This catalogue retrospectively documents Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, which was conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, and held across numerous venues in Sharjah from 7 February to 11 June 2023. The publication features nine commissioned long-form texts from writers engaging with the works of more than 150 artists across the Biennial’s growing network of exhibition venues. Both the artworks and writing probe into the postcolonial constellation, characterised by forms of intergenerational knowledge transmission, interlocking histories and shared modes of resistance and adaptation. These accounts, set against the backdrop of sites layered with their own histories of ownership and utility, emphasise the ongoing dialogues between past and present and the recontextualisation of colonial legacies in contemporary art.

Edited by Hoor Al Qasimi and Ahmad Makia, the contributors include Billy Fowo, Christopher J. Lee, Cindy Sissokho, Fawz Kabra, Henry Ace Knight, Maitha Ali, Nadi Abusaada, Ruba Al Sweel, Sharmeen Inayat and Stephanie Bailey.