Curated by Christine Tohme

Long admired for her remarkable work as an educator, curator, and convener, Christine Tohme has never before organized a major international exhibition, and I am sure many are eager to see what her pioneering vision will bring. True to form, Tohme is taking an expansive view of what it means to curate, uniting a veritable archipelago of sites and platforms under the rubric of tamawuj, an Arabic word suggestive of fluctuation, the physical movement of waves, or an undulating form. The biennial’s first “act” opens in Sharjah in March, but the show will have additional appearances in Dakar, Senegal; Istanbul; Ramallah, Palestine; and, of course, Tohme’s native Beirut. No doubt few will be witness to the entire production—and it remains to be seen what the deliberate decentering and dispersal will accomplish—but Tohme’s privileging of “informal networks,” and the show’s broad international reach, will surely generate productive ebbs and flows.

— Jessica Morgan