March 11–15, 2016
Sharjah Art Foundation announces the 9th annual March Meeting that takes place during a week of events from March 11–15 that includes exhibition openings, performances and other discursive programmes.
March Meeting 2016: Education, Engagement and Participation, March 12–13, will consider how institutions, initiatives, curators and artists have increasingly prioritised their relationships with audiences and communities. The two-day convening will bring together local, regional and international practitioners to explore issues, concerns and initiatives surrounding this work in a series of programmed keynotes, case studies and panel discussions, as well as through informal conversations shared over the week of events.
Panels will explore topics such as how institutions can become more open and representational through programming and policies that recognise the diversity of audiences and communities or the essential role of biennials particularly in areas where there is little existent art infrastructure or support for discourse and the production of art. Also examined will be expanded notions of curatorial practice including discursive, collaborative and open-ended models of exhibition and event production and how libraries and archives offer communities a way to reclaim their histories, while performative and live programming gives agency to individuals and collective audiences. Traditional and alternative models of art school will be considered in the context of regional priorities and urgencies. Finally, a group of artists will talk about their community-based work.
Speakers will include: Ahmed El Attar, Artistic Director, See Foundation and D-CAF Festival (Egypt); Zoe Butt, Executive Director and Curator, Sàn-Art (Vietnam); Susanna Chung, Head of Learning and Participation, Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong); Anna Cutler, Director of Learning, Tate (UK); Reem Fadda, Curator, Marrakech Biennale 6 (Morocco) and Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum (UAE); Sandi Hilal, Founding Member and Co-Director, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (Palestine); Riyas Komu, Director of Programmes, Kochi Biennale Foundation (India); Rick Lowe, Artist and Founding Director, Project Row Houses (USA); Patrick Mudekereza, Director, Waza, Centre d’art de Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo); Prateek Raja, Co-Founder, Experimenter Curator’s Hub (India); Farid Rakun, Researcher and Education Coordinator, Ruangrupa (Indonesia); Tina Sherwell, Director, International Academy of Art (Palestine); Alia Swastika, Director, Biennale Jogja 13 and Programme Director, Ark Galerie (Indonesia); Sally Tallant, Director, Liverpool Biennial (UK); Claire Tancons, Curator, Printemps de Septembre Biennial 2016 (France) and Artistic Director, Opening Ceremony, Faena Forum Miami Beach 2016 (USA); Christine Tohmé, Founding Director, Ashkal Alwan (Lebanon) and Curator, Sharjah Biennial 13 (UAE); and William Wells, Co-Founder and Director, Townhouse (Egypt).
Register for March Meeting 2016 to receive additional information and details about the programme at register [at] sharjahart.org.
March 11–15 programme
On March 11, artists Uriel Barthélémi and Taro Shinoda will present Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique, a collaborative performance in the Sharjah Desert, developed from conversations during Sharjah Biennial 12.
On March 12, March Meeting sessions will be followed by the opening of exhibitions of work by Simone Fattal (March 12–June 12, 2016); Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (March 12–May 8, 2016), an exhibition coproduced by Jeu de Paume (Paris), Sharjah Art Foundation, Haus der Kunst (Munich), and IVAM (Valencia); Farideh Lashai (March 12–May 14, 2016) and The Time is Out of Joint (March 12–June 12, 2016), commissioned by Asian Culture Complex – Asian Arts Theatre and Sharjah Art Foundation.
The Time is Out of Joint, curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh, is the second phase of the exhibition programme for Home Works 6, Beirut, in 2013. Building on Ibn Arabi’s concept of time as a fluid place and place as a frozen time, the project examines our current and future locations and conditions. It confuses different times, places, cities and artistic events that took place in the past or will take place in the future.
The exhibition will feature works by Zainab Al Hashemi, Basma Alsharif, Hicham Benohoud, Ali Cherri, Venzha Christ, Cao Fei, Tzu-Nyen Ho, Meiro Koizumi, Maha Maamoun, Basim Magdy, Radouan Mriziga, Khalil Rabah, Kyohei Sakaguchi, Tita Salina, Wael Shawky, Konrad Smoleński, Song Ta, Jalal Toufic, Mark Teh, Aleksandra Waliszewska and Raed Yassin.
From March 12–15, an extensive programme of events will take place as part of the project including the launch of the exhibition book co-edited by Ala Younis, a series of performances, film screenings, artist talks, presentations and discussions.
The Time is Out of Joint includes a one day conference titled “Equator Conference Jogjakarta 2022 held in Sharjah 2016” with speakers Bassam El Baroni, independent curator and art theory teacher at the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem (Netherlands); Hilmar Farid, scholar, cultural activist and lecturer, and General Director of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (Indonesia); Taneli Kukkonen, Professor of Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Global Network Professor at NYU (US); and Enin Supriyanto, independent art curator and writer, Equator International Symposium, Yogyakarta Biennale Foundation (Indonesia).
Another component of the project, The Time is Out of Joint Reading Room programme, organised by Marwa Arsanios and Samer Frangie, will also start that week with a presentation and reading group session by Dr. Vandana Shiva, scholar, environmental activist and Founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology and of Navdanya (India).
For the complete list of events, information on the exhibitions and schedules for March Meeting 2016 and The Time is Out of Joint please visit our website sharjahart.org.
Media contacts:
Sharjah Art Foundation:
Alyazeyah Al Reyaysa: T +971 6 544 4113 ext. 25 / alyazeyah [at] sharjahart.org
FITZ & CO:
Katrina Weber Ashour: T +1 212 627 1653 / kweberashour [at] fitzandco.com
