THE ART NEWSPAPER MARCH 2018 www.artnowpakistan.com SECOND EDITION PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY UZAIR AZIZ | https://www.uzairazizphotography. The Lahore Biennale’s opening weekend program commences March 16 to 19 2018, and includes performances, guided tours of art works and venues, as well as collateral gallery programming within the city. Exhibitions and events for LB01 will be held at seven major venues that engage with the city’s Mughal, Colonial and Modern layers. The inaugural biennale recognizes the city in relation to its region, as reflected in the presentation of artists selected, and in the Biennale’s core and collateral programming. LB01 understands inclusivity, collaboration, and public-engagement as being central to its vision. LB01 has invited artists, groups, and institutions to work on various scales and at multifaceted sites. Editorial Note Editorial Note Fawzia Naqvi Quddus Mirza 2018 ARTNOW PAKISTAN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLICATION DESIGN COURTESY JOVITA ALVARES Editor in Chief Editor It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to the 2nd edition ‘In the beginning was the Word’, and one feels in the end it of the ArtNow Art Paper, which brings selected articles from will also be the Word; although in between it has assumed the online magazine into print. The current milieu of re- various forms: from handwritten manuscripts to Guttenberg gional and global art is abuzz with activity, with art fairs and prints, and to Kindle. From ink on paper to digital letters on biennales initiating and returning one after the other. The Lahore Biennale adds to this luminous screen. From a bound volume to an online publication. Yet in all these for- ever-growing art calendar, with an array of exciting artworks and site-specific projects mats it is the meaning that makes the difference. It is believed that meaning determines on display, along with strong discursive, educational and cultural outreach programs the selection of words, but in most instances, meaning relies upon words. Words guide, in place. Through an engagement with Lahore, the artists and audiences will be able to shape and evolve the content of a work. Like many perfect relationships, both word and maneuver its complexities and experience it as an intricate, multi-layered urban space. meaning – or form and content, are mutually incompressible, yet inseparable. Often It is the relentless commitment and labour of love put in over the years by the Executive words accompany a work of art. These are a passage leading us into an artwork – and Director LBF and Director LB01 Qudsia Rahim, Chairperson Osman Khalid Waheed, out of it. Not only our understanding but our enjoyment is dependant on language, since the LBF board and the LB01 team that has made the Lahore Biennale possible. The Art when we think, we think in words. Language is a potent tool to have an initial and inti- Paper gives us a chance to foster a meaningful understanding of the significance such mate contact with the work of visual art after we set our eyes on the piece. This encounter events have for the country, its art community, and for its relationship with the region. It constructs the perfect backdrop against which to situate the biennale, by providing further opens up a link between image and word, and how both connect, complement, insights on the most recent large scale art events and reflecting on their social, political or contradict (Joseph Brodsky’s stated: “A picture seldom complements words, or vice and cultural implications. Rabeya Jalil questions the existence of “art beyond borders”, versa”). Art Now Pakistan aims to provide a context for artistic practices. Drawing from while Dua Abbas Rizvi and Julius John Alam explore the need for, and future of bien- a large number of our contributors across the world, we try to present a view of the nales in cities like Karachi and Lahore. The Paper also includes in-depth coverage of world of art, not purely objective, but the one that raises some points to ponder, subjects the Venice Biennale by Naiza Khan, the Karachi Biennale by Saira Danish Ahmed, the to investigate, and issues to be explored. Multiple opinions, diverse voices and different Dhaka Art Summit by Sophia Balagamwala and an interview with Myrna Ayad, the di- dimensions are included in our online magazine; because for us art is not a landlocked rector Art Dubai, providing a comprehensive view of the regional art environment from pursuit, but a collective act that breaks the barriers of boundaries: national, regional, cul- multiple perspectives. We are pleased to introduce Art Spaces, Retrospective and Guest tural and political. Like ‘Art Dubai’, for which artists, viewers, critics and collectors leave Editor Column. Ali Naqvi and Kimihide Ando have shared their views in these columns. their places and interact with others at another location – geographically a small island, Supplementing these insightful reads are some star studded profiles. It is exceedingly but in its power, prestige and perception equal, if not more, to a continent-scale country. refreshing to see the change Pakistani art has seen in recent times and the trajectory it A kind of micro world. Art Now Pakistan in its capacity of an online magazine is situated is currently taking to situate itself in the global art conversation, and we are enormously at one address, yet exists at thousands of other venues at the same moment – bringing thrilled to be a part of this change. For more insights and critical perspectives on con- them closer to a familiar neighbourhood we call – ART! temporary art, log on to artnowpakistan.com to remain updated on the latest news and happenings in the country and around the world. Bye for NOW! 2 THE ARTNOW NEWSPAPER | www.artnowpakistan.com | MARCH 2018 THE ARTNOW NEWSPAPER | www.artnowpakistan.com | MARCH 2018 3 Profile| February 2017 Profile| March 2018 Osman Khalid Waheed Qudsia Rahim: by Nour Aslam Executive Director, LBF, success of the project made the founding team zo in Venice. Audiences in both cities were able realize that “…the idea was bigger than this one to see and speak to each other in unexpected specific application, and that there was a great interactions that took place through a screen Director LB01 need, particularly in Pakistan, to explore public or ‘mirror’ that existed neither in Lahore nor in art as a vehicle for social change.” From there, Venice, but a third space that created an alter- by Qudsia Rahim the Lahore Biennale Foundation was founded in nate reality and existed in both cities, blurring February of 2015. not only geographic boundaries, but also the The Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) was such work on a sustained basis, one of the aims As the Co-Chair of the Lahore Bien- lines between artist and audience, the viewer founded in 2014 in an effort to create oppor- of the Biennale is to create this exposure for nale Foundation, Waheed is able to pursue an and the viewed.” tunities for the promotion of the visual arts in local audiences, and to enrich conversation and interest he became passionate about during his In regards to “The Viewing, The Viewer and the ways that encourage public involvement in the dialogue within the local art scene. undergraduate study: art. As an economics ma- Viewed” what impacted Waheed the most were arts. In our past projects, we have focused on For LB01 we have also commissioned jor, he decided to venture from his traditional these impromptu interactions, which transcend- developing opportunities for creative practi- many new site-specific installations of contem- course load, taking classes in Art History, spe- ed barriers of language, culture, religion and tioners to develop their work and present it to porary art. Some of these engage with the idea cifically the Renaissance period and Surrealism geography. In one instance, a young boy from the local public. We have successfully executed of nature, others work with Lahore’s layered movement. These courses had a great impact on Liberty Market looks into the mirror and sees numerous public-private projects in Lahore and history and diverse geography. Our exhibition him as a student, and his interest naturally grew a group of young Italian girls. He serenades elsewhere during the previous three years. sites include structures with unique architec- as he learned more about the arts from his wife, them with an impromptu folk performance of Along with my team and the board of tural features such as the Shahi Hammam and Sadia, who studied at the National College of Bulley Shah in a language that is utterly foreign the Lahore Biennale Foundation, I am very the Summer Palace at the Lahore Fort, and the Arts (NCA) and teaches there. to them, and brings them to tears. For Waheed, proud to present Lahore Biennale 01, the flag- award-winning modern complex of the Alham- Art is one of those rare forms of expres- The executive board members of the “these are connections that transcend notions of ship event for LBF planned to be held every two ra Art Centre. sion that can inspire passion in a wide range of LBF come from diverse occupations and back- East and West, of otherness. At a time when hu- years. The Biennale also aims to create more people, from the most casual of observer to the grounds, yet each retain a dedicated appreci- man migration has become such a contentious Biennales are large-scale public art awareness in Pakistan of the exciting develop- serious collector or dedicated academic. How- ation of the arts. Ali Naqvi, the Co-Chair of geopolitical issue, these moments are priceless exhibitions that take art beyond the realm of ments taking place in the region.