Sharjah Biennial- the inconvenient truth

Just as the UAE prepares to become the hypertrophic cultural capital of the middle east,
the 8th Sharjah Biennial kicks off this month, around the theme of “Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change.” The curatorial statement, studded with the usual gloom and doom about our fucked-up world and wondering if perhaps, maybe, art can create positive change, struggles self-consciously about what the hell an exhibit about ecology is doing in a former desert turned into a golf course by oil profits. Contemporary art, ever the status symbol for the filthy rich, ever the political placebo for freedom. Oh, and “no Israelis allowed.”