NEON supports Serapis Maritime for their new project MOTHER TRADE, commissioned by Sharjah Biennial 16. Under the title to carry, the curatorial team poses a multivocal and open-ended proposition. Their diverse curatorial approaches come under the umbrella of a single question: What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors and political formations with you?

Serapis Maritime is a hybrid art, design and fashion entity based in Greece, producing work inspired by the industries related to the sea, in narrative structures and through a constant upcycling of both materials and ideas, gradually creating an expanded contemporary seascape, distributed and communicated through multiple channels.

MOTHER TRADE is a large scale work with sub-sections, comprising a collection of garments and objects, alongside a series of public gestures facing the port of Sharjah. Created through collaborations with local producers, craftspeople and the Maritime Academy of Sharjah (for a series of 3D printed metallic sculptures), the work is a tribute to the maritime history and the many layers of trade and exchange in the region. For MOTHER TRADE, the artists sourced materials from Sharjah’s shipyards and industrial facilities. The result is an immersive environment blurring experiences of space between store, showroom, exhibition and public sitting area. A series of public structures are formulated into modular arrangements made from blocks of used clothing transportation bags, collected from local garment redistribution facilities. These modules also carry printed cotton fabrics with moments, textures and details from the production of the whole work and used ropes. They serve as sculptures for observation and contemplation, offering different viewpoints of the water and the port. Finally, the signage lightwork overlooking the sea, installed on top of the central market of Sharjah, is conceived as a collaborative sculpture, a poetic phrase addressed to the port and its people, made from wooden boat scraps, metal and light.

Serapis Maritime participation at Sharjah Biennial 16 is supported by NEON through its annual Grants Scheme.