For Sharjah Biennial 17 the past is not dead. It’s not even past. It transfigures

Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) has announced the title, curatorial framework and participant list for the 17th edition of Sharjah Biennial. Its theme What remains, sits restive brings together 109 participants and takes place Jan. 21 - June 13, 2027, across multiple sites in the emirate of Sharjah, including Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Khorfakkan and Kalba. “Our present is troubled by what remains of unlived pasts, of the defeated yet undead projects of a modernity premised on universal emancipation,” says SAF.

“Rather than passive and dormant, these remainders continue to animate the present with their restive rhythms, shaping the politics of time and space. Histories resurface and endure, not as pure recurrence but as residues and morphed processes actively informing the now.” Following this theme, the Biennial brings together two different approaches, each articulated by one of the two curators: Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento.

In her contribution, Harutyunyan traces the various afterlives of socialist modernity, as observed from the edges of modernisation and anti-colonial struggles. Can art confront the hard-shell of late capitalist alienation by activating what remains of these emancipatory projects? Harutyunyan’s presentation brings together 55 participants who engage with this question, to produce deeper insights into the means and forms of representation for a reality full of contradictions.

Arman Grigoryan's My Art Changes the World.

Participants include Alban Muja; Alexandra Sukhareva; Amanda Beech; Anri Sala; Arash Azadi; Arman Grigoryan; Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan; Armenak Grigoryan; Cristiana de Marchi; Cynthia Zaven; Daniele Genadry; David Schutter; Hamlet Hovsepyan; Hande Sever; Hassan Khan; Hiwa K; Igor Savchenko; Iman Issa; Jasmina Cibic; Jessica Ekomane; Jiří Žák; Josef Bolf; Josephine Pryde; Kapwani Kiwanga; Karen Ohanyan; Karine Matsakyan; Karlo Kacharava; Kasper Kovitz; Khaled Tanji; Kristina Benjocki; Lala Rukh; Lena Kocutar; Lousineh Navasartian; Marcos Grigoryan; Michael Martirosyan; Natasha Gasparian; Neda Saeedi; Octavian Esanu; Romana Schmalisch and Robert Schlicht; Sebastián Díaz Morales; Shady Elnoshokaty; Sherif El Azma; Stijn Verhoeff; Suat Öğüt; Tekla Aslanishvili and Solveig Qu Suess; Teni Vardanyan; Thea Djordjadze; Thea Gvetadze; Tsolak Topchyan; Vehanush Topchyan; Yaşam Şaşmazer; Yass; and Zbyněk Balandrán.

The 54 participants invited by Paula Nascimento use infrastructure as a method to explore how space, place and memory intersect in both tangible and intangible ways, proposing new vocabularies to help navigate the intricacy of the times, since “the present moment has been shaped not only by spectres of unlived pasts, but also by the slow violences of cultural silencing and oppression. Participants are Agnes Essonti Luque; Ana Silva; Ângela Ferreira; António Ole; Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński; Carlos Noronha Feio; César Schofield Cardoso; Christian Salablanca Díaz; Cipriano; Dana Whabira; Edson Chagas; Euridice Zaituna Kala; Francisco Vidal; Gabriel Chaile; Gabrielle Goliath; Georges Senga; Gosette Lubondo; Grada Kilomba; Helena Uambembe; Hong-Kai Wang; Ibrahim Mahama; Ilídio Candja Candja; Januario Jano; Jean Katambayi Mukendi; Josèfa Ntjam; Kamala Ibrahim Ishag; Kapela Paulo; Kiluanji Kia Henda and Sumayya Vally with Flávio Cardoso, Lilianne Kiame, Raul Jorge Gourgel and Yazan Khalili; Limbo Museum founded by Dominique Petit-Frère; Lungiswa Gqunta; Mpho Matsipa; Myles Igwe; Nolan Oswald Dennis; Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape; Nú Barreto; Oscar Murillo; Pamela Cevallos; Rebeca Carapiá; Reinata Sadimba; René Tavares; Rui Magalhães; Sandra Poulson; Senzeni Marasela; Sonia Gomes; Tuli Mekondjo; Victor Gama; Wendy Morris; Ziad Naitaddi; and Zina Saro-Wiwa.

Karlo Kacharava's Sentimental Traveller.

Angela Harutyunyan (b. 1982, Gyumri, Armenia) is Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at the Berlin University of the Arts. She is a founding member of The Ashot Johannissyan Research Institute in the Humanities, Yerevan, and the Beirut Institute of Critical Analysis and Research. She has curated several exhibitions, including This is the Time. This is the Record of the Time (with Nat Muller) at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (2014) and at the American University of Beirut Art Galleries (2015). Harutyunyan obtained her PhD at the University of Manchester in 2009 and previously taught at the American University in Cairo (2009–2010) and at the American University of Beirut (2011–2023). One of the founding editors of ARTMargins, she has extensively researched and written on post-Soviet art and culture, Marxist aesthetics, historical temporality and curatorial theory. She is the author of The political aesthetics of the Armenian avant-garde: The journey of the ‘painterly real’ 1987–1994 (Manchester University Press, 2017).

Paula Nascimento (b. 1981, Luanda, Angola) is an architect and independent curator based in Luanda. Her practice is rooted at the intersection of visual arts, urbanism, geopolitics and arts education. Nascimento engages with interdisciplinary methodologies with a focus on contemporary readings of historical themes in and around Africa and the Global South. An associate curator of the sixth and seventh editions of the Lubumbashi Biennial (2019, 2022), she has also developed projects and curated exhibitions internationally, including Rencontres de Bamako – African Biennale of Photography, Experimenta Design, Triennale di Milano and the Angola Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, which received the Golden Lion for best national participation in 2013. She is a curatorial advisor to Hangar Centre of Artistic Research, Lisbon and was a member of the acquisitions committee of CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian.

Paula Nascimento (left) and Angela Harutyunyan.

SAF is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art the emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. The Foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.