'Sharjah Biennial 14 attracted artists from near and far.
One of them was Shiraz Bayjoo, a 40-year-old, UK-based artist originally from Mauritius. The subject of his film “Ile de France,” shown at the biennial, was the dark history of the Indian Ocean island, with its ruins of European colonial settlements, and a population comprising descendants of Indian Muslims and people from Africa brought there as slaves or indentured laborers.
“My film explores this environment that shifts, where they fit today in relation to their class and race, and how that kind of history still plays out in terms of our psyche and how we imagine ourselves,” Bayjoo told Arab News. “Acts of conservation, regardless of the location, are important from the standpoint of understanding each other’s past.” Bayjoo sees the Sharjah Biennial as the most significant art event globally after Venice. “It’s very important that we have this in the Middle East and on the African continent as well,” he said.
“If we link these spaces together, it really shifts the center away from just being a Euro-centric conversation. The artists brought together this year as part of Zoe Butt’s curation constitute a majority voice of Global South artists. For it to be represented in the Middle East, instead of in Europe or North America, is really significant.”'
