"Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines; one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil all over it, one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know."

On my train to London Heathrow I opened a pdf on my phone of Walter Benjamin's One-Way Street [1928]; idle curiosity, no less. You’ll remember that it begins with Filling Station in which he describes an era of unusual rupture and bemoans the inadequate responsiveness of existing literary forms. To be effective, he argues, requires a "strict alternation between action and writing", a nurturing of "inconspicuous forms" and a "prompt language."

Swallowing back the pretension and predictability of using such a quote from such a figure and leaving unpacked any uncanny referents [no cheap points about oil!], this last description is pretty much what I’m hoping to achieve at Sharjah Biennial 10. Oils, joints, opinions in the prompt language and inconspicuous form of a blog -Notes from a Biennial- with only one  aspiration; to be effective.

It’s my first time in Sharjah and the Biennial has lined up a genuinely exciting list of artists from around the world; it's a very good year. I'm curious to see what artists -in alphabetical order- like CAMP, Hans Haacke, Emily Jacir, Aisha Khalid, Naaem Mohaiemen, Rosalind Nashashibi, Imran Qureshi, Khalil Rabah, and a collaboration between Shumon Basar, Eyal Weizman, Jane and Louise Wilson will deliver. That's without mentioning several other artists familiar to me and a lot more that are not.

The Biennial also condenses a vast range of activity beyond visual art as such; music, dance and films as well as the March Meeting which channels presentations from across a further range of cultural work during three intensive days. I’ll be looking for spindles and joints in all of this; continuities and connections. I’ll also be looking to be surprised, even startled.