The Urdu word ‘kal’ shares the two-directional ability of looking backwards and forwards, much like the mythical Roman god Janus. Coincidentally, Janus represented the auspicious spirit of gateways from which to enter and exit a city. Kal, by its ambiguity, offers a semantic gateway to the metaphysics of time past and time forward. Karachi, too, owes its transformation from a fishing village to a cosmopolitan city to its port as a gateway for commerce.

The metaphysical linkage of past and present is intentional in Noor Ahmed’s choice of the term ‘Kal’, by which to inspire artists participating in the next Karachi Biennale (KB27). As the curator of the fifth Karachi Biennale that will take place in January 2027, she is casting the curatorial net across an ambitious spectrum of time that should allow archives, imagination and visionary ideas to be formulated into thoughtful art forms.

Linking the past and the future is the present moment, the aaj [today]. This tricky and shapeshifting moment in the now is what Noor and KB trustee Amin Gulgee (the curator of the first KB in 2017) focused on in their joint curation of the KB27 curtain-raiser that took place at the Gulgee Museum on February 13, 2026. The event also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Karachi Biennale Trust (KBT).

The event started with an exquisite artistic offering from Amin’s kitchen, in the form of tea served with channa chaat, dahi boondi, and dhoklas. Proprietary speeches were made and followed by a 77-minute show called ‘Aaj Aur Kal’. Seventy-two artists from 18 countries were the creators of the evanescent show that comprised performance and New Media art.

A curtain-raiser for next year’s Karachi Biennale transformed the Gulgee Museum into a hive of performance and digital art

A curtain-raiser for next year’s Karachi Biennale transformed the Gulgee Museum into a hive of performance and digital art

Whereas performance art can be linked to the ancient past by virtue of its theatrical nature, New Media art is a product of the digital age. Technology using computer-based art, virtual and augmented reality, video games, interactive installation art etc fall within this category.

Trustees of the KB, artists and art aficionados wandered through the floors of the Gulgee Museum, contributing to the vitality of the event. Multiple TV screens had been positioned across the spaces of the Gulgee Museum. Performing artists had been allocated spaces to enact their ideas in makeshift stations. One may think of the museum interior as transformed into a hive that buzzed with eddies of artistic endeavour.

Abrar Ahmed was told to go fly a kite, which he did on the rooftop with kites made by himself in ‘Basant Notes’. Veera Rustomji portrayed her own flight simulations in ink prints shown on screen. Bilal Ahmed soared spiritually as a convincing dancing dervish. Sheema Kermani led a flock of onlookers as she strode through the corridors crying “Dissent!”

Rumana Husain had the Zaro Gulgee room allotted to her performance as she told stories of women clad in red. Meher Afroz’s installation showed images of precious artefacts accompanied by her voice recording as a contemplation on the transience of greed and the inevitability of mortality in Meher Ki Kahani. The artist Yumna cleaved rose stems with a ferocity that terrified many a viewer.

These performances and digital recordings played against the serene backdrop of Ismail Gulgee’s paintings. He and Zaro were invoked in Amin’s opening speech. Their spirited embrace of living in the now without overly preoccupying themselves with the past or future, created another link to ‘Aaj Aur Kal.’ Such spirit builds resilience — an essential weapon of every citizen living in a mismanaged metropolis. It feeds into the raison d’etre of the biennale, which brings art out of the gallery space into the public realm.

Noor also connected her childhood awakening to art by recalling two Ismail Gulgee paintings that were acquired by her family. Her curatorial description of KB27 is a “communal voyage for Kal, positing Karachi as an urban archipelago of inventions, mythologies and habitats.”

As a smorgasbord of things to come, ‘Aaj Aur Kal’ emanated contemporariness. One left with the impression that an energetic promise has been made by the curtain-raiser to move beyond the 77 minutes into 14 days of yesterday and tomorrow next January, a month named after Janus.

‘Aaj Aur Kal’ was held at the Gulgee Museum on February 13, 2026

The writer is an independent researcher, writer, art critic and curator based in Karachi

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 15th, 2024

© Dawn (Magazines)