Introduction

The Sharjah Biennial stands as the Middle East's most transformative contemporary art exhibition, fundamentally reshaping how we understand cultural exchange between East and West, North and South. Founded in 1993 under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, what began as a regional showcase has evolved into a global platform that challenges Western-centric art narratives and amplifies voices from the MENASA region and beyond.

Under the visionary leadership of Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi since 2003, the biennial has become a laboratory for experimental curatorial practices and cross-cultural solidarity. Organized by the Sharjah Art Foundation, it has pioneered new models of institutional support for artists from the Global South, offering sustained engagement rather than extractive exhibition practices. The biennial's influence extends far beyond its four-month run, having launched careers, influenced global curatorial thinking, and established Sharjah as an essential node in the international art network.

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The Revolution Will Be Curated: How Sharjah Biennial Redefined the Global Art Map

In the heart of the United Arab Emirates, far from the traditional centers of art world power, a quiet revolution has been unfolding for over two decades. The Sharjah Biennial, once a modest regional exhibition featuring national pavilions and conventional displays, has emerged as arguably the most radical reimagining of what an international art exhibition can be in the 21st century. Its transformation offers a blueprint for decolonizing cultural institutions and a glimpse of what a truly polycentric art world might look like.

The story of this transformation is inseparable from the vision of Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, who at 22 years old became the youngest director of a major international biennial. Fresh from the Slade School of Fine Art and inspired by Okwui Enwezor's groundbreaking 2002 documenta, Al Qasimi arrived at the 2003 Sharjah Biennial with ideas that would prove revolutionary. "Why country representation? Nobody's from one country!" she declared, immediately abolishing the national pavilion model that had defined the biennial's first five editions. Half the organizing committee quit in protest. What emerged from this creative destruction was something entirely new: a biennial that would prioritize artistic vision over national representation, critical engagement over cultural diplomacy.

The current 16th edition, titled "to carry," represents the culmination of this evolutionary journey. With five curators—Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz—working both collectively and independently, the biennial has embraced what it calls a "wild polyphony" of voices. This is not mere curatorial rhetoric but a fundamental restructuring of how major exhibitions are conceived and realized. The result is overwhelming in the best sense: over 650 works by nearly 200 artists spread across 17 venues, from the historic Al Mureijah Square to abandoned houses in the desert, from the iconic Flying Saucer building to the ghost village of Al Madam where sand has reclaimed human habitation.

What distinguishes Sharjah from other biennials is not just its scale but its methodology. The emphasis on commissioning new works—over 200 in this edition alone—represents a significant investment in artistic production rather than simply displaying existing pieces. This approach has created what Christine Tohmé, curator of the transformative 13th edition, calls "an infrastructure of possibility" for artists, particularly those from regions traditionally marginalized by the international art system. The biennial's commitment extends beyond the exhibition period through year-round programming, residencies, and educational initiatives that have made Sharjah a vital hub for artistic development in the region.

The prominence of Indigenous artists in the current edition—with significant representation from First Nations Australian artists, Native American creators, and Indigenous communities from across the Global South—reflects a curatorial approach that goes beyond tokenistic inclusion. Megan Tamati-Quennell, working from an Indigenous standpoint, has brought together projects that explore land, impermanence, and speculative futures through methodologies rooted in specific cultural practices. This isn't about translating Indigenous art for a global audience but creating spaces where different knowledge systems can coexist without hierarchy.

The biennial's relationship to its location is equally revolutionary. Unlike art events that treat their host cities as interchangeable backdrops, Sharjah Biennial has developed a profound engagement with its specific geography and history. The emirate's position—both geographic and cultural—as a meeting point between Asia, Africa, and the Arab world informs every aspect of the exhibition. Works respond to the desert landscape, the maritime heritage of the Gulf, the architectural legacy of modernization, and the complex demographics of a nation where expatriates constitute nearly 90% of the population.

This local specificity doesn't limit the biennial's global relevance—it amplifies it. By refusing to conform to Western exhibition models and instead developing approaches suited to its context, Sharjah has created new possibilities for how international art events can operate. The extension of the 13th edition to venues in Dakar, Istanbul, Ramallah, and Beirut demonstrated how a biennial could create networks of solidarity that bypass traditional art world circuits. This wasn't cultural imperialism in reverse but an attempt to create what Natasha Ginwala calls "new cartographies of exchange" based on shared histories and contemporary affinities rather than colonial pathways.

The institutional framework supporting the biennial is equally significant. The Sharjah Art Foundation, established by Al Qasimi in 2009, provides year-round infrastructure that many biennials lack. This isn't just about financial resources—though the foundation's budget, supported by government funding and Sharjah's ruler, allows for ambitious programming—but about creating sustainable relationships with artists and communities. The foundation's acquisition of works from the biennial for its permanent collection ensures that artistic production has a life beyond the exhibition, while its education programs have introduced contemporary art to generations of Emiratis who might otherwise have little exposure to such practices.

The question of audience is particularly fascinating in Sharjah's context. Unlike biennials in established art capitals that primarily serve an international art world elite, Sharjah must negotiate multiple publics: local Emiratis, the diverse expatriate communities that make up the majority of the population, regional visitors from across the Gulf, and the international art professionals who increasingly recognize the biennial as unmissable. This complexity has pushed curators to develop modes of presentation that don't assume a singular, educated art audience but instead create multiple entry points for engagement.

The 2025 edition's theme "to carry" resonates particularly in this context of multiplicity. What does it mean to carry culture, memory, and identity across borders? How do we carry the weight of history while imagining different futures? These questions feel urgent not just in the specific context of the Gulf—a region experiencing rapid transformation—but globally as we grapple with migration, climate change, and the collapse of old certainties. The biennial doesn't offer answers but creates spaces for these questions to be explored through artistic practice.

As Hoor Al Qasimi's appointment as artistic director of both the 2025 Aichi Triennale and the 2026 Biennale of Sydney demonstrates, the influence of Sharjah's model is spreading. But this isn't about exporting a formula—each context demands its own approach. What Sharjah offers is proof that there are alternatives to the dominant models of international exhibition-making, that it's possible to create platforms for art that serve their specific contexts while contributing to global conversations. In an art world still largely structured by colonial legacies and market imperatives, this represents a genuine revolution—one measured not in overthrown systems but in new possibilities made real.

Sources & Further Reading

Artistic Vision & Themes

The Sharjah Biennial has consistently distinguished itself through its commitment to exploring themes that resonate deeply with both regional contexts and global concerns. Moving beyond the art world's tendency toward abstract conceptualism, each edition engages with urgent questions of identity, belonging, displacement, and cultural memory through approaches rooted in specific geographical and historical contexts.

The 16th edition's theme "to carry" exemplifies this approach. Rather than a fixed curatorial statement, it functions as what the curators call "a multivocal and open-ended proposition." The theme explores the physical and metaphorical act of carrying—carrying homes, ancestors, languages, wounds, and possibilities. In a region marked by migration, rapid development, and cultural transformation, this resonates with particular intensity. The five curators bring distinct perspectives: Tamati-Quennell's Indigenous methodologies, Ginwala's focus on Indian Ocean networks and water as memory, Öz's examination of technological change, and collaborative explorations of how we navigate spaces that are not our own.

This polyphonic approach represents a radical departure from single-curator models that impose unified visions. Instead, the biennial embraces productive tensions and unexpected resonances between different curatorial projects. Works selected by multiple curators are rearranged in each venue to create new dialogues, with the architecture and history of specific sites informing these configurations. This methodology acknowledges that in our contemporary moment, no single perspective can adequately address the complexity of global experience.

History & Legacy

The transformation of the Sharjah Biennial from a conventional regional art fair to a globally influential platform represents one of the most significant institutional evolutions in contemporary art history. Founded in 1993 by Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the biennial initially followed familiar models with national pavilions and diplomatic cultural exchange as primary goals. The first five editions, while important for establishing contemporary art infrastructure in the Gulf, remained largely peripheral to international art discourse.

Everything changed in 2003 when Hoor Al Qasimi, then just 22 years old, was appointed director. Her radical restructuring—abolishing national representations, emphasizing thematic coherence, and prioritizing experimental practices—met significant resistance but ultimately transformed not just the biennial but the entire cultural landscape of the region. The establishment of the Sharjah Art Foundation in 2009 provided crucial institutional support, enabling year-round programming and sustainable artist relationships that distinguish Sharjah from event-based biennials elsewhere.

1993

First Sharjah Biennial established by Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi

1998

UNESCO names Sharjah "Cultural Capital of the Arab World"

2003

Hoor Al Qasimi appointed director, abolishes national pavilions

2009

Sharjah Art Foundation established, providing year-round infrastructure

2011

10th edition "Plot for a Biennial" responds to Arab Spring

2017

13th edition "Tamawuj" extends to Beirut, Dakar, Istanbul, Ramallah

2019

Sharjah designated UNESCO Creative City for Crafts and Folk Art

2023

15th edition honors Okwui Enwezor's legacy with Hoor Al Qasimi as curator

2025

16th edition "to carry" features 200 artists, revolutionary five-curator model

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Exhibition Venues

The Sharjah Biennial transforms the entire emirate into an extended exhibition space, utilizing over 17 venues that range from purpose-built contemporary art facilities to abandoned buildings reclaimed by the desert. This distributed model creates a journey through Sharjah's diverse landscapes—urban, coastal, mountainous, and desert—making the act of visiting itself a form of cultural pilgrimage.

Central to the biennial is the Al Mureijah Square complex in Sharjah's heritage area, where traditional coral stone buildings have been sensitively converted into galleries while maintaining their architectural integrity. The iconic Flying Saucer building, Khor Fakkan Cinema, Al Hamriyah Studios, and various sites across the emirate including the ghost town of Al Madam create dialogues between contemporary art and the UAE's rapid transformation. Additional venues in Kalba, Al Dhaid, and the Mleiha Archaeological Centre extend the biennial's reach into communities rarely included in international art events.

This approach goes beyond using space as neutral containers for art. Each venue's specific history—whether a modernist relic, a traditional dwelling, or a site of abandonment—becomes part of the artistic conversation, creating what curator Zeynep Öz calls "a choreography of meaning across geography."

Video Experience

Explore the expansive world of Sharjah Biennial through this immersive tour showcasing the diverse venues, groundbreaking installations, and the unique cultural landscape of the UAE's art capital.

Video: Sharjah Biennial Exhibition Experience | Watch on YouTube

Venue Locations

The Sharjah Biennial spans multiple venues across the emirate, from the cultural heart of Al Mureijah Square to the coastal areas of Kalba and the desert landscapes of Al Madam.

  • Al Mureijah Square - Heritage Area, Sharjah
  • Sharjah Art Museum - Al Shuwaihean
  • The Flying Saucer - Al Majarrah Park
  • Al Hamriyah Studios - Al Hamriyah
  • Kalba Ice Factory - East Coast
  • Al Madam Ghost Town - Desert location

Sharjah City Guide

Essential information for exploring the Cultural Capital of the Arab World

Best Areas to Stay

Al Majaz, Corniche, Al Khan

Getting Around

Taxis, ride apps, rental cars

Cultural Sites

20+ museums, heritage areas

Dining Scene

Traditional Emirati to international

Insider Tips:

  • Visit early morning or late afternoon to avoid heat
  • Respect local customs: modest dress in public areas
  • Try local cafeterias for authentic Emirati breakfast
  • Blue Souk offers traditional crafts and textiles
  • Sharjah is alcohol-free; Dubai is 30 minutes away