SAF co-produces works for Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2026

From 8 to 11 May 2026, Weerasethakul presents A Flower of Forgetfulness at Brigittines Chapel, and from 17 to 19 May, Hassabi’s Us will be on view at Bozar’s newly renovated Centre for Fine Arts.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, A Flower of Forgetfulness

Inside Brigittines Chapel, a large white fabric floats in the air as if guided by an eternal wind. Projected images emerge and vanish through folds and shadows, drifting like a collective cloud of half-remembered dreams over the audience.

Weerasethakul’s A Flower of Forgetfulness reflects on recent genocides and moments of erasure. A metal tower allows visitors to observe the space from multiple vantage points, simultaneously evoking a rocket launch and a platform for contemplating sunsets. This visual landscape intersects with two further narrative threads: in one, visitors climb Sigiriya, an ancient rock formation in Sri Lanka, their footsteps echoing on metal stairs; in the other, two distant figures attempt to communicate across continents, hinting at the fragility of memory.

Drawing on images from their diaries, Weerasethakul and his artistic collaborators have created a visual journey poised between cinema and performance—an immersive reflection on forgetting, memory, distance and continuity. 

Maria Hassabi, Us

Following her 2024 presentation of On Stage at Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Hassabi returns to this year’s festival with Us at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts. For this production, the artist places a long bench along the lip of the proscenium, redefining the stage as a narrow, linear space. Along this line, five performers move through a series of meticulously composed tableaux, their bodies suspended in continuous tension between rest, anticipation and observation.

The bench functions simultaneously as support, frame and site of display, establishing a parallel field of attention between performers and audience. Alone and together, the performers negotiate presence moment by moment.

Through subtle shifts and accumulations, Hassabi draws the audience into a heightened and radical form of spectatorship, one in which each gesture becomes part of an evolving visual language, inviting viewers to assemble meaning through gaze, duration and attention.

Together, A Flower of Forgetfulness and Us bring into focus two artistic voices working at the forefront of contemporary art and performance. While Weerasethakul creates a fluid, dreamlike meditation on memory and erasure, Hassabi constructs a precise and sustained inquiry into presence and perception.

Through its co-production of these two major premieres, Sharjah Art Foundation continues to support cross-disciplinary practices and foster international artistic exchange, reinforcing its commitment to enabling new work by leading contemporary artists on a global stage.