Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento convene an expansive constellation of practices to probe the unfinished histories and infrastructural imaginaries shaping the present.
27 April 2026
Sharjah Art Foundation has announced the full participant list for Sharjah Biennial 17, titled ‘What remains, sits restive’, curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento. Bringing together 109 participants across multiple sites in the Emirate of Sharjah, the Biennial unfolds as a dense constellation of practices that engage the unresolved tensions of history, memory, and contemporary life.
Paula Nascimento and Angela Harutyunyan, 2025. Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: DankoStjepanovic.
Under Angela Harutyunyan’s curatorial framework, which reflects on the afterlives of socialist modernity and its unfinished emancipatory horizons, the following artists and practitioners are included:
Alban Muja; Alexandra Sukhareva; Amanda Beech; Anri Sala; Arash Azadi; Arman Grigoryan; Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan; Armenak Grigoryan; Cristiana de Marchi; Cynthia Zaven; Daniele Genadry; David Schutter; Hamlet Hovsepyan; Hande Sever; Hassan Khan; Hiwa K; Igor Savchenko; Iman Issa; Jasmina Cibic; Jessica Ekomane; Jiří Žák; Josef Bolf; Josephine Pryde; Kapwani Kiwanga; Karen Ohanyan; Karine Matsakyan; Karlo Kacharava; Kasper Kovitz; Khaled Tanji; Kristina Benjocki; Lala Rukh; Lena Kocutar; Lousineh Navasartian; Marcos Grigoryan; Michael Martirosyan; Natasha Gasparian; Neda Saeedi; Octavian Esanu; Romana Schmalisch and Robert Schlicht; Sebastián Díaz Morales; Shady Elnoshokaty; Sherif El Azma; Stijn Verhoeff; Suat Öğüt; Tekla Aslanishvili and Solveig Qu Suess; Teni Vardanyan; Thea Djordjadze; Thea Gvetadze; Tsolak Topchyan; Vehanush Topchyan; Yaşam Şaşmazer; Yass; and Zbyněk Balandrán.
Ângela Ferreira, Stone Free(Zama Zama), 2026.Installation view: CristinaGuerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon, 2006. Image courtesy of the artist and CristinaGuerra Gallery. Photo: VascoStocker Vilhena.
Harutyunyan’s grouping traces a wide geography of artistic inquiry, drawing together practices that critically revisit the ideological and aesthetic residues of socialist thought, particularly as they manifest across regions shaped by peripheral modernities and anti-colonial struggle. The list reflects a strong engagement with Eastern Europe, the Middle East and transnational diasporas, situating these practices within a broader reflection on the contradictions of late capitalism and the persistence of unrealised political imaginaries.
In parallel, Paula Nascimento’s curatorial contribution, grounded in an expanded understanding of infrastructure as both method and condition, brings together the following participants:
Agnes Essonti Luque; Ana Silva; Ângela Ferreira; António Ole; Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński; Carlos Noronha Feio; César Schofield Cardoso; Christian Salablanca Díaz; Cipriano; Dana Whabira; Edson Chagas; Euridice Zaituna Kala; Francisco Vidal; Gabriel Chaile; Gabrielle Goliath; Georges Senga; Gosette Lubondo; Grada Kilomba; Helena Uambembe; Hong-Kai Wang; Ibrahim Mahama; Ilídio Candja Candja; Januario Jano; Jean Katambayi Mukendi; Josèfa Ntjam; Kamala Ibrahim Ishag; Kapela Paulo; Kiluanji Kia Henda and Sumayya Vally with Flávio Cardoso, Lilianne Kiame, Raul Jorge Gourgel and Yazan Khalili; Limbo Museum founded by Dominique Petit-Frère; Lungiswa Gqunta; Mpho Matsipa; Myles Igwe; Nolan Oswald Dennis; Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape; Nú Barreto; Oscar Murillo; Pamela Cevallos; Rebeca Carapiá; Reinata Sadimba; René Tavares; Rui Magalhães; Sandra Poulson; Senzeni Marasela; Sonia Gomes; Tuli Mekondjo; Victor Gama; Wendy Morris; Ziad Naitaddi; and Zina Saro-Wiwa.
Arman Grigoryan, My Art Changes the World, 2021.
Nascimento’s selection foregrounds a strong presence of artists from across the African continent and its diasporas, alongside practitioners from Latin America, Europe and Asia whose work engages questions of spatial politics, memory and the material conditions that shape lived experience. Her emphasis on infrastructure extends beyond the built environment, encompassing systems of care, cultural transmission and resistance that operate within and against dominant frameworks.
Together, these two curatorial constellations form a Biennial that resists singular narratives, instead offering a layered and polyphonic approach to the question of what persists in the wake of historical rupture. The participant list itself becomes a map of interconnected practices, spanning generations, geographies and methodologies. Artists such as Ibrahim Mahama, Grada Kilomba, Kapwani Kiwanga, Iman Issa, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Senzeni Marasela and Gabrielle Goliath signal the depth of engagement with themes of memory, extraction, identity and repair, while the inclusion of collectives and collaborative practices underscores the Biennial’s commitment to shared modes of inquiry.
Nolan Oswald Dennis, Specifications for a ReverseArchaeology, 2022–2023.Installation view: Javett ArtCentre, Pretoria, 2023.Imagecourtesy ofthe CollectionHartwig Foundation, Amsterdam.Photo: AntheaPokroy.
Sharjah Biennial 17 positions itself as a site where the unfinished projects of the past are neither resolved nor contained, but actively reanimated through artistic practice. By assembling this expansive group of participants, the Biennial foregrounds the multiplicity of ways in which artists grapple with the residues of history, proposing new forms of understanding that remain attentive to the complexities of the present.
Sharjah Biennial 17: ‘What remains, sits restive.’
21 January–13 June 2027
Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Khorfakkan, Kalba and other locations across the Emirate of Sharjah
