a variety of venues across Sharjah, from new spaces created specially for Sharjah Biennial 10, to historic venues, city streets and the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. It will unfold along narratives—itineraries—scripted by the curators, architects and exhibition designers.

Sharjah Art Foundation President HH Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi states 'This year will mark nearly two decades of the Sharjah Biennial’s work and, in many ways, will reflect the growing depth and diversity of Sharjah’s social and cultural landscape. A great number of artists have chosen to visit the city and produce new work that has been inspired or guided, on a variety of levels, by their experiences and interactions within the context of Sharjah.'

Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Jack Persekian states, 'Since the first Sharjah Biennial in 1993, we have continued to experiment with ways to orchestrate an event that is capable of having reverberations on a variety of levels throughout the city of Sharjah and the international arts community. This year we have expanded on what has become a core feature of the Biennial, and now also that of the Sharjah Art Foundation, by commissioning and producing new work. Sharjah Biennial 10 will feature more commissions than any previous edition, many of which are ambitious in scale. We are now working with a much wider range of artists and practitioners including visual artists, as well as filmmakers, musicians, dancers, writers, editors and translators to create art works, short films, and publications that expand and elaborate on the 2011 biennial’s themes of treason, trade and translation.'

Sharjah Biennial 10 Program

The programs of the Sharjah Biennial’s 10th edition extend through a range of artistic expression, and will include an extensive, multi-site exhibition, film screenings, live music, contemporary dance performances, public talks, as well as publications.

Exhibition

Sharjah Biennial 10 will present an extensive, multi-site exhibition of visual art featuring works in various media including painting, drawing, etching, photography, sculpture, mixed media, installation, and site-specific work. Drawing inspiration from the curators’ conceptual framework Plot for a Biennial, the exhibition will unfold in intriguing venues across the heart of Sharjah, including notable landmarks of Emirati architecture, Sharjah’s historic Cricket Stadium, traditional houses once abandoned and later converted into contemporary art spaces, as well as new temporary structures designed especially for Sharjah Biennial 10. Newly designed spaces will host works by Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, and Ramin Haerizadeh; while publicly sited works by artists such as Jumana Emil Abboud, Judith Barry, and, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, will be presented in the vicinity of the Sharjah Art Museum and the Heritage Area. Many site-specific commissions will be located in other traditional structures including work by Rosalind Nashashibi, Walid Sadek,and a series of new paintings by Imran Qureshi.

Artists presenting work in the Exhibition are: Jumana Emil Abboud, Youssef Abdelké, Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Adel Abidin, Atfal Ahdath, Hala Al-Ani, Abdullah Al Saadi, Ziad Antar, Doug Ashford, Mouna Atassi, Vartan Avakian, Yto Barrada, Judith Barry, Shumon Basar and Eyal Weizman and Jane and Louise Wilson, Bahar Behbahani, Mustapha Benfodil, Alexis Bhagat and Lize Mogel, Anna Boghiguian, Ammar Bouras, Dan Brault, Sophie Calle, Camp (Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran), Guillaume Cassar, Marie-Hélène Cauvin, Jem Cohen (with Luc Sante), Ziad Dalloul, Raffie Davtian, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency, Trisha Donnelly, Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujică, Simone Fattal, Mariam Ghani, Ahmed Ghossein, Hans Haacke, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, Gilbert Hage, Khalid Hourani, Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, Hatem Imam, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Amar Kanwar, Aisha Khalid, Bouchra Khalili, Mark Lombardi, Alexander Markov, Josephine Meckseper, Shohreh Mehran, Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, Almagul Menlibayeva, Naeem Mohaiemen, Bahman Mohassess, Tom Molloy, Houman Mortazavi, Fateh Moudarres, Jean-Luc Moulène, Rosalind Nashashibi, Melik Ohanian, Imran Qureshi, Walid Raad, Khalil Rabah, Walid Sadek, Hrair Sarkissian, Matt Saunders, Samir Sayegh, Kamran Shirdel, Slavs and Tatars, Rania Stephan, Rayyane Tabet, Jorge Tacla, Jalal Toufic, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Raed Yassin, Elias Zayat, Artur Żmijewski.