Sharjah Art Foundation Announces Details of Sharjah Biennial 13 Act II in Beirut, Including the Off-Site Project Upon a Shifting Plate

Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (SB13) to conclude in Beirut with Act II and fourth off-site project

14 – 22 October 2017
Ashkal Alwan
Sursock Museum
Beirut Art Center

Running from 14 to 22 October 2017, the Sharjah Biennial 13 (SB13) concluding programme in Beirut, organised with Ashkal Alwan, includes SB13 Act II and the off¬-site project, Upon a Shifting Plate. The opening week programme features exhibitions, panels, music performances, theatre and dance productions as well as film screenings. Additionally, new SB13 commissioned works, together with a compilation of the publications produced throughout the Biennial in Sharjah, Istanbul, Dakar and Ramallah, will be released. 

Act II will launch two exhibitions in Beirut, curated by Hicham Khalidi and Reem Fadda at the Beirut Art Center and the Sursock Museum, respectively. 

Hicham Khalidi’s An unpredictable expression of human potential (on view until 19 January 2018) addresses the current global state in which frustrated youth object to decisions and results imposed on them by older generations.

In Fruit of Sleep (on view until 31 December 2017), Reem Fadda takes the idea of dormancy, from sleep to digestion, and looks at an embodied experience in the evolution of a language of art that beckons for more.

Themed around the keyword ‘culinary’, Upon a Shifting Plate will be held on 14 and 15 October 2017. Ashkal Alwan, the SB13 interlocutor of the culinary programme, will present a weekend of discursive and performative projects, including workshops, talks and cooking sessions in order to explore the production and consumption of our culinary heritage and how our eating habits affect our psychological and cultural temperaments.

Christine Tohme is the director of Ashkal Alwan, a nonprofit organisation established in Beirut in 1993 that supports contemporary artistic practice. She is the recipient of the Prince Claus Award (2006) and CCS Bard Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence (2015).

Ashkal Alwan is a nonprofit organisation based in Beirut. Since 1993, the association has been committed to the production, facilitation, and circulation of creative and theoretical endeavors across a range of disciplines and media.

About Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj 
Taking place from January 2016 to January 2018, Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj encompasses exhibitions, projects and educational programmes in five locations, expanding the biennial structure across space and time. Curated by Christine Tohme, tamawuj is an Arabic word that suggests the rising and falling of waves; a flowing, swelling, surging or fluctuation; or a wavy, undulating appearance, outline or form. Sharjah Biennial 13 (SB13) includes exhibitions and public programmes in two acts, one in Sharjah (10 March–12 June 2017) and one in Beirut (October 2017– January 2018), as well as SB13 School, a year-long education programme that spans the west, central and eastern regions of Sharjah. Tamawuj also seeks to mobilise ongoing conversations. Four interlocutors in as many cities have organised projects around keywords that are integral to SB13’s conceptual framework. Kader Attia investigated water in Dakar (8 January 2017), Zeynep Öz considered crops in Istanbul (13 May 2017), Lara Khaldi studies earth in Ramallah (10 August 2017) and representatives of Ashkal Alwan reflect on the culinary in Beirut (15 October 2017). 

Sharjah Art Foundation 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. Working with local and international partners, we create opportunities for artists and artistic production through our core initiatives that include the Sharjah Biennial, the annual March Meeting, residencies, production grants, commissions, exhibitions, research, publications and a growing collection. Our education and public programmes focus on building recognition of the central role art can play in the life of a community by promoting public learning and a participatory approach to art. All our events are free and open to the public.