Focal Point, Sharjah’s art book fair, returns for its fourth consecutive year from December 9-11.
Taking place at the Bait Obaid Al Shamsi of the Sharjah Art Foundation, the event brings together publishers, artists and authors with more than 500 titles from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region, including artists’ books, academic volumes and journals, zines and other non-traditional and experimental publications.
This year’s focal point offers a number of musical events and workshops. On the first day, the art fair will host a series of lectures. Artist Ala Younis will discuss the edition of the foundation’s recent monograph on the late Palestinian artist Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara.
Meanwhile, Egyptian artist and curator Omar Kholeif will reflect on his experience as co-curator of the Sharjah 14 Biennale. He worked with curators Zoe Butt and Claire Tancons to put together three exhibitions for the event.
Describing the work he did for the Biennale, Kholeif said it was a “provocation”. “It seeks to show how material culture can be reimagined through the prism of artists whose political action, activism and astute observations encourage us to push the boundaries of our beliefs,” he said.
The fair will also include the release of a number of publications, including Ahmed Morsi: a dialogic imagination, Creating Dangerously: Sharjah Biennial Postscript 14, Beirut Bereft: the architecture of the abandoned and the abandoned map and Cornice 3.
The versions will also include The moment of Tarab and Omissions from the official narrative by the 2019 recipients of the Sharjah Art Foundation Focal Point Editing Fellowship.
the filmmaker Ali Essafi, Hakara Journal editors Noopur Desai and Ashutosh Podar, art and archaeological historian Ridha Moumni, and art historian and curator Gabriella Nugent will share their ongoing research for their 2020 Focal Point Editing Fellowship.
The winners of the third round of the foundation’s annual publishing fellowship will also be announced on Thursday.
Entrance is free, but reservation is required. More information is available on the website
Updated: December 8, 2021, 7:37 AM
