Dhaka Art Summit Announces its 2nd Edition

Report by Santanu Ganguly, Dhaka: The second edition brings international focus to South Asian contemporary art practices, bringing together over 250 established and emerging South Asian artists from around the world for a 3 day festival celebrating the best of the region’s artistic practices.

Expanded program presents regional and global perspectives on South Asian art, introduces major public art project, 12 solo artist projects, a diverse line up of curated exhibitions and an experimental film and performance segment.

Samdani Art Foundation announces its partnership with the Delfina Foundation for an international residency for the Samdani Art Award winner. The 2nd Edition of the Dhaka Art Summit will take place from February 7-9, 2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh in a 120,000 sq.ft. exhibition space at Shilpakala Academy (the National Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, Bangladesh). Organized by the Samdani Art Foundation in collaboration with Bangladesh’s National Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, this pioneering platform is the first of its kind in Bangladesh and one of the largest platforms for South Asian art globally. The Dhaka Art Summit is a non-profit initiative and an alternative to the art fair model. It provides an international platform for the best artists and galleries from the region to exhibit, and is open to the public, free of charge. The 1st Edition of the Dhaka Art Summit was a ground-breaking initiative, which showcased more than 240 artists and attracted over 50,000 visitors over 4 days.

The 2nd Edition brings an international focus to South Asian contemporary art practices, showcasing over 250 established and emerging South Asian artists. The expanded program includes exciting presentations and several new commissions by artists of international critical acclaim including Jitish Kallat, Shilpa Gupta, Rashid Rana, Shahzia Sikander, Mithu Sen, Naeem Mohaiemen, Tayeba Begum Lipi, and many more.

The 2nd Edition of the Dhaka Art Summit will feature several thought provoking curatorial interventions exploring regional and global perspectives on South Asian art practices. 6 curated exhibitions at the Shilpakala Academy will focus on cutting-edge practices, and showcase artists from the region. An exhibition of Bangladeshi contemporary art, including some of the most exciting emerging artists, will be curated by Deepak Ananth. A ground breaking public art project using hundreds of road signs and billboards conceived by the globally acclaimed Raqs Media Collective will challenge notions of time and space across the city of Dhaka. Diana Campbell Betancourt will curate the public art projects and Solo Projects at the Dhaka Art Summit. 12 Solo Projects will present in-depth perspectives to the work of some of the leading artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Afghanistan, most of which are large scale new commissions supported by the Samdani Art Foundation. The Dhaka Art Summit will also present performances and experimental film screenings by artists from the South Asian region, curated by Mahbubur Rahman, the founder of Britto Arts Trust. Rosa Maria Falvo will curate an exhibition of Bangladeshi photography. Other curated exhibitions will include established and emerging artists from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The 2nd Edition of the Dhaka Art Summit will also include a panel of talks focused on the development of South Asian art and its representation in museums around the world, presentations by over 30 invited galleries from the region, and a city wide program of collateral events. Please visit www.dhakaartsummit.org for details of the updated program.

The organizers of the Dhaka Art Summit, the Samdani Art Foundation, will also present an exhibition of 10 artists shortlisted for the Samdani Art Award in partnership with UK based Delfina Foundation, an international organization dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange with a special focus on international collaborations with the greater Middle East, North Africa , and South Asia.

The Dhaka Art Summit is supported and organized by the non-profit Samdani Art foundation as part of its commitment to creating awareness about Bangladeshi and South Asian art globally. Partners of the 2nd Edition include the British Council, Goethe Institute, Alliance Francaise and Britto Arts Trust.