DHAKA ART SUMMIT-EDITION 2
SUSHMA SABNIS
In an attempt to bring the South Asian art practices into focus on an international level, the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh returns with its second edition. Slated to be held from 7th to 9th February 2014, the Summit includes over 250 emerging talents and acclaimed artists and aims at an artistic exchange and development of South Asian Art, previews Sushma Sabnis.
The Samdani Art Foundation initiated the Dhaka Art Summit as a non-profit platform to support quality exhibits from Bangladesh and all over the world. The summit aims to bring together a plethora of art works from different parts of the world under one roof to focus on the artistic practices and in a way promote a healthy environment to display the variety of artistic expressions. Launched in 2012, the 1st edition was an astounding success and the second edition hopes to be a bigger success than last year. The participating artists apart from Bangladesh, come from South Asian countries including Afghanistan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. The program features thought provoking projects, curated exhibitions, and a series of talks with eminent speakers in the panel discussions. The Dhaka Art Summit 2014, under the direction of Diana Campbell Betancourt (Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation) and Mahbubur Rahman ( Artist/ co-founder, Britto Arts Trust Bangladesh) will explore regional and global perspectives on South Asian art practices and create a curatorial exchange and dialogue platform including established names such as Deepak Ananth (Art historian, critic and independent curator) along with emerging curatorial voices from South Asia.
The Samdani Art Award exhibition will showcase the works of shortlisted artists selected by a respected jury panel including Aaron Cezar (Founding Director, The Delfina Foundation), Jessica Morgan (Curator,Tate Modern and Artistic Director of the 2014 Gwangju Biennale), Adriano Pedrosa (Independent curator, editor and writer), Sandhini Poddar (Associate curator, Asian art, Guggenheim Museum) and Pooja Sood (Director, Khoj International Artists’ Association). The summit will see solo projects by 14 internationally acclaimed artists, Lida Abdul, Rana Begum, Rathan 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. The Summit will also see a public art project of mammoth proportions, by Raqs Media Collective, curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, titled, ‘Meanwhile Elsewhere’. The project will be launched at the summit and will continue to be on view till 21st February, Bangladesh’s International Mother Language Day.The summit will have panel discussions and special talk series, by Dr Ziba Ardalan (Director/Curator Parasol Unit, Foundation for Contemporary art), Richard Blurton (Head of South Asian Section of the British Museum’s Asia Department), Aurelien Lemonier (Curator, Centre Pompidou) and Sheena Wagstaff (Chairperson, Department of Modern and contemporary art, Metropolitan Museum of Art) An exciting 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.
