The exhibition showcases a new generation of artists whose experiences of hardship and migration are informed by the stories, lives and bodies of their parents and the changing world around them\u2014in particular, artists in the Global South who were subjected by the West to profound limitations on their movement and autonomy. I first found a portal into the exhibition through the conjoined works of the Indian photojournalist Pablo Bartholomew and his father, the art critic Richard Bartholomew: presented side by side, their respective photographs document diasporic life in post-Partition New Delhi, but they also showcase the different realities of the two practitioners, who, despite their shared ancestry, have come to experience separation and longing in different ways. In a highly anticipated performance, Rachid Hedli and his dance troupe Compagnie Niya articulate another such moment; incorporating hybrid gestures that reference the socio-political realities of the North African diaspora in France, Hedli\u2019s Gueules Noires<\/em> (Black Faces) (2016) is performed by dancers who, like him, are sons of coal miners who migrated to France in search of a better life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rachid Hedli & Compagnie Niya<\/strong>
Gueules Noires<\/em>, 2016, performance views, Sharjah Performing Arts Academy, Sharjah, 2023.
Photos: Motaz Mawid, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The title refers to a derogatory slang term used in reference both to the miners and to North African migrants at large. The atmospheric choreography makes connections between a heritage of hard labour and the break-and-pop movements of street performers and break dancers, as if the hardship experienced by the father\u2019s body is passed on to the dancers\u2019 repertoire. In another instance of bodily knowledge transfer, Abdulrahim Salem\u2019s The Unknown Sailor <\/em>(2023) is a live painting performance set to the shanti Yamal, a traditional type of sea-song sung by nahhamin, singers (in groups of four) who accompanied pearl-diving boats in the Gulf. The nahham\u2019s melodious voice lifted the divers\u2019 spirits when the winds died down and the labour of fishing and pearl diving became strenuous and dangerous, serving as an oral archive and black box. Salem\u2019s performance reflected on the way in which maritime shipping routes and supply chains in the UAE were altered by British colonialism, the perilous lives of sailors in the early twentieth century, and the lost history and craft of pearl diving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Abdulrahim Salem<\/strong>
The Unknown Sailor<\/em>, performance view, Kalba Ice Factory, Sharjah, 2023. Produced by Sharjah Art Foundation.
Photo: Motaz Mawid, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Other works in the biennial reflected on the metaphors of water, or the lack of it, as a historical vehicle. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige\u2019s Under the Cold River Bed <\/em>(2020) is a chart and a video documentary that uncover the perplexing strata beneath Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon. Dala Nasser\u2019s Red in Tooth <\/em>(2020\u2013ongoing) is a large site-specific installation tracing the Wazzani River, which flows from Lebanon to occupied Palestine; Nasser uses the river\u2019s water to dye pieces of fabric, marking various historic places in the course of the river through the composition and colour of the dye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige<\/strong>
Under the Cold River Bed<\/em>, 2020, from the series
Unconformities<\/em>, 2016-ongoing, installation view, Bank Street Building, Sharjah, 2023.
Photo: Motaz Mawid, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Imane Djamil<\/strong>
80 Miles to Atlantis<\/em>, 2020, installation view,
Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, 2023.
Photo: Ivan Erofeev, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Imane Djamil<\/strong>
27 II<\/em>, from the series, 80 Miles to Atlantis, 2020, installation view, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, 2023.
Photo: Ivan Erofeev, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The striking series of photographs by Imane Djamil titled 80 Miles to Atlantis <\/em>(2020) documents Tarfaya, a Moroccan city that is slowly disappearing due to the degrading coastline and the advancing desert; children play in the surreal shadows of dusty buildings and gaze into small puddles of water. In Borrowed Landscape (30.3193\u00b0 N, 48.2543\u00b0 E) <\/em>(2023), Jewish Iraqi artist Michael Rakowitz conceptualizes the ongoing Western interference in the Middle East by bringing desertification into the framework of the biennial. Referring to the practice of \u201cborrowed landscapes,\u201d a Japanese gardening concept that incorporates distant views into garden design, Rakowitz implicates the site of Al Seeba in Basra, Iraq, where agricultural plantations were lost to the desert after a period of extensive extraction, increased water salinity, over-farming, and an eventual decline in tree density. Once known as a fertile and shaded area famous for producing fresh fruit and vegetables, the area is now considered barren. These climatic changes are a direct result of the decade-long US invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Michael Rakowitz<\/strong>
Al Dhaid Borrowed Landscape (30.3193\u00b0N, 48.2543\u00b0E), <\/em>installation view, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mohammed Palace and Farm, Al Dhaid, 2023.
Photo: Danko Stjepanovic, courtesy of
Sharjah Biennial Art Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Reflecting on the political moment nearly two decades ago, Enwezor said that the present is a \u201creminder of why art cannot be isolated from the everyday experience.\u201d This statement now rings undoubtedly true. The biennial carefully considers Enwezor\u2019s ambitions while taking into account the radically different experience of artists in today\u2019s world. Whether our thinking has shaped the world around us or history has shaped us into being the way we are, Thinking Historically in the Present <\/em>flushes out the paradoxes of history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curator, writer, and speaker Xenia Benivolski is involved with the subjects of sound, music, and visual art. She contributes to artforum<\/em>, frieze<\/em>, and e-flux journal<\/em>, for which she also curates and edits the digital art project You Can\u2019t Trust Music<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Abdulrahim Salem, Compagnie Niya, Imane Djamil, Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Michael Rakowitz, Rachid Hedli, Xenia Benivolski<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"15th Sharjah Biennal,<\/strong> United Arab Emirates
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