Karachi Biennale 2017

KB17 is Pakistan’s largest international contemporary art event that will take place every two years in Karachi. This October, over a hundred and forty artists from Pakistan and across the globe will respond to a common theme: WITNESS. Art Critic and Cultural Interventionist Niilofur Farrukh is the CEO of KB17.

Unburdened by a canon, Karachi is instead distinguished for a persistently altering memory. A maritime metropolis that embraces independent thinkers, like the Modernist Masters of the 1950s, and with three major art schools and one of South Asia’s most dynamic art gallery circuits, it is among the Art world’s best kept secrets.

KB17 invites you to remap this turbulent city - over twenty-five million strong and sprawling - through the lens of art. Hosted at twelve diverse venues, including schools, heritage sites, cinemas and public parks, the biennale draws art and the artist out of the gallery and into spaces that define Karachi’s quotidian pulse. KB17 exhibitions, conceptualized by Amin Gulgee, its Chief Curator, with performances, screenings, and dialogue, pave way for charting new movement through familiar spaces.

KB17’s two-week long, free public exhibition is an occasion for Karachiites and visitors to participate in an aesthetic, intellectual, and emotional survey of the city. It is an exploration of how her sundry communities, her individuals, and her edifices, all witness and actively negotiate their city’s persistent social and political transitions.

The team of KB17 invites the international audience to share a common vision: "Our collective witnessing will disrupt the limits of our spatial imagination. Together, we can revisit our histories, rethink our present, and reimagine our future with greater optimism."

Chief Curator Amin Gulgee - Biography

165 participants - complete list

Program of events

(From press information)