Photos courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation
Sharjah Art Foundation is pleased to present the vinyl albums Only sounds that tremble through us (To all those we are indebted to, before and after us) and The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain as part of the 16th edition of Sharjah Biennial (SB16).
SB16 convenes under the title to carry, a multivocal and open-ended proposition. The ever-expanding list of what to carry, and how to carry it, is an invitation to encounter the different formations and positions of the five curators—Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz—as well as the constellation of resonances they have gathered. The Biennial features works by more than 190 participants, including over 200 new commissions, currently on view across multiple venues in Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, Kalba, Al Madam and other locations across the Emirate of Sharjah.
Especially curated for this edition of the Biennial, the two vinyl albums are available for purchase online and at SAF shops.
Only sounds that tremble through us
(To all those we are indebted to, before and after us)
Curated by SB16 co-curator Amal Khalaf, the commissioned album Only sounds that tremble through us (To all those we are indebted to, before and after us) was created by Bilna’es, a project curated by Adam HajYahia for SB16. The album began with a collection of online recordings of unknown figures (mostly from Palestine, Iraq and Syria), who perform through song, music and dance in the intimacy of their homes, on a street, in a square, at a wedding or on a beach where they have just found refuge. It then took these moments as the basis for new performances developed with electronic musicians and a dancer in Palestine (Makimakkuk, Julmud, Haykal and Rima Baransi), which respond to specific gestures, music or texts from the archive.
The album is part of the wider work, May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth (2020–ongoing) by Ruanne Abou-Rahme and Basel Abbas, which has taken on multiple forms that intersect and overlap: an online project, an installation and a series of public performances. May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth examines the place and significance of both the voice, in the form of song and oral poetry, and the body, in the form of dance and gesture, as political acts of embodiment and becoming in a moment marked by various forms of colonial violence against entire living fabrics. The project repositions these moments as material witnesses, inscribed through body, movement, rhythm and voice, to the destruction of everyday life that is occurring or has occurred. Equally, these moments are also one of the most critical ways in which these fractured communities are resisting their own erasure and laying claim to space, self and community once more. Quite literally, they often perform within and against these violences through renewed rituals of movement and song, at times splintering, even if momentarily, the various regimes of power that have rendered them uncounted, inaudible.
Only sounds that tremble through us is in a double long play (LP) format. The first record features a full album of compositions by Abbas and Abou-Rahme, developed as part of the project between 2022 and 2024, while the second record is made up of commissioned compositions for SB16 by Hiro Kone, Drew McDowall, Makimakkuk, Julmud, Haykal, SCRAAATCH, Muqata’a, Freddie June and DJ Haram in conversation with the project. The artists have all been engaged in the wider project for an extended time. Several of these artists have been invited by Abbas and Abou-Rahme to perform during exhibitions of the installation, while others are featured in the work itself. The artists in this double LP have taken the project and archival material as a conceptual, and at times literal, starting point (through sampling and synthesis) for their compositions.
The album was released during the opening week of SB16 (6–9 February 2025).
The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain
Curated by SB16 co-curator Natasha Ginwala with musician and composer Sarathy Korwar, The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain brings together a series of commissioned sonic projects, recordings of live performances and studio sessions compiled especially for SB16.
Spanning jazz studies and electronic sounds, this album takes inspiration from ancient stepwells in India and water wells found in Sharjah's historic residences and courtyards, which serve as leitmotifs of ancestral memory, place-making and cross-generational convening. Drawing from the Indian Ocean littoral and Afro-Asian cultural memory, the artists on this record foreground the spiritual substance of resonance, avow non-linear storytelling, adventure in percussive gradients and raise laments against tides of annihilation.
The artists included on this record are Tenma & Tishani Doshi feat. Chandralekha; Sarathy Korwar, Deepak Unnikrishnan and Karthika Nair; Chibite Group (Singing Wells); Boom.Diwan feat. Nduduzo Makhathini; Naima Nefertari; Nicolás Jaar; Asher Gamedze; and dragonchild x Sunken Cages. There are bonus digital features by Belinda Zhawi aka MA.MOYO and The Sega Sega Band (Singing Wells).
The art for this album includes photographs by M’hammed Kilito, captured during his study of oases across Morocco. Continuing from this grounded inquiry, his work Kafila (2023–2024), commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 16, is exhibited at the heritage house Bait Al Serkal. In these images, Kilito negotiates the scorching heat, desertification, rural exodus, salination of water reserves and other disrupted cycles of the elements.
The album will be officially launched through a live recital on 19 April 2025 as part of April Acts: to carry new formations. The performance will be presented by musician and composer Sarathy Korwar, author Deepak Unnikrishnan, jazz pianist Al MacSween and multi-instrumentalist duo Zawose Sisters.
April Acts 2025 is a dynamic weekend initiative expanding on the curatorial framework of SB16. It takes place at Africa Hall, Al Manakh, Sharjah on 18, 19 and 20 April 2025.
Visit sharjahart.org for more information.
Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the Emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. The Foundation advances an experimental and wide-ranging programmatic model that supports the production and presentation of contemporary art, preserves and celebrates the distinct culture of the region and encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art. The Foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.
Established in 2009 to expand programmes beyond the Sharjah Biennial, which launched in 1993, the Foundation is a critical resource for artists and cultural organisations in the Gulf and a conduit for local, regional and international developments in contemporary art. The Foundation’s deep commitment to developing and sustaining the cultural life and heritage of Sharjah is reflected through year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and educational programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the Emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. A growing collection reflects the Foundation’s support of contemporary artists in the realisation of new work and its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.
Sharjah Art Foundation is a legally independent public body established by Emiri Decree and supported by government funding, grants from national and international nonprofits and cultural organisations, corporate sponsors and individual patrons. Hoor Al Qasimi serves as President and Director. All exhibitions are free and open to the public.
Sharjah is the third largest of the seven United Arab Emirates and the only one bridging the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Reflecting the deep commitment to the arts, architectural preservation and cultural education embraced by its ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. In 1998, it was named UNESCO's 'Arab Capital of Culture' and has been designated the UNESCO ‘World Book Capital’ for the year 2019.
Alyazeyah Al Marri
+971 (0)6 5444113
Photos courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation