Sharjah Biennial 2013 Prize winners announced
Sharjah Biennial 11
Re:emerge
Towards a New Cultural Cartography
March 13–May 13, 2013
Sharjah, UAE
Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) announced the recipients of the 2013 Sharjah Biennial Prize on March 13 at the opening night of Sharjah Biennial 11, Re:emerge – Towards a New Cultural Cartography, on view through May 13, 2013. The seven recipients of this year’s prize totaling 40,000 USD are Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chai Siri, Tiffany Chung, Wael Shawky, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Magdi Mostafa, and Fumito Urabe. The 2013 prize jurors were Bassam El Baroni, a curator and art critic based in Alexandria, Egypt; Hu Fang, the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Vitamin Creative Space and the Pavilion in Beijing, China; and Sarat Maharaj, Professor of Visual Art & Knowledge Systems, Lund University & the Malmö Art Academies, Sweden.
The award for an outstanding contribution to Sharjah Biennial 11 (SB11) was presented to Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chai Siri—two artists devoted to independent and experimental filmmaking—for the video Dilbar (2013), a portrait of a Bangladeshi builder working on the new art spaces of the Sharjah Art Foundation. Two awards were presented for an exceptional contribution to SB11, the first to Tiffany Chung, for her ink- and oil-based coloured cartographic drawing and installation works examining conflict, migration, urban progress, and transformation in relation to history and cultural memory. The second was given to Wael Shawky for Dictums 10:120, a multi-part project in which a chorus performs a traditional qawwali song, comprised of fragments of curatorial text from the last Sharjah Biennial, translated into Urdu.
A special recognition award for a practice sustained over many decades was presented to Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, who has had a long career creating work with a strong connection to the history of Iranian reverse-glass painting and mirror mosaics, a craft traditionally passed on from father to son. Additionally, two awards were presented for an artist whose work shows promise: Magdi Mostafa, for sounds cells: FRIDAYS (2010), an abstract evocation of the artist’s Cairo neighbourhood, Ardellawa, as heard on Fridays, a day of prayer and household chores; and Fumito Urabe, for Drifting Through (2013), an installation of found objects that explores the intersection of Eastern philosophy and contemporary art.
Sharjah Biennial 11 opened on March 13, with a public ceremony in the presence of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and Sharjah Art Foundation President Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, along with Sharjah Biennial 11 Curator Yuko Hasegawa. SAF’s five new multi-functional art spaces in the Sharjah Heritage Area were inaugurated on opening day. Opening week events continued March 14–17 with the annual March Meeting, a symposium featuring presentations, thematic sessions, and panels that contextualised the concept of SB11: a new cultural cartography that reconsiders the relationships between the Arab world, Asia, the Far East, through North Africa to Latin America.
More than 100 artists, architects, and musicians are participating in SB11. The list of artists is online here.
About the Prize
The Sharjah Biennial Prize was established by the Sharjah Biennial in 1993 and is now awarded by Sharjah Art Foundation. The honoured recipients are selected by a distinguished jury appointed by SAF. The Sharjah Biennial Prize is given upon the jury’s sole discretion and can be granted to any number of artists.
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.
T +971 6 544 4113 / F +971 6 568 5800 / PO Box 19989 Sharjah, UAE
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