Fast forward on the Persian gulf: the youthful director of the Sixth Sharjah International Biennial, Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi, expanded the event's scope to include cutting-edge art from over 24 countries - Report From The U.A.E

Art-world politics were also at play in the biennial. Privately, some artists grumbled that the biennial's awards were chosen for reasons other than pure merit. Jurors distributed prize money to an eclectic mix of artists: British ceramist Jim Coverley; conceptual artists Mohammed Kazem of the United Arab Emirates and Chen Lingyang and Zhu Ming of China; Palestinian Rashid Masharawi and South African William Kentridge, both of whom showed videos. Kentridge took top honors for Zeno Writing, a somber black-and-white animation addressing war and nationalism. The video had previously appeared at Documenta 11, an exhibition Sheikha Hour credits as a major influence.

Dissenters pointed out that in his additional role as a juror, adjunct curator Berghuis voted for two artists he had put in the show, Lingyang and Ming. A local juror selected national colleague Kazem. And some suggested that Kentridge received kudos to enhance the biennial's prestige by associating it with an artist admired on the international art circuit, noting that the work itself is not among Kentridge's most successful efforts.

Backroom grousing about favoritism is not unique to this art event. But perhaps no other biennial is faced with a challenge as vexing as that of trying to represent contemporary art practices within this complex cultural context. In a region where maps are altered to omit Israel and museums avoid the display of nudes, many con temporary artists would find their work unwelcome under any circumstance. Given her station within the ruling family and her training as an artist in London, Sheikha Hoor was in many ways uniquely equipped to navigate this minefield. She was aided by the diplomacy of a curator who shared her concern that the exhibition should bring new art to Sharjah without raising the ire of the council enforcing sharia. Both Lewis and Sheikha Hoor appreciated that official censorship might undercut their vision for a truly international biennial in Sharjah. Aspiring to the models provided by Venice and Documenta, yet hemmed in by the realities of sharia, the organizers opted for a middle road. They selected work that avoided offense, and in some cases enlisted artists in the alteration of their own projects to meet local standards.

Censorship or Cultural Sensitivity?

Informed that their contributions could be shown only if altered, many artists complied with the request. Jalal Toufic, from Lebanon, removed one piece from a series dealing with the martyrdom of terrorists that might have been seen as insensitive to Shiite Muslims. Singapore's S. Chandrasekaran hung potentially offensive drawings of surrealistic body imagery so that they faced the wall but could be easily turned over for viewing.

Nobuho Nagasawa, a Japanese artist living in the United States, substituted a site-specific installation after a proposal involving a Muslim prayer rug was declined. The original piece would have addressed the gender-separated spaces of worship in orthodox Islam, a topic the curator thought best left to those more versed in the local culture. Nagasawa initially protested this decision, but then adapted the art work, maintaining its primary concern--gender politics and women's lives. The final installation was created with the assistance of teenage female art students. Filling nylon forms with salt, the students fashioned "eggs," onto which they anonymously transcribed their dreams and desires.