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Uriel Barthélémi and Taro Shinoda,
Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique, 2016.
Courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation.
Photo by Alfredo Rubio.
The awardees selected by Sharjah Art Foundation were Sarah Abu Abdallah, Mohamed Fariji, Rula Halawani, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Khaled Kaddal, Basir Mahmood, Amina Menia, Khaled Sabsabi and Mariam Suhail. Grantees also include Haegue Yang / Eric Baudelaire, recognised for a collaborative proposal.
The announcement was made on March 11, at a dinner celebrating the opening of the annual March Meeting and major exhibitions at Sharjah Art Foundation. The dinner, held in Sharjah’s Mleiha desert, followed a site specific performance by Taro Shinoda and Uriel Barthélémi titled Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique.
The 2016 recipients of the Production Programme grants were selected out of over 200 applications by an international jury comprising Hicham Khalidi (Associate Curator, Lafayette Anticipation, Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette, France) and Alia Swastika (Director, Biennale Jogjia 13 and Programme Director, Ark Galerie, Indonesia).
Originally launched as part of the Sharjah Biennial in 2008, the Production Programme has become one of the Foundation’s core initiatives and is announced every two years. The Programme offers artists resources and a platform for experimentation and the production of ambitious new projects. Since Sharjah Art Foundation’s Production Programme launched, over 1,200 submissions have been received, 550 applications considered, and 55 projects selected for production. Previous SAF Production Programme grantees include Bani Abidi, Marwa Arsanios, Elena Artemenko, CAMP, Ahmad Ghossein, Sean Gullette, Jumana Manna, Mario Rizzi, Zineb Sedira, Lindsay Seers and Raed Yassin. Work commissioned for SAF Production Programme include Jumana Manna’s film A Magical Substance Flows into Me, presented as part of her solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery in London last year; Ahmad Ghossein’s film The Fourth Stage presented at Sharjah Biennial 12; Ali Cherri’s The Digger , which premiered at the CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen; works by Bani Abidi and CAMP, which premiered at dOCUMENTA (13); and the film Traitors by Sean Gulette, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.
The Production Programme grantees were announced at the start of an exciting week of events at Sharjah Art Foundation, including the 9th annual March Meeting, as well as the opening of several exhibitions and related performances and discursive programming.
March Meeting 2016: Education, Engagement, and Participation, which took place March 12 – March 13, brought together over 40 speakers from the UAE and around the world to discuss how institutions, initiatives, curators and artists have increasingly prioritised their relationships with audiences and communities through current thinking around ideas of education, engagement and participation, through a series of keynotes, case studies and panel discussions.
Exhibitions that opened during the MM 2016 week of programmes:
March 12 – May 14, 2016
Bait Al Serkal
This major retrospective traces the development of the late-Iranian artist’s practice from the mid 1950s into the 21st century, reflecting on the evolution of her ideas and expressive forms attuned to the shifting ground beneath her feet. The exhibition includes work in painting, sculpture, multimedia installation and stop motion animation produced over the course of a career that spanned more than five decades. Lashai’s work often reference iconic works of art, literature and film while commenting on political and social conditions in Iran. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, the exhibition is presented in the heritage house of Bait Al Serkal.
March 12 – June 12, 2016
Building F, SAF Art Spaces
A significant solo presentation of Simone Fattal’s work, this exhibition features sculpture, simple non-figurative ceramic forms and works based in textual compositions, collage as well as paintings. Fattal’s exploration of artistic medium and source material are paralleled in her equally expansive preoccupations with war, its socio-political contexts, time, and ancient history. This exhibition was curated by Hoor Al Qasimi.
March 12 – May 8, 2016
Building P and J, SAF Art Spaces
This major exhibition of work by Lebanese artists and filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige offers an insight into the ensemble of their artistic and cinematic projects from the late 1990s to the present, including new commissions. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige collaborate as visual artists and filmmakers. Their work includes feature films, documentaries and short films, as well as photographic and video installations. On view for the first time are two video works commissioned for this exhibition: Remembering the Light and ISMYRNA. This exhibition has been coproduced by the Jeu de Paume, Paris, the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, the Haus der Kunst, Munich and the Institut Valencia d'Art Modern.
March 12 – June 12, 2016
Building GH and I, SAF Art Spaces
Curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh, The Time is Out of Joint is a continuation of the exhibition programme for Home Works 6, Beirut (2013), inspired by Andalusian philosopher Ibn Arabi’s concept of time as a fluid place and place as a frozen time. The project challenges the constraints of time and place by suggesting leaps across temporal and geographic boundaries, deliberately confusing times, places, cities and artistic events that took place in the past or will take place in the future. The Time is Out of Joint is commissioned by Asian Culture Center – Theater and Sharjah Art Foundation.
The Production Programme broadens the possibilities for the production of art in the MENASA region through a commitment to support innovation and excellence in artist practice by encouraging experimentation. This commitment places artists at the core of the Foundation’s mission by offering grants and professional support for the realisation of projects selected from an open call for proposals.
The Programme cycle is every two years, with an Open Call announced in the Autumn and the decisions announced after the submissions are reviewed and projects selected by an international jury in the Spring. One of the Foundation’s core initiatives, the Production Programme works to engage and challenge artists and audiences aesthetically, intellectually, emotionally, socially, politically or in ways new and unexpected.
Since 2009 SAF has built on the history of cultural collaboration and exchange that began with the first Sharjah Biennial in 1993. Working with local and international partners, Sharjah Art Foundation creates opportunities for artists and artistic production through core initiatives that include Sharjah Biennial, the annual March Meeting, residencies, production grants, commissions, exhibitions, research, publications and a growing collection. Our education and public programmers focus on building recognition of the central role art can play in the life of a community by promoting public learning and a participatory approach to art. All our events are free and open to the public.
For more information, visit www.sharjahart.org.