The 17th edition of the Sharjah Biennial will open on January 21, 2027, running until June 13 across four locations in the emirate: Sharjah city, Al Dhaid, Kalba and Khor Fakkan. Titled "What Remains, Sits Restive," this edition is co-curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, and will bring together more than 100 artists showing work across 11 venues. Harutyunyan's section of the show features 55 participating artists exploring what organisers describe as the continuing influence of socialist modernity and anti-colonial struggles, while Nascimento's section, with 54 artists, focuses on infrastructure, place, memory and cultural silencing. Highlights announced so far include a performance by Cynthia Zaven reviving traditional sea songs once sung by Gulf women, an intervention by Angela Ferreira inside a 1970s cinema examining colonial-era architecture, and sound performances by Christian Salablanca Diaz, Jessica Ekomane and Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape. A dedicated "March Meeting" programme, running March 19 to 21, will include performances by Victor Gama, Wendy Morris and Hassan Khan. All of the biennial's foundation exhibitions will be free and open to the public, in keeping with Sharjah's longstanding approach to accessible contemporary art. Since its launch, the Sharjah Biennial has grown into one of the most closely watched contemporary art events in the Middle East and the wider Global South. This edition's decision to spread programming across four distinct locations, rather than concentrating it in Sharjah city alone, signals an effort to draw audiences deeper into the emirate and give equal weight to its outlying communities.