Global Art Forum 2016

The Future Was a Roundabout

32 mins 20 secs

The Flying Saucer Roundabout is one of the most beloved landmarks in Sharjah. The Sharjah Art Foundation is currently engaged in a research project related to this part of the built environment. In this conversation, Hoor Al Qasimi and Murtaza Vali talked through the memories, nostalgia, heritage, and futuristic design of the Flying Saucer Roundabout in Sharjah.

Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, is a practicing artist who received her BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002), a Diploma in Painting from the Royal Academy of Arts (2005) and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London (2008). In 2003 she was appointed curator of Sharjah Biennial 6 and has continued as the Biennial's Director since that time.

Murtaza Vali is a critic, curator, editor and Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA. He most recently curated 'Geometries of Difference: New Approaches to Ornament and Abstraction' at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz and 'Accented' at the Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah.