The Middle East art world shaken by unexpected firing of Jack Persekianas as director of the Sharjah Biennial on the orders of Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed, the Ruler of Sharjah. It seems an artwork by Algerian artist, Mustapha Benfodil is at the root of the controversy.
Mr Persekian, speaking from his home city of Jerusalem, said he learned of his dismissal in a phone call at noon from a colleague at the Sharjah Art Foundation, which runs the Biennial.
"It was very, very abrupt," he said. "It completely knocked me over. It was the result of people objecting to the content of one artwork.
"It was foolish of me, I had not looked at it carefully because I couldn't, there were so many works and so many things to produce - films and books and publications and videos, a million things I didn't go through. I'm not in the habit of checking everything, and people just didn't like what they saw in that work and took it out on me personally."
The work, by an Algerian artist, Mustapha Benfodil, featured a large group of headless mannequins in what looked like soccer uniforms, some with wording printed on their shirts. As part of the work, graffiti in Arabic was also painted on the walls near the mannequins, which were arrayed in a courtyard near an important mosque in an area known as the Sharjah Heritage District.
In a statement, the Sharjah Art Foundation said that Mr. Persekian’s job was “no longer tenable” as a result of “the public outcry over the work.”
The Art Newspaper on support for Persekian:
Since his firing, many in the art world have spoken in support of the director, who has worked with the biennial since 2005 and has been a pivotal force in the Middle Eastern art scene.
Posting on Twitter, Art Dubai fair director Antonia Carner said she is “saluting Jack Persekian & the @sharjahart team for their phenomenal, game-changing contribution to the UAE arts scene & beyond since 2003-4”. The biennial’s curators, Rasha Salti and Haig Avasian, gave a statement to The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog defending Persekian, saying the work at the centre of the controversy, which Persekian had no role in choosing, was “in no way was it meant as an attack on religion or Islam at large. We tried to make all of our selections with utmost responsibility and prudence. We see now that we misjudged the limits of the tone with which to address sensitive topics and the importance of carefully contextualizing art work.”
The constant struggle for freedom of expression in the region is also evident in this year’s highly provocative “A plot for a Biennial“, where artists were invited to engage with charged concepts including Treason, Necessity, Insurrection, Affiliation, Corruption, Devotion, Disclosure and Translation. The most recent casualty of the tight grip of censors over the biennial is Jack Persekian, director of Sharjah Art Foundation, who was dismissed by direct orders of Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed, the Ruler of Sharjah on April 7th, following controversy over Tunisian artist, Mustafa Benfodil’s use of sexually explicit Arabic slogans and poetry as part of his installation at the Sharjah Heritage District. The installation has been removed from the biennial which is on view through May 16th.
Cornerhouse on Benfodil's piece:
As it went dark in the narrow alleys of the heritage area I stumbled upon Mustapha Benfodil’s ‘It has no importance’, a complex theatrical installation of sound, football figures, graffiti and much more exploring his relationship between popular culture and the literary world he inhabits in Algeria.
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