Overview

Join Wael Shawky as he talks about his exciting Sharjah Biennial 11 project, Dictums 10:120 at College of Fine Arts and Design.

Wael Shawky’s Sharjah Biennial 11 project, Dictums 10:120, was developed in response to the Artist’s Witness Programme residency during Sharjah Biennial 10. Through a series of workshops, Shawky engaged members of Sharjah Art Foundation’s production and technical team, most of whom originate from Pakistan, to deconstruct and examine the relationship between art organisation and their communities.

The Artist challenges the boundaries and expectations imposed by existing hierarchies by inserting the religious musical tradition of qawwali into a contemporary art framework, playfully questioning the legitimizing power of the institution, comparing the oblique and mystified language of ‘artspeak’ with mystic poetry.