The Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023 opened on November 11, 2023, with a wide program focused on the overarching theme of The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability. While on-site in Sharjah, the ArchDaily team had the chance to sit down with curator Tosin Oshinowo and discuss her curatorial view, the development of the main themes of the program, and the larger principles and intentions behind the event. Informed by her experience growing up in Lagos, Oshinowo has focused the Triennale on the celebration of places that thrive under conditions of scarcity and the alternative models that the Global South can provide in working towards a more equitable and livable future.
In the interview, she discusses the values and principles that have given shape to the program of this year’s Triennale. Tosin Oshinowo talks about the need to recognize the value in all regions and all forms of practice. She also highlights the dual responsibility, on the one side to ensure that the Global South understands the value that is holds, and to let the Global North know that there is an alternative and that there are lessons to be learned from these regions.
All I’ve done here is highlight some of the existing conditions and celebrate the sophistication that exists within them, those conditions that don’t seem to be acknowledged by what we consider to be progress.
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Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023 Announces Opening Program and Site-Specific CommissionsThis vision led to the choice of the theme for the Triennale, "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability," as well as the choice of practices to be highlighted. The invited architects and designers share a common interest in working within the idea of context and tradition, while also integrating and being aware of the conditions of modernity. The starting point for the exhibition was the idea of “Renewed Contextual,” but this idea gained more nuances informed by the responses received from the invited architects, leading to the crystallization of new sections, the “Intangible Bodies” looking at the ephemeral ad emotional character of architecture, and “Extraction politics,” highlighting the tensions that exist between economics and the environment.
Platforms like Sharjah Architecture Triennial give a voice, accessibility, and an enabling environment to make sure that we have these discussions around areas that don’t normally get this audience. There is no center, there is diversity and strength in all sectors of the world. Ensuring that we fully understand the values that are here, that we are able to celebrate them and be able to learn from them, that is truly important.
One of the key criteria of the event was immersion within the context of Sharjah, resisting the tendency of globalization in favor of looking carefully at the immediate context, its unique identity, and the value it brings. Oshinowo describes how her curatorial view was informed by the previous edition of the Sharjah Triennale, which focused on the theme of “Rights of Future Generations” curated by Adrian Lahoud. During the interview, the curator also underlined the strive for the Triennale to offer a wider interface than a traditional architecture event in the variety of approaches presented and the search for understanding alternative ways of doing things. Through this interface, the event contributes to the critical discourse, the exploration of materials and principles, and the international cross-pollination of ideas to leave this as a better planet than what we have now.
