Sharjah Art Foundation Appoints Angela Harutyunyan And Paula Nascimento As Curators For Sharjah Biennial 17

Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento have been chosen as the curators for Sharjah Biennial 17, which is set to open in January 2027. Harutyunyan is a Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at Berlin University of the Arts, while Nascimento is an independent curator and architect based in Luanda.

Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, highlighted the Biennial's role since 2003 as a platform for creative experimentation and collaboration. She stated, "Since 2003, Sharjah Biennial has been a platform for creative experimentation, collaboration and social impact. Rooted in our local context, we have fostered a place of significant regional and international exchange, bridging cultures and shared histories."

The upcoming Biennial will serve as a venue for critical engagement and collective reflection. Al Qasimi noted that Harutyunyan and Nascimento bring unique perspectives shaped by their practices. "Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento each bring distinct perspectives shaped by their individual practices. Sharjah Biennial 17 will be a space for critical engagement and collective reflection, where their curatorial visions can collaboratively explore new contemporary realities," she added.

The curators aim to transform the Biennial into a space for critical reflection and experimental exhibition-making. They plan to explore alternative contemporary realities through various artistic projects across Sharjah.

Harutyunyan expressed her interest in examining how artworks capture the decaying yet enduring afterlives of non-capitalist modernity's emancipatory projects. "The possibilities and limitations of the biennial form in making visible the uneven temporal rhythms that pulsate beneath contemporaneity are of particular interest to me", said Harutyunyan. "I would like to examine the ways in which artworks encapsulate and figurate decaying but undead afterlives of the emancipatory projects of non-capitalist modernity."

Nascimento views biennials as essential spaces for experimenting with exhibition-making forms and models. She sees them as places for community gathering and fostering social transformation. "I am interested in thinking with artists and in the articulations between artmaking and infrastructure in an expanded way, as well as exploring art's capacity to imagine and propose spaces and other worlds and forms of relations," she said.

The collaboration between Harutyunyan and Nascimento promises to bring fresh insights into contemporary art practices. Their combined efforts will likely offer new perspectives on art's imaginative potential within diverse cultural contexts.

With inputs from WAM