ahore,the capital of the most populous province of Pakistan, climbsupacertainlist every year. It’s not about the town’s greenery, cleanliness, civic facilities or prominence in arts, culture or sciences; but for its pollution. Not surprisingly, the opening day of Lahore Biennale’s 3rd edition coincided with the news that Lahore’s air quality indexwas the highest in the world. So the theme of the Biennale (LB03), relating to climate and ecosystem, matched the location, the crisis and theurgency.

Named Of Mountains and Seas, the Biennale is being held across the city, along with a substantial list of collateral exhibitions at various galleries and parallel spaces. The theme of LB03 has been explored by artistsfrom Pakistan as well as those based in other countries, who were approached by John Tan, the curator. This year’s biennale is spread over ten locations, including regular art and culture venues,heritage sites and urban spaces like public gardens, train stations and ateahouse.

The work ofseventy artists, produced either individually or in collaboration, illustrates the theme. Some of them passed away before this year’s titlewas decided or Lahore Biennale Foundationwas established. Yet, seeing these creations, in multiple genres and formats, a keenobservercan connect images with the idea. The cartography of display also demands another angle to look at it because ofinteraction with the work placed in public domain. Atthe inauguration hour, exhibits, no matter if at the entrance to train stations, in the upper storey of a literarycafe, arounda busysquare, housed in a museum, or arranged inside a Mughal monument, were identified, deciphered, appreciated and associated with by the informed eyes of art practitioners, curators, critics, collectors and patrons. One can also imagine how these were/are received by multitude of spectators, having no exposure or experience of modern and contemporary art, visiting the public sites during the biennale (from October 5to November 8).

Nosane person can deny the necessity and need for climate awareness, but as Oliver Jeffers (in hisNew York Timesessay) observes; “Those of us worried about climate change are too often guilty of belittling the other side because we’re preoccupied with being right about the existential threat we face. We don’t see that losing your livelihood to, say, a fracking ban or a shuttered coal plant is a kind of existential threat as well.” In our situation, peopleborn, living and working nearspaces where Biennale’s theme of ecology is interpreted byparticipants,hardly comprehend or care for the issue, since their immediate crisis is about their daily survival.

Perhapsone factor for choosing historic and public locationswas breaking the boundary between the art elite and the public,making the Biennale and its theme more accessible; since a person can go to most spaces on public transport or foot, in contrast to art galleries some of which require a private car or cab. It would be interesting to record what those, not familiar with the hermeneutics of art, would make out of what they encountered, without identifying the content with the climate concerns.

Some of the work included in the event has the capacity to transcend the prescribed subjector current issues. In that respect Tomas Saraceno’sMuseo Aero Solar (2007-present), an installation of reused plastic bags, tapes (in collaboration with KCWU) contains multiple strands of references for an ordinaryvisitor. Ahuge structure stitched together with polythene bags of various descriptionsis inflated by an air pump but starts losing its form/scale as soon the inside air pressure drops due to external factors. A citizen dreading the smog in Lahore, can identify with not only the material but also the message. Dryden Goodwin, the other artist displaying at the Bradlaugh Hall, has suspended a video screen, Breathe: Lahore;rapidlyrotating charcoal sketches of people trying to breathe. Goodwin has also installed prints of these individualson the walls of Punjab University’s old campus and at Alhamra Art Gallery. The fact that the drawings are made with charcoal indicates how nature has been assaulted by humans, because the burning coal produces fumes, choking inhabitants.

Charcoal as a motif, image, material and critique is treated differentlyby Karim Ahmed Khan,rendering a sensitive drawing of a charred twig in charcoal, a regular art medium. Material as a field to infuse meaning is evident in Hamra Abbas’s 11 large marble inlay panels (Ariel Studies, 2023); creating details of mountains in marble extracted from hilly areas. However, it appear that the image has been painted with black ink on a white surface. Hence one can locate both elements/parts of the LB03 theme, stone and water.

Water, a natural resource once available freely and abundantly in the upper Punjab, is rapidly drying down, as in some other regions. Stolen Press, another participant of LB03, informsthe viewer about the scarcity of water through a single channel video, Hustle Culture, focusing on a thirsty bird jumping in and circling around a pot filled with water. Pakistani society has witnessed how water was collected in traditional ways, but recently it has been stocked in bluePVC tanks and marketed by some multinationals asbottles of mineral water, now indispensable items in a large number of homes. In his series based on the blue plastic containers to store water on the roofs, Imran Qureshi has weaved a narrative of receding water level in the country; in a tile mural,Water Bodies, installed at the entrance of GPO Train Station. The work describes the abundance of blue water being gradually invaded by the brownish patches of dried earth, all conveyed in a rhythmic language of patterns, suggesting water drops and waves.

In another public project by Qureshi, a combination of transparent digital vinyl prints representing the tops of blue water tanksandadded with streaks and splashes of red, orange and yellow paintis installed on a large glass structureinside the Shalimar Garden Train Station. The blue water storage tank appears again at the Shalimar Garden. One of these products is layered (concealed) with broken shards oftraditional blue pottery, a comment on how the conventional methods of dealing with nature and meeting its challenges have been replaced through the intervention of industrial objects. In his two train station murals, water, though in waves, is more about bottles, an item also incorporated in LeeroyNew’sMebuyan’s Colony [Lahore], theoutdoor installation at Shalimar Garden. Constructed with bamboo,plant fibres, steel and recycled large water bottles it could be an organic growth out of the garden, yet contaminated due to plastic, that eventually will adulteratethe environment.

In many developing countries, a huge quantity and variety of waste and dysfunctional machines received from the Westare repaired and recycled. In Karachi,bazaars, shops and mechanics sell stuff that has been given a new form, identity and function. These include example empty oil canisters converted into children’s toys; or (now) discarded DVDs reincarnated as decoration pieces. Karachi-born BaniAbidi’ssingle channel video (at the YMCA), shows men busy repairing thrown-away gadgets talk about their taskand process in detail. Abidi’s tone of factual documentation at some point establishes a parallel between the making of an artwork and mending a disposed item, showing how ordinary and ignoredcan be transformed into unique examples of art, aesthetics andutility.

In the past there was no divide between beauty and utility. Everything we now consider art, was produced fora specific purpose. This includes Christian mosaics, Islamic calligraphy, Buddhist statues, Persian carpets, Mughal miniatures and Iznik pottery. SalahuddinMian, in his long careerexplored and extended thelimited notion of pottery. He created some of the most exquisite ceramic pieces, functional as well as purely visual objects. As part of the Biennale some of his pieces are displayed at the Lahore Museum. In their sophistication, sensitivity and perfection, these may be compared to Zahoor-ulAkhlaq’s paintings. The display includes his column-typestoneware, bowls, cones, stylised animals (horses?), kettles anddishes. In one plate, a fired claysamosais attached to the surface. This work demonstrates how Mian, with his unique blend of intelligence and humour, challenged the conventional perception of ceramics; since the functional side is updated into an aesthetic experience. His clarity about his art, his commentary on the artworld and his position and processes are superbly captured inHamra Abbas’s 12-minutes video interview. In the same section, one finds pottery by SheherezadeAlam, (a former student of Mian’s at the NCA), who forged her identity through perfection of form and eloquence in glaze.

A number of other participants of the Biennale have also approached the question of tradition and modernity, magnificently handled by Zahoor-ulAkhlaq. His steel and paint sculpture Markhor suggests a merger – not a balance – of tradition and modernity; of reality and abstraction. The bright yellow structure against the luxurious backdrop of Shalimar Garden, looks like the rock drawing of a beast in its natural surroundings; thoughit addressestradition in the sensibility of the contemporary. Akhlaq converted the three-dimensional mass of the animal into a form – twodimensional in outlinebut projected in space. If you look at the label next to the artwork it is readable, but the sculpture is also recognisable for the sheer speed and movement one associates with the animal.

A visible contribution of the LB03 is brining works from other parts of the world to Lahore, and to inspire various art spaces in Lahore organising collateral exhibitions. Yet, some of its venues from the Mughal periodovershadow the work displayed there due to their loaded history, unavoidable grandeur and unmanageable access. Besides adding a flavour of what EdouardGlissant terms as ‘inverted exoticism,’and a romanticised tradition. SalahuddinMian, in hisexchange with Hamra Abbas, describes TajMahal as the ugliest building, but now it is glamourisedas beautiful. Mian, instead of glorifying the past, believed that tradition belongs to graveyards – as he declared in an interview published on these pages some years ago.

The writer is an art critic, a curator and a professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.