10 finalists announced for PechaKucha

The selected artists will deliver presentations at Karachi Biennale in October

KARACHI: Ten finalists from a group of emerging artists were announced on Saturday who will deliver PechaKucha presentations at Karachi Biennale in October this year.

The finalists were announced at the Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Art Gallery in Alliance Française de Karachi at PechaKucha Emerging Artists Intensive. The event was held in collaboration with Alliance Française de Karachi.

PechaKucha is an international presentation format, in which presenters show 20 slides for 20 seconds each. The opportunity will help emerging artists enhance their presentation skills.

The jurors included Aziz Sohail, who is an independent curator and writer based in Lahore, Nusrat Khawaja, a practicing horticulturist and landscape designer and Karachi-based photographer and visual artist, Naila Mahmood.



The 10 artists who have been selected are Abeerah Zahid, Shameen Arshad and Ayesha Khaliq from Islamabad, Bahrera Basit and Kiran Saleem from Lahore, Batool Zehra, Sana Burney and Haya Zaidi from Karachi, Shabbir Baloch from Balochistan, and Shakir Ali from Tando Allahyar.

Addressing the audience, chief curator of Karachi Biennale and artist Amin Gulgee appreciated all the artists and congratulated them for being selected for the Karachi Biennale. He said that all the emerging artists have great potential of making their name in the field of art.

Speaking about Karachi Biennale, Gulgee said it is going to be a wonderful event because many international artists will be attending it. He expressed that such an event will make history in the city.

Gulgee added that the theme, 'Witness,' has been selected for Karachi Biennale, which will be held from October 21 till November 10. The theme has been chosen for its strong relevance to politics of representation, erasure and selective documentation.

Talking about the theme for the Karachi Biennale, he said that the much quoted Chinese curse 'May you live in interesting times' comes to mind. "These are indisputably interesting times, not only for my city but also for the world around us," he added.