Speaker

Shen Boliang

Host

Lu Jie

Introduction

At the 15th Sharjah Biennial, which opened on 7th Feb 2023, ‘postcolonial constellation’ is a recurring concept.Taken from the 2003 essay of the same title by Okwui Enwezor, the celebrated Nigerian who passed away in 2019, points to the totem of complex geopolitical relationships, entanglements and ‘post-imperial transitions’ existing within the conditions of globalization, in the wake of the retreat of imperialist colonial powers. It doesn’t describe one geographical region, but several entangled relationships. How does the Sharjah Biennale, now celebrating its 30th anniversary, maintain their focus on the ‘postcolonial constellation’ while simultaneously responding to what are considered to be the most pressing issues of  the global curatorial scene,  as the initial vision of the Sharjah Biennale was proposed by Okwui before his death in 2019, and only three years since the Covid 19  pandemic had begun to recede? As curators and writers from the context of Chinese contemporary art, in what ways can we actively expose ourselves to revelatory exchanges? In this lecture, Shen Boliang will conduct an in-depth analysis of the above issues based on experiences at the Biennale, and share his thoughts on today’s curatorial and writing practice, in partnership  with the literature section of the Beijing Biennale ‘Magic Square: Art and Literature in Mirror Image’ and the column ‘Exhibition Eyes’ in ‘Art Journal’ (Chinese Version).