The 5th edition of the Mardin Biennial titled ‘The Promise of Grass’ will explore the possibility for a mystical cosmopolitics or a social-ecology that is steeped in the notion of renouncement.

The curator, Adwait Singh explains their choice of the title, “The promise of grass is a promise of re-organisation, of revitalising and generative chaos that is life itself. The fact that it grows without aid or prompt, is unruly and wild, not to mention a great equaliser and a harbinger of change, makes it a great metaphor for expressing some of my cosmopolitical concerns. It recurs throughout mystical poetry and parables across time and geographies as a metaphor for humility as opposed to hubris, supple strength as opposed to rigid inflexibility, animation as opposed to desolation. Finally, its restorative anarchy and self-propagating wildness conveys a promise of decolonisation and reparation, a greening over of the wounds of the earth.”