The greatest show of the South Asian art will begin today at the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
The three-day Dhaka Art Summit will display a ‘panoramic survey’ of over 250 artists from South Asian countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Launched in 2012, the first edition of Dhaka Art Summit focused only on Bangladesh artists.
But the second edition includes solo projects, curated exhibitions, an ambitious public art project, seminars, performances, experimental film screenings, and presentations by 33 local and international galleries.
The aim of the show is to support the development of South Asian art, to bring museum-quality exhibitions to Bangladesh and to promote international artistic exchange, said the organisers.
A major part of the summit is the display of solo projects by the 14 internationally acclaimed South Asian artists including Lida Abdul, Rana Begum, Rathin Barman, Shilpa Gupta, Runa Islam, Jitish Kallat, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Naeem Mohaiemen, Mahbubur Rahman, Rashid Rana, Mithu Sen, Tsherin Sherpa, Shahzia Sikander and Asim Waqif.
In addition, 33 leading international artists’ organisations and galleries will display South Asian contemporary art in their respective pavilions.
There will be five curated shows where each of the five curators will present theme based artworks by the artists of their choices including B/Desh, a display of emerging local artists’ works, curated by Deepak Ananth from France; Ex-ist, an exhibition of emerging Pakistani artists’ works, curated by Ambereen Karamat from Pakistan; Citizens of Time, a display of emerging Indian artists works, curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki from India; LifeBlood, a Bangladeshi photography show, curated by Rosa Maria Falvo from Italy and Liberty; a display of works of the leading Bangladeshi artists, curated by Md Muniruzzaman.
A line-up of experimental film and performance art curated by Mahbubur Rahman will showcase the works of CAMP, Nikhil Chopra, Htein Lin, Bandu Manamperi, Aung Min Min, Sunil Sigdel, Arko Sumon and more.
The representatives from The British Museum, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou and Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, among many others, will participate in the seminars on the institutional collecting and support for art from South Asia.
Two additional panel discussions will be held including a cross-generational panel of Bangladeshi artists reflecting on the country’s contemporary art scene and a panel of the visionary artists and curators who have developed significant art institutions in South Asia such as Kochi Murziris Biennale, Colombo Biennale and Chobi Mela international festival of photography.
Another attraction of this year’s arrangement is the Samdani Art Award 2014 announcement, which will declared today from eight nominated Bangladeshi artist. And the winner will get the chance to o attend a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in London as part of the bi-annual Samdani Art Award.
A public art initiative created by New Delhi based Raqs Media Collective, and curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, is now on display over 160 road signs and billboards across the capital.
The Dhaka Art Summit has been organised by Samdani Art Foundation in collaboration with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, and curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt with Mahbubur Rahman.
‘Dhaka Art Summit is the only large scale festival to focus exclusively on South Asian art. The Samdani Foundation has created a unique platform supporting visionary South Asian artists and creating a place for the world’s best international institutions to engage with art from the region in a non-commercial setting. We hope to make the summit accessible to all by making entrance to the event free of cost,’ said Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation.
‘We are hoping to make the Dhaka Art Summit a global platform for South Asian artists where people from all over the world can come to Bangladesh to see the works of the region,’ Nadia Samdani, founder and director of the summit said.
Parallel to the main event at the Shilpakala Academy, several galleries including Allaince Francise de Dhaka, Goethe-Institu, Gallery Chitrak, Galleri Kaya, Athena Gallery of Fine Arts, Dhaka Art Centre, Drik Gallery, Gallery 21, Gallery Cosmos, Institute of Asian Creatives, Radius Centre, Tivoli Art Gallery, Saju Art Gallery and others have organised special shows in their respective venues for the delegates and viewers of the Dhaka Art Summit.
-With New Age input
