Numaish Karachi

Sheherezade: The Walled City Anthology | March 2019

 Pray tell me, in the city of Lahore how many are the doors, and how many the windows?

And tell me also how many of its bricks are broken, and how many are whole?

Tell how many wells have water that is sweet, and how many that is brackish?

Think well before you answer me: how many of its beauties are wedded and how many are maiden?

Let me tell you: the city of Lahore has doors upon the thousands, and thousands of windows too

The bricks that lovers have stepped on and passed over—only those are broken, the rest are intact

The wells from which beloved drew their water—only they are sweet, the rest are brackish

And the beauties who sit in a lover’s embrace—they are married, and the rest are maiden.

 — Ustad Daman

Sheherezade: The Walled City Anthology was a three-day open air exhibition which took place in Lahore, Pakistan in March 2019

Sheherezade, proper noun. Persian. /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd/ from sheher, ‘city’, and zade, ‘born’; born of the city

Anthology, noun. Greek. /anˈθɒlədʒi/ gathering of flowers, flower-collecting, a collection of extracts, stories

In the heart of Lahore lies Androon Sheher, a walled city within the city, that has survived through the centuries. It has been besieged and liberated, razed and rebuilt by dynasties of rulers–the Hindus, Sikhs, Afghans, Mughals, the British Raj–and in the process each left their cultural imprint. With the arrival of modernity, urban forces pressed at its gates, threatening to envelop it. What has remained untouched, however, in its serpentine alleys, is an ancient past that none who enter can fail to see.

This legacy has ensured the survival of Androon Sheher by giving it an enduring allure. Much like the legendary Sheherezade of Alif Laila or One Thousand and One Nights, the Walled City too has kept people captivated by eternally creating and unraveling stories in ransom for its life. Just as the twists and turns of Sheherezade’s storylines would surprise and delight her king, so too the labyrinthine alleys of the Walled City surprise and delight with each visual encounter: at one turn the narrow alley, at another the hidden haveli, opening eventually into a vibrant mazaar.

It is this spatial and mythic essence of Androon Sheher which inspires Sheherezade: The Walled City Anthology, an urban intervention that brings together architects, artists, computer scientists, craftspeople, designers, digital innovators and interdisciplinary teams. They have created projects that play on and invent from the materials, motifs and mysteries of the inner city in a conversation that fuses the digital realm with some of the more tangible aspects of its sacred heritage. Through interaction, engagement and community participation, Sheherezade seeks to draw people ‘born of the city’ into this historic space to explore and rediscover stories old and new.

The installations commence at the Delhi Darwaza and unfold along the Royal Trail to the Fort. Visitors emerge at Chowk Wazir Khan, the historic forecourt of the mosque commissioned during Emperor Shah Jahan’s reign in the 17th century and built by Hakim ‘Imuddin Ansari, better known as Wazir Khan. Lying at the confluence of the bazaars, this heritage site serves as the culminating hub for many of the projects. Other works unspool in the radial arteries leading off to Sabeel Walli Galli, Phullan Walli Galli (The Flower Alley), Galli Soorjan Singh and the Dina Nath Well.

These spaces will be opened up for cultural production through transformative interventions that draw on the Androon Sheher’s narrative environment, sacred geometries, calligraphy, local industry and visual culture. The projects lie at the intersection of design, culture, science and technology and will unfold amidst live poetry and music, workshops and storytelling. Some works are inspired by the mosaics and floral frescoes adorning the mosque, while others extract from the dizzying juxtaposition of veined alleys telescoping out into moonlit courtyards.

Participants
Bilal Ahmed, Durre S Ahmed, Affan Baghpatti, Asa Calow, Noor Ali Chagani, Umar Hameed, Azeem Hamid, Dan Hett, Sarah Khan, Arif Mahmood, Tahir Mahmood, Zahid Mayo, Humayun Memon, Taimoor Khan Mumtaz, Sonia Murad, Sahar Musharaf, Shahzia Sikander, Naveen Syed, Rachael Turner, Imran Zafar, Raza Zahid

Performers
Abaad Ali and Hero Band, Wasim Akhtar, Asif Ali, Kauser Ali, Shahbaz Ali, Muzammil Ashraf, A Hafeez, Shehzad Khaleel, Chaand and Suraj Khan, Inaam Ali Khan, Nayyab Ali Khan, Zohaib Hassan Khan, Mian Miri Qawwal Party, Ustaad Jaggu Khan and Son, Muslim Shaggan, Khalid Usman

*Performances curated by Hast-o-Neest and Sur Mandal

Student Participants | Habib University
Emad Bin Abid, Saman Gaziani, Nisa Hafeez, Fatima Hamdani, Hasan ul Haq, Aiman Hasan, Mehak Irshad, Furqan Karim, Luluwa Lokhandwala, Hamza Masroor, Fatima Mashood, Muhammad Mehdi, Momina Qadri, Haya Danish Rafiq, Safa Shahzad, Saniya Shah Zaidi

Numaish Core Team
Misbah Azhar, Asmara Faiq, Umar Hameed, Tahera Hasan, Naiza Khan, Umair Afzar Khan, Zoha Jabbar, Tahir Mahmood, Mahim Maher, Meher Malik, Saadia Pathan, Ali Rizvi, Saima Zaidi

Sheherazade: The Walled City Anthology is a collaboration between Numaish Karachi-Lahore, The Walled City Lahore Authority, MadLab (UK) and the British Council, Pakistan.

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