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UAE: Sharjah exhibition explores the concept of home

'In The Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises' opens on July 15, 2023, and is on view until September 24, 2023

The most extensive presentation of works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection to date opens on July 15, 2023, following its debut at Deichtorhallen Hamburg in November 2022. For its presentation in Sharjah iteration, In the Heart of Another Country has been reimagined to include new acquisitions and restored works, many of which are on view for the first time. Spanning all six galleries in Al Mureijah Art Spaces, the exhibition features over 150 works by more than 60 artists across three generations, and is on view until September 24, 2023.

Over the past three decades, Sharjah Biennial and Sharjah Art Foundation have provided an internationally recognised platform for artists underrepresented in the global art canon, while offering perspectives from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Through these years, the Foundation has established an archive of contemporary thought and form generated by artists through commissions and exhibitions, performances and conversation and its public collection of modern and contemporary art. This exhibition identifies key themes evident throughout the Collection and brings them together in an exploration of artists whose work engages with concepts of longing, belonging and rootedness.

Through three thematic chapters, the exhibition examines the increasingly mutable notion of home. The artists herein have traversed migratory routes from South and West Asia, through Africa and the Caribbean, and many now live in dispersed sites, far from where they first believed that they belonged. Creating a travelogue through multiple sites, histories and geographies that link the ethnic Global Majority, 'In the Heart of Another Country' displays a re-imagining of a once colonised world, exploring the politics of place and placelessness through myriad art forms and genres, including painting, portraiture, architecture and abstraction, from the twentieth century to the present. Recently restored installations are displayed alongside contemporary acquisitions, narrating a communal story of kinship amongst artists—one often developed against a backdrop of political turmoil and social unrest. Organised by Sharjah Art Foundation and Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, the exhibition is curated by Dr Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation. This exhibiton has been made possible by Invest Bank.

An extensive publication, co-published by Deichtorhallen Hamburg and Snoeck and edited and co-authored by Dr Omar Kholeif, is available now. Contributors include Bani Abidi, Skye Arundhati Thomas, Stephanie Bailey, Anne Barlow, Lubaina Himid, Chris McCormack, Hrair Sarkissian and Sofia Victorino. Forewords are by Hoor Al Qasimi and Dirk Luckow, and Nawar Al Qassimi has written the afterword. The publication is available in SAF stores as well as on Snoeck or on Diechtorhallen. Alongside In the Heart of Another Country, Sharjah Art Foundation will offer a series of workshops inspired by the artists featured in the exhibition as part of its Learning Programme this summer as well as a public closing event reflecting on the themes of the exhibition with key scholars and academics.

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