Shahzia Sikander – Breath

On the occasion of the 9th Biennial of Contemporary Mosaic, Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste will host the parallel solo exhibitions of the artists Shahzia Sikander and Omar Mismar. The exhibitions aim to explore, and bring to the attention of the public, the presence and role of mosaic within contemporary and multidisciplinary artistic practices that address crucial issues related to identity, politics and social tensions of the present. Shahzia Sikander (b. 1969, Pakistan) reinterprets the visual traditions of South Asia through a contemporary perspective, shaping alternative narratives that cross epochs and geographies. Working with a plurality of languages – from painting to drawing, printmaking to digital animation, mosaic, sculpture and glass – Sikander explores the relationships between the West, the global South and the Islamic world, often through the lens of gender and body politics. Her research is based on a lexicon of recurring motifs that give visibility to historically marginalised subjects, while not failing to turn her gaze inward, reflecting on her own experience as an immigrant and diaspora artist living and working in the United States.