Sharjah’s must-see art showcase explores identity and freedom

Amid the silence of the Sharjah Art Foundation’s numerous galleries at the historic intersection of the Al Mureijah Square, Bouchra Khalili’s works whisper stories of invisibilised identities, civil liberty, stateless communities, the dilemma of migrants and what the artist herself describes as “radical citizenship”. Based in Vienna, Khalili is of Moroccan-French descent and her recently opened solo show, Between Circles and Constellations, is part of the Sharjah Art Foundation’s ambitious autumn line-up that also includes an exhibition devoted to Emily Karaka, a notable figure in New Zealand’s post-modern expressionism movement.

Inaugurated by Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, member of the Federal Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, these two major exhibitions will set the stage for other upcoming showcases featuring well-known masters such as William Kentridge and Antonio Dias.

Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, director and president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, along with Amal Al Ali and Meera Madhu, Between Circles and Constellations brings together a remarkable snapshot of the Morocco-born Khalili’s most significant projects from the last two decades, including the regional premiere of her recent film The Public Storyteller (2024). One of the unmissable highlights of the show is The Circle.

This mixed media installation starts from a forgotten historical event — the candidacy of Djellali Kamal, an undocumented Maghrebi worker during the French presidential elections of 1974. “The piece is essentially a meditation through oral poetry, film and performance on the notion of belonging and community in which I invite viewers to imagine a world where an anonymous undocumented worker can be elected president,” says Khalili, hoping that the artwork will give rise to an emancipatory conception of community from purely poetic gestures.

While The Public Storyteller reimagines Djellali’s campaign as an epic by a Moroccan Bard, the ‘Circles’ in the show’s title refer to al halqa, a traditional Moroccan storytelling practice in which people across generations gather in a circle and share memories and political ideas. In Khalili’s deft hands, the circle formed by the audience “becomes a metaphor for the community brought together by the act of envisaging a better future in a shared world,” explains Hoor, who was recently named the artistic director of the 25th Biennale of Sydney, to be held in 2026.

Between Circles and Constellations serves as a reminder to document and account for stories of collective emancipation and collective healing. However, Khalili, whose video projections The Mapping Journey Project drew widespread acclaim at the Venice Biennale 2024, refrains from interpreting her work solely as a commentary on migration or colonial and post-colonial narratives. “In fact, all of my works are connected to each other through the very question that has been haunting my practice from the beginning — how can we rethink forms of belonging freed from restrictive conceptions of identity?” says Khalili, who is no stranger to Sharjah’s artistic landscape.

She has previously exhibited at Sharjah Biennale 10 in 2011 and Sharjah Biennale 15 in 2023. “The amazing programmes and the wonderful team at the Sharjah Art Foundation makes Sharjah a very special place to me,” gushes the artist who has also participated prominently in two editions of the March Meeting, an annual artistic convention organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation where experts from around the globe engage in meaningful dialogue on relevant topics in contemporary art.

The life and times of Emily Karaka — currently 72 and based in Auckland — tells a different story, though her colourful abstractions are no less powerful as they dwell on the fraught legacy of colonialism and its ongoing impact on Māori identity and culture. Being the first major exhibition of Karaka’s work internationally, there are plenty that art enthusiasts can discover here.

Titled Ka Awatea, A New Dawn, the sprawling Karaka survey displays works drawn from public and private collections spanning her five-decade career. The artist is also showing new works commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation. “Stylistically diverse, from high intensity abstract expressionist paintings in saturated colour, to poetic representations of land and people, her artwork carries messages of Māori sovereignty, social justice, care for the environment and love for her family. Born of the politics of colonisation, her work is personal, passionate and anchored in Māori rights related to the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand,” says Hoor, who has co-curated this show along with Megan Tamati-Quennell (a co-curator of the upcoming Sharjah Biennial 16).