Karachi Biennale CEO urges Sindh govt to set up a contemporary art museum in Karachi
Niilofur Farrukh believes such a museum will cement Karachi's position as a cosmopolitan art city.
The Karachi Biennale has been a staple of the city’s art scene ever since it was first held in 2017, connecting artists with the people and giving us a glimpse of what the city could be like if we encouraged public art. The theme for its fifth edition is Tomorrow as it shifts its focus away from the present, and into the past and the future.
An excerpt from the curatorial note for the Karachi Biennale 2027 (KB27) says the theme focuses on Karachi and highlights its role as a “locus of invention”. The city’s constantly shifting demographic and linguistic landscapes, and its indigenous maritime roots are said to be a testament to how Karachi reinvents itself continually.
In a nod to the city’s ancient connection to the sea, the note compares KB27 to “the hope of a ship’s first voyage,” but clarifies that this boat is neither a warship nor a trading craft, but a vessel of “inclusivity and imagination”. It references the writing of eminent French author Édouard Glissant in saying, “Our boats are open, and we sail them for everyone”.
The exhibition, which takes place across multiple venues throughout the city, will be held in “public spaces, ports, and parks” according to the excerpt. The venues will be chosen specifically to make art accessible to all and bring the general public into discourse surrounding their city’s future. Tomorrow, the organisers say, “must be collective”.
The fifth edition of the Karachi Biennale is curated by Noor Ahmed, the former general manager of the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP). This is her second stint working on the Karachi Biennale, having served as an assistant curator for the event’s second iteration in 2019. She is the second woman to serve as the biennale’s curator after Waheeda Baloch led the effort behind last years KB24.
A graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute, Ahmed was on the curatorial team for Pakistan’s national pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. She also led the digital curation of the Lahore and Taxila museums under the patronage of the World Bank during her time at CAP.
Cover Photo: British Library via Karachi Biennale Trust.