The international art press looks at the context and plans for the inaugural Lahore Biennale in 2017, under artistic director Rashid Rana.

From: The Art Newspaper ---- The global art axis continues to shift from West to East with the inaugural Lahore Biennale scheduled to launch in the Pakistani city in November next year. The established Pakistani artist Rashid Rana, has been tasked with launching the inaugural event as its artistic director.

He says that the main aim is to “create something which generates ideas for a larger discourse in the art world, yet remains relevant to a large number of audiences from Lahore”. The biennial will encompass residencies, talks and workshops across the city, and include new commissions from established and emerging artists. “I don’t wish the curatorial premise to only result in an exhibition. The plan is to generate a larger discourse,” Rana says.

The artist says that the “world has a very limited view of Pakistan which is restricted to news [about security] in the international media”.  Rana adds: “I promise it will be a very different kind of biennial, not simply for the sake of it but by being true to the contexts under which it takes place; it’s bound to be different. In my vision, the city serves not just as a site but is also the medium.”

The biennial is organised by the Lahore Biennale Foundation, which was established in 2014 by the artist Qudsia Rahim and the businessman Osman Khalid Waheed.

The foundation has funded and helped organise exhibitions and events including My East is Your West, a show at last year’s Venice Biennale which included works by the Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta and Rana.

Read full article from The Art Newspaper by Gareth Harris

From: artnet news  ---- The number of large-scale art events in Asia keeps rising and Pakistan is the latest country to join in on the buzz. Following the success of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India and the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh among others, the Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) has announced that the inaugural edition of Pakistan's first art biennale will take place in 2017.

The Lahore Biennale, the largest contemporary art event to be staged in the country, will kick off in November next year under the artistic directorship of Rashid Rana, one of the most respected and well-known contemporary artists from Pakistan. Rana's work is represented internationally by Lisson Gallery and the Mumbai-based gallery Chemould Prescott Road.

Lahore, one of Pakistan's most important urban centers and home to a population of over 10 million people, has a strong artistic and literary tradition. The city produces 80 percent of the country's books, and in 2013 attracted 30,000 people to the first Lahore Literary Festival. It is also home to a large number of visual artists, and the leading Pakistani artists Rana, Imran Qureshi, and Shahzia Sikander were born in the city and studied at the prestigious Lahore-based National College of Arts.

Read full article from artnet news by Lorena Muñoz-Alonso

Image: Lahore. Photo: Nashmia Haroon, courtesy Lahore Biennale.