Fact and Friction

The second edition of the Lahore Biennale addresses conflicts of history and explores a range of issues that include religious strife and the climate crisis, observes Quddus Mirza.

- Quddus Mirza

The Spanish writer Jorge Carrion wrote in Bookshops, “Every bookshop is a condensed version of the world… that unites your country and its language with vast regions that speak other languages.” The second edition of the Lahore Biennale (LB02), held from the 26th of January to the 29th of February 2020, is very like a vast bookshop. In a bookstore, you find poetry, prose and essays by a variety of authors arranged side by side; books published at different dates are put next to each other. Similarly, in a biennale, you come across works of art created in various parts of the world, and not necessarily in the same period.

Titled Between the Sun and the Moon, the biennale encompasses the vision of its curator Hoor Al Qasimi, who invited around 80 artists from across 44 countries, thus converting the city of Lahore into a melting pot where many worlds meet, converse and correlate. The works on display make it seem as if Qasimi ’s aim was to explore pressing issues of life and meaning ‘between the sun and the moon’. Or between the east and the west, or the north and the south. Or here and there.

Between the 13 display areas, you find several themes that are shared in the works – especially issues to do with political divisions, gender inequality, identity and climate crisis. Somehow, all these converge, correspond and lead to the universal idea of freedom. An impossibility for many people and artists who originate from countries or regions known for their narrow perceptions across political, religious, ethnic and artistic realms. Many artists from South Asia, Middle East and North Africa resist and critique power in their works and address issues of state pressure and orthodoxy.