Five curators have been selected for the 16th Sharjah Biennial.
A highlight of the region's cultural calendar, the upcoming biennial will run from February to June 2025.
The curators selected for the event include: Natasha Ginwala, artistic director of Colomboscope, Colombo, and associate curator at Gropius Bau, Berlin; Amal Khalaf, director of programmes at Cubitt, London, and civic curator at the Serpentine Galleries; Zeynep Oz, an independent curator in Istanbul and New York; Alia Swastika, director of the Biennale Jogja Foundation, Yogyakarta; and Megan Tamati-Quennell, a curator of modern and contemporary Maori and indigenous art in New Zealand.
The curators will helm separate projects, which are in conversation with each other. Together, they represent disparate perspectives within the spectrum of contemporary art. Each curator will invite a group of artists from different backgrounds and disciplines, ranging from visual and performing arts to music and publication. As with past events, the biennial will take place in several locations across Sharjah.
“The Sharjah Biennial embraces an expansive and decentralised approach, an ethos that is echoed by the five unique perspectives we are bringing together for the 16th edition,” says Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation.
“Each of these leading curators has worked relentlessly to advance scholarship and practice in their local contexts as well as internationally. Sharjah Biennial 16 will offer the opportunity to witness their ideas in conversation, culminating in a truly polyphonic examination of contemporary art and cultural practice.”
The 15th Sharjah Biennial was held earlier this year, between February and June. The programme featured works by more than 150 artists from across the world. It was held across 19 venues throughout Sharjah, Al Dhaid, Al Hamriyah, Kalba and Khor Fakkan.
The biennial was held under the theme Thinking Historically in the Present, conceived by Nigerian curator, art critic and writer Okwui Enwezor. Before his death in 2019, Enwezor asked Sheikha Hoor to carry out his vision and curate the event.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Who is Tim-Berners Lee?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.
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