Sharjah Art Foundation has announced the March Meeting 2016 (MM 2016) and an Open Call welcoming proposals for presentations and case studies relevant to this year’s topic. Now in its 9th edition, March Meeting 2016: Education, Engagement and Participation will take place March 12–13 during a programme of events and exhibition openings fromMarch 11–15.
Over the past two decades, institutions, initiatives, curators and artists have increasingly prioritised their relationship with audiences and communities. The two-day March Meeting will bring together local, regional and international practitioners to explore issues, concerns and initiatives surrounding this work in a series of programmed keynote talks, case studies and panel discussions, as well as through informal conversations shared over the two-day convening.
Do it [bil’Arabi] is a new iteration of the ongoing publication and exhibition originally conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in 1993. For this project Sharjah Art Foundation has commissioned more than 60 artists to write instructions that can be used by anyone to create works of art. At Sharjah Art Foundation, instructions will be realised in collaboration with schools, universities and communities for the exhibition and through Open Day workshops, activations and performances scheduled throughout the duration of the show.
The do it [bil’Arabi] Arabic and English publication will include artist instructions, as well as essays that contextualise the project. This publication will serve as the basis for a coordinated series of do it exhibitions and events with institutions across the Arab world, including Townhouse, Cairo; Darat al Funun, Amman (September 2016); Dar Al-Ma’Mûn, Marrakech; Riwaq Biennale, Palestine; Al Riwaq, Manama; as well as with partners in Beirut, Jeddah and Kuwait. These events are scheduled to take place in 2016 and 2017.
This exhibition is organised by Sharjah Art Foundation and co-curated by Sharjah Art Foundation Director Hoor Al Qasimi and Serpentine Gallery co-Director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, (February 20–May 14, 2016) commissioned by the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation for The National Pavilion United Arab Emirates at the 56th Venice Biennale. The exhibition was conceived by curator Hoor Al Qasimi as a retrospective of contemporary art exhibitions in the country over the last 40 years. Through an unprecedented grouping of over 100 works by fifteen artists structured to create dialogues between artists and across practices, the exhibition reflects the diversity and the history of the art scene in the UAE.
The 2016 March Meeting Week Program from March 11–15, 2016 with performances by Taro Shinoda and Uriel Barthélémi has been developed from conversations during Sharjah Biennial 12 where both artists created new works, this collaborative performance will take place in the Sharjah desert.
The Time is Out of Joint from March 12–June 12, 2016 is curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh. The Time is Out of Joint is a project developed as a continuation of the exhibition 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 time in the future.
It reenacts two key exhibitions that took place at transitional moments in history and completes them with a look into the future. It summons ‘the first Arab Artist Biennial’ in Baghdad in 1974, and ‘China Avant-garde Exhibition’ in Beijing in 1989 and the future Jogja Equator Conference in 2022, questioning constraints of time and place by suggesting leaps among those different places and times, and among basic laws that have governed and continue to govern thoughts.
Simone Fattal from March 12–June 12, 2016 is curated by Sharjah Art Foundation Director Hoor Al Qasimi, Simone Fattal’s solo exhibition highlights recent works created between 2006 and 2013, including sculptures, non-figurative, simple formations made of clay, as well as works centred around textual compositions. Also included are some of the artist’s ‘Warrior’ sculptures, large standing figures that are representative of those continuously withstanding war and struggle.
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige from March 12–June 12, 2016, showcases works by Lebanese artists and filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige offers an insight into the ensemble of their artistic and cinematic projects from the late 1990s to the present day and includes new commissions. This exhibition is a collaboration with Jeu de Paume, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and IVAM, Valencia
Farideh Lashai from March 12–June 12, 2016, is a retrospective exhibition will include painting and moving image works by the late Iranian artist Farideh Lashai. Lashai was an influential artist whose stop motion animation works often referenced iconic works of art, literature and film while commenting on political and social conditions in Iran. For more information, visit http://www.sharjahart.org.