Seven artists have been selected by Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) to receive support for the realisation of new projects in 2014. The SAF Production Programme grantees are Marwa Arsanios, Elena Artemenko, Ali Cherri, Ahmad Ghossein, Jumana Manna, Zineb Sedira, and Raed Yassin.
The announcement was made on March 13, by Sharjah Art Foundation President and Director Hoor Al-Qasimi at a dinner celebrating the opening of the annual March Meeting (MM 2014) conference and solo exhibitions of artists Wael Shawky, Rasheed Araeen, and Susan Hefuna.
The 2014 recipients of the Production Programme grants were selected by an international jury comprising Tarek Abou El Fetouh, independent curator; Pooja Sood, Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association, and Hoor Al-Qasimi.
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 biannually. The Programme offers artists resources and a platform for experimentation and the production of ambitious new projects. Previous SAF Production Programme grantees include Bani Abidi, CAMP, Sean Gullette, Mario Rizzi, and Lindsay Seers.
The seventh annual MM 2014 was a four-day symposium, which included conversations with artists about sustained engagement in Sharjah and the UAE; brainstorming sessions for collective research and analysis; keynote presentations by leading artists, scholars, and curators; and informal conversations. Sharjah Biennial 12 (SB12) curator Eungie Joo considers the MM 2014 an integral part of the upcoming 2015 Biennial, in that it lays the foundation for collaboration and exchange.
Conceived by Sharjah Biennial 12 (SB12) curator Eungie Joo as an integral part of the Biennial—opening in March 2015—MM 2014 set a tone of collaboration and exchange for the coming year.
MM 2014 coincided with the openings of solo exhibitions of work by Wael Shawky, Rasheed Araeen, and Susan Hefuna, on view through June 13.
Wael Shawky: Horsemen Adore Perfumes and other stories includes videos, installations, sculptures and drawings, highlighting Shawky’s interest in how history is rewritten, documented, and interpreted. His multilayered works explore the effects of globalisation on society today, and force viewers to navigate the territory of truth, myth, and stereotype. Featured in this exhibition is Shawky’s new work Al Araba Al Madfuna II, which was co-produced by Sharjah Art Foundation and the Vienna Festival, and premiered at London’s Serpentine Gallery last November.
Rasheed Araeen: Before and After Minimalism presents sculptures, paintings, and drawings created during the more than 50-year career of this influential Pakistani-born British artist. This first major exhibition of the artist’s work in the MENASA includes early paintings and drawings, documentation of participatory and performance works, seminal sculptures from the 1960s, and a new SAF commission titled Sharjah Blues. The exhibition is supported by the British Council.
Susan Hefuna: Another Place, installed in a converted traditional Emirati home, brings together a large selection of work by the German-Egyptian artist Susan Hefuna, shown together for the first time. Sculpture, drawing, photography, and videos created from the 1980s to the present day reveal the artist’s focus on structure in her practice, both directly and indirectly, through these different mediums. The intimate setting of Bait Al Serkal underscores the tension between public and private that is central to Hefuna’s practice and offers a framework for understanding the links between the works the artist has created over the course of her career.
For more information about SAF and its programmes, visit www.sharjahart.org.