Culture vultures, this month is going to be a big one…

There’s a whole lot for art fans in Dubai to look forward to in March – Art Dubai and Dubai Canvas are back, and the brilliant Van Gogh Alive exhibition is coming to Dubai Design District.

But there’s plenty happening up the road in Sharjah, too. From March 17 to 19, the Sharjah Art Foundation is holding its March Meeting – an annual gathering of local and international artists, curators, and other art practitioners who explore topical issues in contemporary art.

This year’s theme, Active Forms, will explore topics of resistance and organisation in relation to artistic and cultural production. The event will feature a programme of talks, panel discussions and performances. All Sharjah Art Foundation events are free, and open to the public.

Here are just some of the highlights…

Exhibitions

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Primodial, 1988, Sharjah Art Foundation Collection

Concurrent with March Meeting 2018, five exhibitions will be on view until June, including work by the “father of Iraqi photography” Latif Al Ani, Jordanian sculptor Mona Saudi, Egyptian-Armenian artist Anna Boghiguian, Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and French-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira.

Performances

A number of performances will take place for March Meeting, including Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s large-scale musical and theatre performance The Song of Roland: The Arabic Version. Based on the French epic poem La Chanson de Roland, the work was co-produced by the Sharjah Art Foundation and premiered in 2017 at the Theater der Welt Festival in Hamburg, Germany.

Talks

There will be plenty of talks, discussions and lecture performances throughout March Meeting, including a panel discussion about the development of independent cinema and screening platforms in Dubai, Beirut, Karachi and online. Panelists include Butheina Kazim, the co-founder of Dubai’s Cinema Akil, and Hania Mroue, the founder and director of Lebanon’s Metropolis Art Cinema. To see the full programme of talks and panel discussions, click here.

March Meeting, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, March 17 to 19. Free entry. More information on website.

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Header image features work by Latif Al Ani, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and Zineb Sedira.