DAAS – Decolonizing Architecture Art Studies, initiated by DAAR (Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti) in collaboration with the Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT), is an advanced research and educational programme open to artists, architects, curators, and cultural practitioners interested in situating and understanding their work within broader theoretical, historical, political, and social contexts. The programme is radically structured around participants’ own practices, offering a critical and convivial space for collective learning and reflection on questions rooted in context. It aims to create fertile ground for cultivating new forms of artistic research by bringing together practitioners who seek to belong to a community of thinkers open to shared reflection and collaborative inquiry. In DAAS, vulnerability is not treated as weakness but as the very condition of learning. Participants are invited to bring their doubts, hesitations, and questions, and in doing so, to make space for others. It is in this openness that genuine connections take form, and that the distance between theory and practice, between the personal and the collective, can be crossed.
The programme emerges from the fertile relationship and tensions between artistic research and pedagogy. Participants are asked to select a site as a source of knowledge and a foundation for their research inquiries and practical work. A site can be physical — a building, a street, a room — or immaterial — memory, voice, body, skin. What matters is that the site grounds reflection and allows practice to unfold. From the chosen site, participants are encouraged to reflect on concepts that emerge from it, grounding and testing their theories both within the site and in their own practice.
In 2024, the first edition of DAAS took place in Sharjah, where the programme articulated its foundations in collective learning grounded in sites, concepts, and shared vulnerability. That year laid the groundwork for a community of thinkers and practitioners who understand knowledge as something that grows through relation rather than instruction.
Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) is a platform for architecture and urbanism in a region that extends from West Asia to South Asia and the African continent. Physically anchored in Sharjah and the United Arab Emirates, SAT aims to engage diverse audiences and stakeholders in a collective conversation on architecture at the neighbourhood, city, and regional levels. Institutional research and programming support ongoing critical reflection through exhibitions, publications, and public programmes in tandem with its international editions. SAT is committed to pursuing a multi-disciplinary approach that fosters an understanding of the broader role of architecture, including its relation to social and environmental issues.
Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) is a platform for architecture and urbanism in a region that extends from West Asia to South Asia and the African continent. Physically anchored in Sharjah and the United Arab Emirates, SAT aims to engage diverse audiences and stakeholders in a collective conversation on architecture at the neighbourhood, city, and regional levels. Institutional research and programming support ongoing critical reflection through exhibitions, publications, and public programmes in tandem with its international editions. SAT is committed to pursuing a multi-disciplinary approach that fosters an understanding of the broader role of architecture, including its relation to social and environmental issues.
Based in Sharjah, UAE, the Africa Institute is a higher education academic entity dedicated to advancing the study, research, and documentation of Africa and its diaspora, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. It operates as a center of research and documentation, and a postgraduate studies institution, offering master’s and Ph.D. programs as well as diplomas in African Languages and Translation. The Africa Institute aims to be a center of excellence to train a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African diaspora studies. In 2023, The Africa Institute became part of the newly established Global Studies University (GSU), integrated into its network of semi-independent and interdisciplinary institutes, with each focusing on different regions worldwide.
These institutes emphasize postgraduate studies, research, and documentation of the histories, cultures, and peoples of various global regions. The next entity to be officially established in 2024 is The Asia Institute. Additionally, preparations are underway to launch other institutes focusing on Oceania, Europe, and the Americas in the coming years. The Africa Institute is led by Hoor Al Qasimi, President of Global Studies University, and Salah M. Hassan, Dean of The Africa Institute and Chancellor of Global Studies University.
Based in Sharjah, UAE, the Africa Institute is a higher education academic entity dedicated to advancing the study, research, and documentation of Africa and its diaspora, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. It operates as a center of research and documentation, and a postgraduate studies institution, offering master’s and Ph.D. programs as well as diplomas in African Languages and Translation. The Africa Institute aims to be a center of excellence to train a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African diaspora studies. In 2023, The Africa Institute became part of the newly established Global Studies University (GSU), integrated into its network of semi-independent and interdisciplinary institutes, with each focusing on different regions worldwide.
These institutes emphasize postgraduate studies, research, and documentation of the histories, cultures, and peoples of various global regions. The next entity to be officially established in 2024 is The Asia Institute. Additionally, preparations are underway to launch other institutes focusing on Oceania, Europe, and the Americas in the coming years. The Africa Institute is led by Hoor Al Qasimi, President of Global Studies University, and Salah M. Hassan, Dean of The Africa Institute and Chancellor of Global Studies University.
Contact
info@decolonizins.ps
Network
Sharjah Art Foundation, The Africa Institute, Global Studies University (GSU), Sharjah, Hoor Al Qasimi, Salah M. Hassan, Walter Mignolo, May Aldabbagh, Shahram Khosravi, Zoe Butt, Charles Esche...