Sharjah Biennial 12: Take One
Art season is officially upon us. The UAE's cultural schedule for the month of March has been getting busier each year, to the point it is now habitually referred to as 'March madness'. The opening salvo came this weekend, with the return of the Sharjah Biennial. At the press preview, excited throngs of tote-bag carrying guests drifted back and forth through the narrow alleyways of Sharjah's old town, keen not to miss any of the artworks now occupying parts of the labyrinthine historical neighbourhood. Until June 5th, SB12 presents works by over 50 artists from 25 countries, loosely based around the theme The Past, The Present, The Possible. Here are a few photos and quotes from opening day:
Hoor Al Qasimi, president of the Sharjah Art Foundation (right) and Eungie Joo, curator of the Sharjah Biennial 12, at the launch press conference on March 5, 2015.
Quotes
Hoor Al Qasimi on site-specific works at the biennial:
“Eungie Joo has curated a biennial that is very spatially thought-provoking and really took into consideration Sharjah as a city and a state. Most of the works that you will see today and in the coming days are site specific. Artists have come for the past year and have created works especially for the spaces they are in. I would ask you to always consider the space around the works as you view them.”
Eungie Joo on the biennial's theme*:
“Reflecting on the significance of that specific conversation yesterday, it struck me that maybe that conversation itself and its content, are also not all that remarkable. In fact it is a conversation I have had in some form many times over with other artists, curators, writer and some of you in this courtyard here today. But perhaps the story of this conversation has been an important allegory to always remember the role of the artist in contemporary art as not only the maker of objects, but also the maker of ideas, of social political analysis, of poetry and a state in which we as a public are called upon to reflect, engage and challenge the things we think we already know.”
* Joo has said many times that the theme – The Past, The Present, The Possible – stems from a conversation she had with artist Danh Vo (more on him below) in 2013 about the potential of contemporary art to venture beyond current states of social and political confinement.
Artworks
Taro Shinoda's site-specific installation Karesansui is a Japanese garden as you have never seen before. The smooth white sand surface is broken by two slowly expanding voids progressively undermining Shinoda's creation and the meditative serenity it emanates.
To step on the engawa, a shaded wooden platform from which to contemplate the garden's slow demise, one must wear blue medical shoe covers, which only augments the sense of creeping mortality.
From the SB12 catalog: Technical drawing for Karesansui, cross-section of sand field, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.
We the people is a full-scale reproduction of the Statue of Liberty, created by Mexico City-based Vietnamese artist Danh Vo. From the catalog: "For SB12, Vo assembles the thirteen parts that comprise the statue's 'armpit', which towers nine metres high." Subversive, eloquent, self-deprecating AND well-crafted. Hard not to be smitten with this project.
XYZ by Argentinian artist Eduardo Navarro is a collaborative game (involving this huge blue ball) which the artist created with input from local school children.
Players work in teams of two, with one wearing black-out goggles and the other acting as a guide. Teams communicate amongst each other using applause, while the ball signals its position by either scent, sound or touch - depending on which 'jacket' is wears.
Building I: a gorgeous space to show Byron Kim's Sunday Paintings.
The artist has been painting small square canvasses of the sky every Sunday since 2001.
Each canvas is inscribed with a short diary entry. This one starts with the words "Waiting for Lisa...". Nice.
One thing SB12 has down to a T is pacing. Just when you start feeling frazzled, you step into a lush urban garden....
... or a shaded courtyard...
... or a rose-tinted, carpet-strewn lounge. Keeps you going for hours.
End of take one. There is simply too much going on at SB12 to take it all in in one afternoon. Apart from showing art in Sharjah's heritage area and at the Sharjah Art Museum, SB12 also runs several satellite spaces, including warehouses in Port Khalid (across the harbour) and, further afield, at the quirky 'Flying Saucer' building on the outskirts of Sharjah and an abandoned ice factory in Kalba. All of which I am very much looking forward to exploring – and reporting back on – very soon.