The Karachi Biennale has called off its fifth edition, which was slated to unfold across the port city from January 1631, 2027. In a notice shared on October 9 via Instagram and its website, organizers cited war conditions in the region, along with attendant logistical difficulties and uncertainty, as the reason for the cancellation.
Curatorial rift and artist frustration
Art historian and researcher Noor Ahmed, the appointed curator for the fifth iteration titled Kal (Yesterday/Tomorrow), told Pakistani outlet Dawn that the move was a unilateral decision made without her prior consultation. Speaking separately with Hyperallergic, Ahmed said that artists and collaborators voiced dismay over how communications and commitments . . . are being handled. Over the past 13 months, she had brought together more than 100 artists and creative practitioners, working alongside three co-curatorstwo international and one based in Pakistan.
Track record and a halted vision
Founded in 2017, the Karachi Biennale is the flagship project of the Karachi Biennale Trust and is described as Pakistans largest platform for contemporary art. According to the organization, over the past decade it has engaged 841 artists from 50 countries and drawn approximately 50,000 in-person visitors, in addition to a sizable global digital audience.
The now-canceled 2027 edition was conceived around the idea of an urban archipelago a meeting point of habitats, myths, and inventions that set older layers of the city in dialogue with what might come next. That framework was closely tied to Karachis present condition: a metropolis caught between strain and renewal, where environmental stressors from suffocating mangroves to rising sea levels and polluted waters sit alongside unchecked urban growth, sectarian and ethnic tensions, and fraught debates over identity.
With the decision to cancel, a major gathering planned under Kal (Yesterday/Tomorrow) has been set aside, leaving Ahmeds assembled network of participants and co-curators in limbo while the citys challenges continue to shape its cultural landscape.
