Daily Times

Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) would organise 15-day long “Islamabad Art Biennale” through leading national and international artists at PNCA in February, 2019. The 15-day long Islamabad Art Biennale will be hosted in several locations in Islamabad engaging an audience of 500,000 individuals from diverse backgrounds and ages. The event will feature artists from at least ten international locations including the United States as well as 100 Pakistani and 30 International artists.

The core theme will have far-reaching socio economic and cultural impact and aim to achieve the following; introducing new Art forms and practices through leading national and international artists, fostering relationships through cultural dialogue and exchange of ideas, promoting the cultural significance of twin cities i.e. Islamabad, Rawalpindi and its surroundings and promoting creative entrepreneurship and using art to empower the communities by creating economic opportunities. According to PNCA, the contemporary art scene in Pakistan is generally mindful of this rich and highly diversified cultural resource which distinguishes it in South Asia hence leading to an international recognition and acknowledgement over the last three decades.

Islamabad Biennale 2019 is a multi-disciplinary platform to extend an aesthetic dialogue across cultures involving all possible strands of visual and performing arts including architecture and cinema.

Islamabad Biennale-19 is a project of Pakistan National Council of the Arts and Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Art, lead consortium of institutions committed to the promotion and propagation of art and culture.

The Biennale is being co curated by Director General PNCA Jamal Shah and Dr.Vicky Clark along with a curatorial team of distinguished professionals from visual and performing art.

Islamabad Biennale-19 aims to bring Pakistan’s vibrant young art scene and its innovative and energetic spirit in close contact with International artistic activity to explore cross fertilization of ideas, concerns and challenges. The platform will invite artists of consequence from diverse cultural backgrounds, creative disciplines and outlooks for a novel and multi-disciplinary aesthetic encounter and exploration of its thematic focus.

Published in Daily Times, September 9^th 2018.