Sharjah Art Foundation

Sharjah Biennial 16

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
6 Febuary — 15 June 2025

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Tayeba Begum Lipi speaking in panel discussion Art in the Age of Migration, Ecology and Environment with Charlene Villaseñor Black, Heather Igloliorte, Sonal Khullar and Terri Geis at March Meeting. Sharjah Art Foundation, 2023

Overview

Wars, repressive regimes, economic crises and deepening environmental catastrophes in recent decades have triggered unprecedented large-scale human migration from the Global South (Asia, Africa and South and Central America, the Syrian war and the epic scale crisis it triggered) to the Euro-American North. How have artists, writers and visual cultures responded to these developments?

This panel will explore the possibilities and responsibilities of cultural production and policy making in response to mass migration, the politics of immigration, human capital flight, labour conditions and the resulting rise in new forms of slavery and indenture. Panelists will discuss new theories, critical perspectives and practices that have emerged in recent years that provide pathways for rethinking our understanding of the biosphere and our human interaction with the changing, increasingly hostile environment.

Watch the video here