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Three exhibitions opened on Saturday, 12 October at Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) as part of the foundation’s autumn season. In attendance were H.H Sheikha Hoor bint Sultan Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation; H.E Sheikh Salem Bin Khalid Al Qasimi, assistant under-secretary for Arts and Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development; H.E Manal Ataya, Director General of the Sharjah Museums Authority; H.E Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority; H.E. KWON Yongwoo, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United Arab Emirates; and H.E Khamis bin Salem Al Suwaidi, Chairman of the Department of Suburbs and Villages Affairs.
The major retrospective Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Sunset, Sunrise explores the artist’s six-decade practice across a variety of mediums; the solo show Bani Abidi: Funland includes two new SAF commissions; and the annual March Project exhibition is back this year for its sixth edition. All three exhibitions opened alongside guided tours in SAF’s exhibition spaces across the city and emirate of Sharjah and feature works in a range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and video. To learn more, visit the foundation’s website.
• Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Sunset, Sunrise
Sharjah Art Foundation, in collaboration with the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (IMMA), presents Sunset, Sunrise, a major retrospective of works by the late artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, and the first one since her passing this year. With a career spanning more than six decades, Farmanfarmaian is considered one of the most important artists of her time.
Born in 1924 in Qazvin, Iran, the artist, who lived between New York and Tehran, is known for her unique combination of traditional Persian techniques and contemporary Western abstraction. The show’s title, Sunset, Sunrise, invokes the sky that both separates and connects the East and West.
The exhibition includes more than 70 works on display, ranging from painting, sculpture and jewellery to work on paper and collages as well as Farmanfarmaian’s signature mirrored works.
Sunset, Sunrise is organised by IMMA in collaboration with Sharjah Art Foundation.
A major publication accompanies this exhibition, featuring contributions from Rahel Aima, Hoor Al Qasimi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Tina Kinsella, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rachel Thomas, Murtaza Vali, together with poetry by Michael Davitt, Rumi and Sohrab Sepehri. The catalogue is co-published by IMMA and Sharjah Art Foundation.
• Bani Abidi: Funland
For over 15 years, Bani Abidi’s work has engaged with questions of personal memory, patriotism and geopolitics through the lens of present-day Pakistan and the larger histories of South Asia.
This major survey of Abidi’s works features video, photography, sound and installation works. The show also includes two new commissions, one of which is The Lost Procession (2019), a video and sound installation that focuses on persecuted Hazara community members who relocated from Pakistan to Germany in recent years. The second commission, Very Very Sweet Medina (2019) is a newly-conceived presentation of objects, prints, books and other materials. The work reflects on the vitality of the 1990s Karachi art scene, which was seminal to Abidi’s development as an artist.
This exhibition is co-curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and Natasha Ginwala.
• March Project 2019 Exhibition
In its sixth annual edition, this year’s March Project artists are Saeed Al Madani, Farah Al Qasimi, Asma Belhamar and May Rashed from the United Arab Emirates, Filwa Nazer from Saudi Arabia and Mario Santanilla from Colombia.
Drawing on their research and practice, the artists have explored several issues, namely, the relationships between architecture, the built environment and the body as well as heritage and contemporary practices that make up our social, visual and cultural fabric.
March Project is an annual educational residency programme that provides opportunities for artists to research, realise and present site-specific works. Participants in this programme, chosen from the Gulf region and beyond, take part in site visits and attend Sharjah Art Foundation’s exhibitions and public programmes. The residency culminates in an exhibition.
These three exhibitions are part of Sharjah Art Foundation’s autumn season. Currently on view as well are Lasting Impressions: Adam Henein, Akram Zaatari: Against Photography. An Annotated History of the Arab Image Foundation and the second annual Air Arabia Curator in Residence Exhibition, ’32: The Rescore. The September and October shows will be followed by the openings of Marwan Rechmaoui: Slanted Squares on 2 November and SHARJAPAN2 on 20 December. This season will also see the second editions of the annual art book fair FOCAL POINT in November and the annual film festival Sharjah Film Platform (SFP) in December.
All Sharjah Art Foundation exhibitions are free and open to the public. Visit sharjahart.org to learn more.