Ms. Hasegawa. (Courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation)

Yuko Hasegawa, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, has been picked to curate the 11th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, which opens in March 2013.

Earlier this year, the Sharjah Art Foundation sacked its director, Jack Persekian, after he allowed a work by Algerian artist Mustapha Benfodil to be shown in the 2011 exhibition that administrators said violated the emirate's codes.

Ms. Hasegawa arrives with a bounty of biennial experience, having served as artistic adviser on the 2010 Venice Architectural Biennale, co-curator of the 2010 Sao Paulo Biennale, co-curator of the 2006 Seoul International Media Art Biennale, co-Curator of the 2002 Shanghai Biennale, and artistic director of the 7th Istanbul Biennale.

"Sharjah is historic and present, social, natural, and political," Ms. Hasegawa said in a news release. "My natural response to its dynamism is to produce a biennial which asks questions through art, and creates a dialogue that liberates us from Eurocentrism, Globalism, and other relevant –isms.”