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| 'Kiss the Bride' (stained Apa wood, H86 x W26 x D35cm, dated 2024) by Alli Raheem. |
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| 'Kaper Jesse Legacy' (print on canvas, 90x90cm, dated 2024) by Fred Ebami. |
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| 'Our Daily Bread - series' (watercolour, 56in X 73in, dated 2024) by Oluwamuyiwa Olusola. |
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| 'Passion of Rage' (mixed media, 28" x 8" x 12", dated 2024 ) by Henry Unuigboje. |
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| One of the images expected to define Sharjah biennial 16, UAE. |
THE 16th edition of Sharjah Biennial themed to carry opens from
6 February–15 June 2025, at Al Hamriyah, Al Dh,, aid, Kalba and Al Madam, among others UAE cities.
According to Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) works by more than 140 participants, including over 80 new commissions, will be presented across the Emirate of Sharjah.
Curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz, Sharjah Biennial 16 will convene under the title to carry, a multivocal and open-ended proposition. Examining an ever-expanding list of what to carry, and how to carry it, the Biennial is an invitation to encounter the different formations and positions of the five curators as well as the constellation of resonances they have gathered.
The Biennial theme, ‘to carry’, entails understanding our precarity within spaces that are not our own while staying responsive to these sites through the cultures that we hold. It also signifies a bridge between multiple temporalities, encompassing intergenerational stories and various modes of inheritance. What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?
Thus, ‘to carry’ proposes the Biennial as a collective wayfinding and a modality of sense-making and insistent looking—back, inwards and across—instead of a ‘turning away’ amidst tides of annihilation and tyranny. Sharjah Biennial 16 curatorial projects reflect on what it means to carry change and its technological, societal, animistic or ritualistic possibilities as community doulas would hold space for others during moments of transition.
As carriers of different processes and offerings, the curators have cultivated their projects together and apart, allowing room for listening and mutual support. Diverse curatorial methodologies—from residencies, workshops and collective production to writing, sonic experiences and expanded publications—will be constantly present in the milieu of the Biennial, encouraging critical conversations and the formation of an evolving collection of narratives told from multiple perspectives, geographies and languages.
‘The constellation of diverse methodologies that the five curators have gathered offers audiences the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking dialogues bridging the local context with global narratives about identity, movement, change and collectivity,' said Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation. ‘By centring the act of carrying, Sharjah Biennial 16 offers a space for imagining new collective futures while recognising the weight of shared histories and experiences.’
According to the curators, ‘Our projects come under the umbrella of a question rather than a theme. What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors and political formations with you? This spirit of inquiry coalesces with artistic methods grounded in stories of change and movement, intergenerational kinship, lament and ritual, experimental pedagogies, knowledge of land and sea terrains. Attesting to the responsibility as both guest and host, we conjure possibilities of acting in the world and being together through tenderness, failure and rage as gestures of care, resource exchange and alliance building.’
The Sharjah Biennial 16 title, to carry, is a multivocal and open-ended proposition. The ever-expanding list of what to carry, and how to carry it, is an invitation to encounter our different formations and positions and to gather a constellation of resonances.
The Biennial theme, ‘to carry’, entails understanding our precarity within spaces that are not our own while staying responsive to these sites through the cultures that we hold. It also signifies a bridge between multiple temporalities of embodied pasts and imagined futures, encompassing intergenerational stories and various modes of inheritance. What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?
Thus, ‘to carry’ proposes the Biennial as a collective wayfinding, a modality of sense-making and insistent looking—back, inwards and across—instead of a ‘turning away’ amidst tides of annihilation and tyranny. Sharjah Biennial 16 curatorial projects reflect on what it means to carry change and its technological, societal, animistic or ritualistic possibilities. As community doulas would hold space for others during moments of transition, the projects collectively form a threshold space for experiments and collaborations, in which we compose divergent stories, understand failures and dark moments, and hold room for tenderness and rage.
As carriers of different processes and offerings, the curators have cultivated their projects together and apart, allowing room for listening, mutual support and the sharing of resources. Diverse curatorial methodologies—from residencies, workshops and collective production to writing, sonic experiences and expanded publications—are constantly present in the milieu of the Biennial, encouraging critical conversations. Sometimes, projects by different curators sit together in one venue to form a wild polyphony; at other times, they occupy an entire space to recite a story. Together, they form an evolving collection of narratives told from multiple perspectives, geographies and languages.
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| 'I Am More Than What You Think I Am' (acrylic on canvas, 121.5 x 96cm, dated 2021-22) by Tobenna Okwuosa. |
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| The artist, Rewa, in front of one of her works. |
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| 'Omi Iye' (oil on canvas, 61 x 122cm, dated 2018) by Yusuf Grillo. |
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| Chess world record holder Tunde Onakoya (left) and artist Lanre Olagoke MBE. |
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| Onyeka Onwenu during the Art of Afrobeats Award night in Lagos. |
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| Prof Wole Soyinka speaking at Africa Centre, UK, during one of the Soyinka@90 events. |
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| 'Arugba' religious scene associated with 'Ìṣẹ̀ṣe', during a yearly festival, Osun Osogbo, in Osun State, Southwest, Nigeria. |
•facts have uncovered widespread Yoruba atheists of ancient eras
By Ayojinmi Adeolu, Biodun Olojede-Akiola, Idayat Obaduwa-Babajide, Matthew Ola Adejinmi, and Bunmi Olokiki
FIRST part, published on August 21, 2023, of the same research work titled 'Separating Yorùbá religious tradition from Ìṣẹ̀ṣe', has established the difference between the two subjects. We established, with facts, that Ìṣẹ̀ṣe as a religious belief is different from the tradition and culture of the Yoruba.
