LB04

Open call for poets: Conference of the Stray Birds invites contributions from across Eurasia

Conference of the Stray Birds will present its inaugural collection of poems at Lahore Biennale 04: The Shape of Coexistence, taking place in spring 2027. The collection reflects on the legacies and possible afterlives of twentieth-century internationalism across Eurasia. Of particular importance to us are the internationalist writers’ conferences that took place across Soviet Central Eurasia in the post–World War II period. At these gatherings, writers and poets from different countries came together to share ... More

Programs

Zinda-dil-a’an-e-Lahore – Billboard Project

Zinda-dil-a’an-e-Lahore – Billboard Project is an initiative of Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) in partnership with Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Kinetic Pakistan. Curated by Qudsia Rahim, Executive Director, LBF; artworks of 16 participating artists were displayed between 24 Nov 2020 - 4 Dec 2020. Lahore is one of Pakistan’s cultural capitals and home to the arts and literature. As a response to the prevailing Covid-19 situation, the Lahore Biennale Foundation in partnership with the Punjab Horticulture Authority invited artists to take over billboards in various parts of the City as an artists’ response, and to ... More

Public Outreach

artSPEAK | The Artist-in-Residence

Books n Beans - November 5, 2015 For the third artSPEAK, Saba Khan, Basir Mahmood and Dr. Razia Sadik ruminated upon the role of the artist-in-residence within the context of Pakistan and the future possibilities available therein.

Publications

Lahore Biennale Reader 01

Edited by Iftikhar Dadi Published by Skira, 2022 The Lahore Biennale 01 Reader assembles substantial scholarly and curatorial essays that engage with salient questions of cultural politics in the global South. The contributions are developed from the program of the first Lahore Biennale (LB01) in 2018, which included works by over 50 artists. LB01 was accompanied with a robust academic forum that brought together local and international scholars, curators, and artists to investigate issues of relevance to contemporary art and society, regionally and globally. The biennale program included a symposium, talks by participating artists, papers by scholars and curators, panel ... More

Programs

Zero Waste Initiative

The Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF) is committed to fostering sustainable practices through its Zero Waste Initiative, aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of our projects and daily operations. As part of this commitment, we have implemented a comprehensive waste management system that emphasizes recycling, repurposing, and responsible disposal methods.

Programs

Urbanities – Art & Public Space in Pakistan

Urbanities aims to enable a broad audience to engage with contemporary art through discursive and artistic events, to link the emerging artist-curator generation in Pakistan with that in Germany, and to stimulate a lively exchange of discourse and practice.

Research

LBF Research Fellowship: Building A National Film Archive

Announced in Summer 2018, the Lahore Biennale Foundation Research Fellowship was open to any individual or collective interested in researching any aspect of modern or contemporary art and visual culture of Pakistan. Award selection was based on the clear identification of the research methodology and archives used, and the relevance of the topic in contributing new knowledge and insight. A public announcement of the award resulted in many submitted applications. The final selection was made by an independent jury. Artist Hira Nabi was the recipient. The total amount awarded for the 2018 cycle was Rs. 300,000. The distinguished mentor for this ... More

Publications

LB02 Guidebook

The 200 page Guidebook provides extensive information on the sites, artists, and themes of the Lahore Biennale 02: between the sun and the moon. Works exploring human entanglement with nature revisit traditional understandings of self and their cosmological underpinnings. The latter derives, in part, from astronomy, a discipline that made important strides amidst cultural and intellectual exchange between South and West Asia. For centuries, inhabitants of these regions oriented themselves with reference to the sun, the moon, the constellations. between the sun and the moon 12 How might we reflect on our place within the cosmos today, at this conjuncture ... More

Publications

Lahore Biennale Reader 02

Between Jan 26 and Feb 29, 2020, the Lahore Biennale 02 was exhibited at multiple sites across Lahore, Pakistan. Hoor Al Qasimi curated the work of over eighty artists and collectives under the theme of Between The Sun And The Moon, emphasizing participation from the Global South and with a stress on artists and works from Africa, Central Asia, West Asia and their diasporas. The multifaceted Biennale program included exhibited works, performances, participatory settings, publications ... More