The Ulaanbaatar Biennale is delighted to announce the appointment of Mariam Elnozahy as chief curator of its second edition. Titled, “Love Songs for Mountains,” the Biennale will take place 4-30 June, 2027, in sites across Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Mariam Elnozahy is a curator, researcher, and writer. She currently serves as the Artistic Director of Konsthall C in Stockholm, where her program “Sacred Spaces” invites artists to address questions of religion and society. Previously, she worked at the Townhouse Gallery for Contemporary Art in Cairo and Ma3azef Magazine. She has also curated exhibitions in London, Copenhagen, Oslo, Uppsala, Amsterdam, and Jeddah and ran workshops in Tunis and Tangiers. Her programs often address histories of globalization, development, and resource extraction. She also works to support artists at various stages of conceptualization and artistic production. Her writing has been published in CURA Magazine, Frieze Magazine, The TLS, Markaz Review, Hyperallergic, and MadaMasr. She was in residency at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, NL from 2022-2023 conducting research in the archive of Royal Dutch Shell. She holds a masters degree from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I’m honored and excited to be appointed curator for the next Ulaanbaatar Biennale. I’m inspired by the contemporary artists working in Ulaanbaatar across mediums – painting, sound, installation, and more – and look forward to learning from them and others working in this context. I’m eager to bring these practices into dialogue with artists from different regions as well.”
Elnozahy was unanimously selected by selection committee members: Gantuya B. (Director, Mongolian Contemporary Art Support Association, Ulaanbaatar), Jantsankhorol Erdenebayar (Artist / Director, Contemporary Art Archive Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar), Odgerel Odonchimed (Executive Director, Arts Council of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar), Tian Zhang (Curator, Sydney / Chief Curator of 1st Ulaanbaatar Biennale), Dr. Saara Hacklin (Chief Curator for collections, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki).
The Ulaanbaatar Biennale takes place every two years in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The festival serves as a meeting point for Mongolian artists, audiences, and cultural sector to connect with artists, culture, information, and ideas from other parts of the world. Ulaanbaatar Biennale is organized by the Arts Council of Mongolia.
The title “Love Songs for Mountains” is credited to Artwork, Noorani Metal Sound, 2026, by artist Zahra Malkani, one of the featured artists in the Biennale’s next edition.
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