Sharjah Biennial 17 Reveals Dynamic Opening Programme Across Four Locations

Sharjah Biennial 17 has announced its opening programme, featuring a performance that revives Gulf women’s sea songs and an art intervention inside a 1970s cinema. Exhibition tours, performances, and screenings will take place across Sharjah city, Al Dhaid, Kalba, and Khor Fakkan from January 21 to 24. Additionally, the Sharjah Art Foundation confirmed that the annual March Meeting will return from March 19 to 21, offering discussions and commissioned performances that expand upon the themes of the biennial.

Titled What Remains, Sits Restive, the 17th edition will run from January 21 to June 13, uniting more than 100 artists across 11 venues throughout the emirate. Curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, the exhibition explores how unresolved histories and past political ambitions continue to influence the present day.

Among the key highlights of the opening, Cynthia Zaven will perform a piece revisiting a lost tradition of women’s sea songs in the Gulf. These songs incorporate expressions of collective grief alongside pieces affirming the resilience of women who stayed behind while men went to sea. Furthermore, Angela Ferreira’s intervention in a 1970s cinema will examine how architecture travels between places, highlighting histories and aesthetics shaped by colonialism and its aftermath.

Sound serves as a central element in several other works within the programme. Christian Salablanca Diaz will present an assemblage of sound-generating sculptures inspired by memories of boat trips with his father through the Sierpe mangrove forest on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula. Meanwhile, Jessica Ekomane and Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape will each stage distinct sound performances across Sharjah’s varied landscapes.

The opening programme will conclude with Present Uneven, a selection of video works curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Tevz Logar. These films investigate how earlier aspirations and political visions survive, transform, and re-emerge over time.

Venues hosting the event in Sharjah city include Al Mureijah Square, Arts Square, Calligraphy Square, the Photography Gallery, the Flying Saucer, and the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation. The programme will also extend to the Al Dhaid Art Centre, Kalba Ice Factory, Khorfakkan Hall, and Khorfakkan Cinema.

The two curators will spearhead separate presentations under the shared theme. Angela Harutyunyan’s section features 55 participants examining the enduring influence of socialist modernity and anti-colonial struggles. Paula Nascimento’s 54 participants will investigate the relationship between infrastructure, place, and memory, addressing the impacts of cultural silencing and oppression.

Now in its 18th edition, the March Meeting will build on these dialogues through a three-day schedule featuring performances by biennial participants Victor Gama, Wendy Morris, and Hassan Khan. Victor Gama’s solo multimedia work integrates the handwritten reflections of anthropologist Augusto Zita N’Gonguenho with southern African polyrhythms, electronic music, and contemporary compositions. Wendy Morris will lead a procession toward the breakwater at dusk, singing a lament dedicated to the Arabian Gulf, while Hassan Khan will perform recent songs and hip-hop tracks responding to contemporary events.

Evening tours of the biennial will take place throughout the duration of the March Meeting, alongside a complimentary bus tour to Sharjah’s central and eastern regions on March 18. Exhibitions hosted by the Sharjah Art Foundation are free and open to the public, with registration for the January opening programme currently available.