Sustained Reflections: Interview with Eungie Joo

Last November, the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), in the United Arab Emirates, announced Eungie Joo as curator of Sharjah Biennial 12, which opens in March 2015. Previously the Director of Art and Cultural Programs at Instituto Inhotim in Brazil and the Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs at the New Museum in New York City, Joo recently curated SAF’s seventh annual March Meeting, titled “Come Together.”  This four-day symposium of presentations and panel discussions by cultural practitioners has become a notable platform for exchange between artists, curators and researchers.  At the meeting, Joo spoke with ArtAsiaPacific on her initial impressions of the art conference, her approach to “reactivating” the format, and also shared some thoughts about the upcoming Biennial.

Can you speak about your relationship with the March Meeting?

For me, the March Meeting was legendary. I had heard that there was this closed-session meeting that was really helping artists invested in this region. It was a time when they had a chance to come together, learn about each other’s practices, and through that, a strong sense of community was being built and collaborations were developed through the introductions of people that were relatively nearby each other. I always had this great imagination of what they were doing here, without ever having come to Sharjah. In 2011, I attended the March Meeting and it was during the Biennial year. The next year I came and presented—there was a great feeling because everyone was focused on the March Meeting.

What was your motivation behind this year’s meeting format?

The proposal was to use the March Meeting and relate it back to the Biennial, one, to offer something to a local public. I don’t want to be cynical nor naïve about what a local public is. What is the local public of the Sharjah Art Foundation? For some things, it is people who live in this neighborhood, for other things, it’s people who live in the Emirates, and for other things it’s a really unwieldy international audience. For all these publics, I feel we have a responsibility to help develop a common language. Following the idea that patronage is not this rich guy who gives money to the museum, but all people invested in culture—people who will defend culture, who will defend freedom of speech, who will defend creativity and the value of these perspectives—that can help us think and imagine the future. In that way, I hope that the March Meeting demonstrates my expectation for the Sharjah Biennial in that we are in a conversation with sometimes a very small group, sometimes with a very large public, and that conversation can be very productive.

How did you choreograph these discussions? Have you worked with the speakers before?

I didn’t know everybody, but most people I have worked with in the past or have had an open conversation with for some time. For example, the speakers in the first panel—Tarek Atoui, Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas, CAMP—I worked with all of them in New York in a non-exhibition centric way. In the case of Rene and Ayreen, it was in a project where they redistributed their production fund to other artists. In the meantime, I knew from working with them, their investment in Sharjah. So none of these artists on that first panel were locals but they all have spent time here because they had the support of the Sharjah Art Foundation but also because they wanted to give back to the Foundation, to this area and to the public. That’s a beautiful relationship to foster.

I also wanted to involve Emirati artists and in this case, I had been introduced to Abdullah al-Saadi’s work through Sharjah Biennial 10 but also I knew that Hoor was preparing a book and an exhibition with him and so, I hadn’t actually met him until more recently. But I saw the pace of his work which had a lot of resonances with the other speakers on that panel. He also lives and works here and has been teaching for many years. It’s really nice to go in and out in that way.

Any reflections on the March Meeting now that it’s over?

Everything was a surprise. I put people together knowing that there was something there but didn’t give the speakers a precise assignment. I just asked them to present 10–15 minutes as though people didn’t know their work. These are artists I trust completely but they delivered far beyond what I expected. I was moved.

Any new ideas that you’ll be channeling toward the Biennial?

I learned a lot more about what I already knew about. I learned about the overlapping concerns of a particular project or practice, so that better educates me as a curator about the artist and their priorities. How it will impact and influence going forward is that I hope the artists feel that they are in conversation with me. In the development of a project, or even a proposal for a project, we can have conversations about technical details to philosophical details that could help that production in a positive way. In this way, it really influences the Biennial.

How has your experience working in Sharjah been?

We have a really important foundation and the beginnings of important infrastructure in the Sharjah Art Foundation. We have teams that have expanded and matured over time. I don’t know yet because I haven’t tried to produce anything here, except for the meeting itself. My impressions of Sharjah is that it’s an interesting place that is willing to support important conversations and is willing to take its time. These are important in artistic production. We are very fortunate to have this kind of place and it’s really a privilege to work with the foundation.

March Meeting was held from March 13­–16 at the Sharjah Art Foundation Art Spaces.

Sylvia Tsai is assistant editor at ArtAsiaPacific.