LAHORE: For the third edition of the Lahore Biennale, the Punjab Walled Cities and Heritage Areas Authority (PWCHAA) and Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) here Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
DG PWCHAA Kamran Lashari and LBF Executive Director Qudsia Rahim signed the MoU to assist the LBF in holding Lahore Biennale 03 on October 5. The event has been organised around the theme of ecologies and sustainable futures; the Biennale will present site-specific work that draws attention to issues caused by environmental degradation and also highlight vernacular and indigenous heritage as potent resources for imagining future sustainability.
According to the LBF, by actively implementing forms of solidarity between artists, thinkers, researchers and the broader community, LB03 puts the spotlight on collaborative efforts to address challenges shared across Asia and the Global South, facilitate the exchange of knowledge concerning historical connections, and propose collective pathways for navigating the future together.
Earlier, it also announced the appointment of John Tain, Head of Research at Asia Art Archive, as the curator for the third edition of the Lahore Biennale; it hosted a conversation with Tain on the Lahore Biennale at Alhamra Dated April 17, 2023.
For the upcoming third edition, LBF plans to bring art to the people by placing new art commissions and large-scale public installations at various heritage and everyday venues across the city. In addition, research into Lahore’s history will contribute to the exhibition’s emphasis on local and indigenous knowledge and practices as resources for thinking about the future. It will also showcase several projects on Mall Road, a historical centre for public expression and cultural activity. LB03 will also integrate its discursive programming as part of its overall offering. These enhancements will foster a deeper connection and understanding of Lahore by diverse communities.
According to the LBF, LB03’s convening of emerging and established artists, scholars and researchers addresses ecology and sustainable development, urgent topics in a country that in the past year has seen calamitous floods and degraded environment, aggravated by agricultural disasters, urban pollution, and social inequality. These problems now cannot be ignored, and have long been in gestation. The exhibition will foreground contributions by artists that suggest aesthetic, sensorial, conceptual, and collective ways to address such challenges, while also underscoring resonances between the histories of Lahore and Pakistan with other parts of the world that face similar issues.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024