KARACHI: The Karachi Bien­nale 22 preview show for the media on Friday saw an interesting array of artworks on the city campus of the historic NED University of Engineering and Technology.

The event, whose third edition starts on Oct 31 and concludes on Nov 13, is organised for a public audience.

Faisal Anwar, the curator of KB 22, told Dawn, “This is part of the collective imagination, now and the next. More than 40 Pakistani and international artists representing more than 13 countries are taking part in it. The inspiration comes from looking at the contemporary art movements in the world and how artists are working with contemporary mediums. Most of the works are experimental.”

Explaining the experimental part of his comment, he said it means three things. The first is the narrative of the work; then the medium that the artists are working with; and looking at data.

Shedding light on the [nine] venues picked for the biennale all over the city, Mr Anwar said, “We wanted it to spread out as much as we can. Karachi has many cities within one city. The idea is to stretch and reach out as much as we can in diverse communities. The other angle is: picking out heritage sites like this [NED University] one or like Hamid Mansion, Jamshed Memorial or NJV. All these buildings have a really interesting historical perspective. They contain memories and real narratives. Bringing that kind of experimental effort within that framework is a really interesting intersection — juxtaposition of the landmark and the work itself.”

As for his favourite venue, the curator exclaimed all of them are his favourites.

One of the startling views on display at the university is called ‘It Lies Beyond’ by the internationally renowned Pakistani artist Rashid Rana.

He said, “The challenge was the scale of the work, and the drive behind it was that for artists like me who get to work overseas because there’s patronage of art there, I saw the opportunity to do something in Pakistan. What I try is that my work should not come across as difficult for the audience in the first go.

“I use visual strategies to engage a wider audience. If there’s a deeper content then it can unfold gradually. For instance, in this work there’s seascape where I’ve touched upon subjects such as consumerism and issues such as climate change. It’s a saga that begins with water and ends with water,” he said.

Apart from that, an extremely interesting exhibit at NED University is called ‘Audio Placebo Plaza’ by three artists from Montreal, Canada — Erin Gee, Julia E Dyck and Vivian Li. It’s medium: collaborative and community-driven sound.

Describing their project, Erin Gee said, “It’s about healing people through sounds, specifically through the healing power of placebos. The more you believe, the more they work, and the more they work, the more they believe.”

KB 22’s inauguration ceremony takes place on Saturday (today) at NJV School and it formally opens to the public on Oct 31.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2022