Sharjah Biennial 16

Rushdi Anwar draws from his personal experience as a Kurdish refugee and survivor of state violence to contemplate issues of displacement and trauma
endured as a result of colonial and ideological regimes.

Gabriela Golder examines the intersection between labour and memory from a wide variety of sources— political, mythical and medical—to highlight the aftereffect of violent state actions.

Working with drawing that is transformed by text, installation, photography or video, Ali Eyal’s practice examines feelings of absence and dissonance in response to armed conflict.

Kader Attia’s poetic installations and sculptural assemblages investigate the far-reaching emotional implications of western cultural hegemony and colonial systems of power for non-western subjectivities, focusing particularly on collective trauma and notions of repair.

Asma Belhamar explores the phenomenon of the megastructure in the Emirates and its impact on the topographical memory of local landscapes through installation, experimental print, video and 3D modelling.

Shaped by his Iraqi-Jewish heritage, Michael Rakowitz’s work braids together seemingly disparate elements of cultural history,
mythic symbolism, contemporary geopolitics, Pop culture, food and looted artefacts.

Dana Awartani seeks to revive traditional Arab forms, techniques, concepts and spatial constructs as well as historic artistic practices
by making them relevant to the contemporary context.