Overview

Sharjah Art Foundation and The Wapping Project will bring together experts across history, culture, astronomy and space science in three panel discussions to explore the past, present and future relationship between people in the Arabian Gulf region and the sky as well as wider transformations of the composition, nature and use of airspace close to Earth and outer space beyond. Sky Forum will invite participants to consider the sky above their heads, not as a void, but as a multi-layered, complex cultural and legal space, both shared and personal, with a long history and rapidly changing future. Sky Forum will also form an integral part of artist Shona Illingworth’s ongoing installation project, Topologies of Air.

The Sky Forum panel discussions will be followed by a conversation between Illingworth and Marta Michalowska, Artistic Director of The Wapping Project in London, during which excerpts of the artist’s earlier work and clips from her current work in progress will be presented. Illingworth and Michalowska will reflect on the artist’s practice and how research, forums and public discussions feed into it. They will also focus on the interdisciplinary nature of her work, which encompasses not only art but also science, law and engineering.

Topologies of Air was commissioned by The Wapping Project, London. Shona Illingworth’s residency in Sharjah was organised and supported by Sharjah Art Foundation. Illingworth is Reader in Fine Art at the University of Kent, and Topologies of Air forms part of her research practice. The residency and the accompanying public programmes were generously supported by the British Council, DCMS and GREAT through the UK-Gulf Culture and Sport Programme.

This talk will be in English but simultaneous translation to Arabic will be available.

Programme

For a PDF of the programme, please click here.

Registration

To register, please click here.

For more information please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 06 568 5050.

This event is free and open to the public.

Sponsors