22nd Milan Triennale

Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival

Palazzo dell’Arte

1 March-1 September

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and curator of this year’s Milan Triennale, examines humankind’s relationship with the environment. “Broken Nature is an in-depth exploration of the strands that connect humans to the natural environment that have been intensely compromised, if not entirely severed, over the years,” the organisers say. New commissions include Ore Streams by the Italian design duo Formafantasma, who present their findings on recycling waste from electronic gadgets. Birdsong by the Beirut-based collective Sigil investigates the relationships between birds, humans, and the Syrian landscape and history.

14th Sharjah Biennial

Leaving the Echo Chamber

Various venues across Sharjah

7 March-10 June

Three curators will create a “series of provocations about how one might renegotiate the shape, form and function of the ‘echo chamber’ of contemporary life”, say the organisers of the 14th Sharjah Biennial, taking place in multiple venues across the Middle Eastern emirate. Zoe Butt, the artistic director of The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Vietnam, will organise a show called Journey Beyond the Arrow, which will include artists mainly from the global south. Claire Tancons’s section will be called Look for Me All Around You, while Omar Kholeif’s exhibition will be titled Making New Time. New works have been commissioned from artists includinging Amie Siegel, Carlos Garaicoa, Meiro Koizumi and Lawrence Abu Hamdan.