Hoor Al Qasimi

(Lahore Biennial Curator and Sharjah Art Foundation Director)

in conversation with FHI Social Practice Lab Director Pedro Lasch

with a response from Valerie Hillings, Director and CEO, North Carolina Museum of Art.

Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), is a curator who established the Foundation in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, UAE, as well as regionally and internationally. With a passion for supporting experimentation and innovation in the arts, Al Qasimi has continuously expanded the scope of the Foundation over its ten-year history to include major exhibitions that have toured internationally; artist and curator residencies in visual art, film and music; commissions and production grants for emerging artists; and a wide range of educational programming in Sharjah for both children and adults. In 2003, Al Qasimi co-curated Sharjah Biennial 6 and has since continued as Biennial Director. Under Al Qasimi’s leadership, the Sharjah Biennial has become an internationally recognised platform for contemporary artists, curators and cultural producers. Her leadership in the field led to her election as President of the International Biennial Association (IBA) in 2017, an appointment that transferred IBA’s headquarters to Sharjah. Complementing her role at SAF, Al Qasimi also serves as the President of The Africa Institute and Chair of the Board for the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, which inaugurated its first edition in November 2019. Al Qasimi served as curator of the second Lahore Biennale, which opened in January 2020 across the city of Lahore, Pakistan.

Free and open to all, anywhere in the world

Guest bio, registration link, and full calendar information included below

20-22 The Ongoing Biennial – A Weekly Conversation Cycle with International Curators

Every Wednesday 1-2pm (EST/GMT-5)

Jan 27th and May 5th, 2021

Organized by Pedro Lasch and the FHI Social Practice Lab with support from the Franklin Humanities I World Arts Initiative at Duke University, this Conversation Cycle is part of a larger program entitled ’20-22 The Ongoing Biennial’. In person visits with some of our guests will also be presented at a later stage in collaboration with the the AAHVS Department and the Nasher Museum of Art.

Set in the context of an unprecedented pandemic, global shutdowns, and the rethinking of every aspect of exhibition making, our remote conversations will include curators and other international arts professionals. The first year of the public program will focus on short online dialogues with individual guests. Our one hour long remote events will begin with a casual interview, focusing on the particular trajectory and ideas of each guest in the series, followed by comments from a respondent and questions from the audience. Within this format, we also hope to provide an opportunity for joint reflection on these highly unusual times. Programming for the second year will be announced at a time of greater certainty.

One-time registration at this link will give you access to all of these free and public events:

https://duke.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsd-uhrDgiE9dKfiHakJ_kA58R76wSVlH9

See full calendar below and click on guest names to see bios and more information for each week：

Jan 27 – Ralph Rugoff

Feb 3 – Cuauhtémoc Medina

Feb 10 – Trevor Schoonmaker

Feb 17 – Candice Hopkins

Feb 24 – Lucia Pietrioiusti

Mar 3 – Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Mar 10 [Break]

Mar 17 – Andrea Giunta

Mar 24 – Yuko Hasegawa

Mar 31 – Miguel López

Apr 7 – José Roca

Apr 14 – Gabi Ngcobo

Apr 21 – Hoor Al Qasimi

Apr 28 – Rujeko Hockley

May 5 – Ruangrupa