In parallel to the show Bani Abidi: Funland at Sharjah Art Foundation, this one-day convening expands on the commission Very Very Sweet Medina, which features artistic and archival contributions by Bani Abidi, Roohi Ahmed, David Alesworth, Shilpa Gupta, Saba Iqbal, Durriya Kazi, Alia Hasan Khan, Naiza Khan, Huma Mulji, Asma Mundrawala, Adeela Suleman and Sohail Zuberi.
Very Very Sweet Medina is a collection of artworks, archives, oral histories and ephemera charting a constellation of art practices and dialogues that emerged in Karachi in the 1990s and continue to impact art making today. Projects focus on collective practice, exhibitions and large scale participatory and ephemeral public installations, combining elements between high art and urban craft.
Titled Artistic Innovation and Collective Practice: Karachi in the 1990s and Beyond, this convening brings together voices from the generation of the 1990s and places them in dialogue with historians, curators, writers and practitioners of today. The aim is not necessarily to offer a linear or complete narrative, but rather to focus on the multiplicity of voices and practices that emerged at the time and ways in which this moment continues to inform new voices and collective work.