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4 April - 4 June 2007
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Biennial Director: Hoor Al Qasimi
Artistic Director: Jack Persekian
Curators: Mohammed Kazem, Eva Scharrer, Jonathan Watkins
Visual tour - 47 participants
approx. 140 photos with information
The 8th Sharjah Biennial was the third edition headed by President and Director Hoor Al Qasimi, who in 2002 had introduced fundamental changes to the concept of the Biennial, which already existed since 1993. The curatorial team included Dubai-based artist Mohammed Kazem, participant of several previous editions of the Sharjah Biennial, Swiss curator and critic Eva Scharrer, and Jonathan Watkins, at the time director of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, UK.
Under the theme Still Life - Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change, the 2007 Sharjah Biennial addressed "the growing social, political and environmental challenges our world is facing due to excessive urban development, political and economic ambitions, and the thoughtless misuse, abuse and exhaustion of natural resources." However, the 8th edition of the Biennial was "not intended as a judgmental exercise, telling people how to live their lives; rather aimed to problematize current environmental concerns towards a greater understanding of our responsibilities with respect to nature."
The exhibition, which featured approximatly 80 participants, its supplementing film programme, symposium, and workshops focused on the "renewed role of art in addressing a wide range of issues that directly affect, in an alarming magnitude, life as we know it." Site-specific art projects in public space were presented for the first time in a Sharjah Biennial.
(Quotes from the Sharjah Art Foundation website)
Cover image on top: A part of Amal Kenawy, Non-Stop Conversation, 2007.
© Photos: Universes in Universe, unless otherwise indicated