The Sharjah Art Foundation Residencies programme offers visiting artists and art practitioners a dedicated outpost in Sharjah, not only as a place of rest, reflection and exploration, but also as a unique point of departure for those who are reassessing their relationship with the Emirates and the region at large.

Residencies are offered by invitation or through a call for applications.  While the specific aims of the residency may vary, we look for proposals that reflect, in a broad sense, an interest and engagement with the regional context.  This could simply be the desire for a new cultural experience that might later impact an artist’s work, or it may result in art that is a direct response to this experience or perhaps even a site-specific project. With this programme we aim to promote the possibilities of exchange between artists, the local community and the broader cultural landscape.

The residencies are often part of a long-term relationship with the Foundation, such as that of Danish artist Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, who was invited to show in the 2003 Biennial, and later returned for a residency in 2005.  In the 9th Biennial he showed a video work Rendezvous (2009) where Keralan workers based in Sharjah and their families in India are projected onto adjacent screens. The physical and metaphorical distance between the workers and their families is a space full of love, devotion, hope, loss and longing. The work has since been acquired for the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection.

Lebanese Sound Artist Tarek Atoui’s residency in 2008 allowed him time to develop one of his most complex performances. This was premiered during the 9th Sharjah Biennial and later presented at the New Museum, NY, in 2009 and the Maison Rouge in Paris in 2010. Atoui is now working on a variety of educational projects for the Foundation.

Details of future Residency opportunities will be listed on our website.