The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) will co-produce an exhibition featuring Indian and Bangladeshi artists with the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) at the sixth Dhaka Art Summit. With over 140 local and international artists and architects, the Dhaka Art Summit will be held in the Bangladesh capital from February 3. The sixth edition, titled ‘Bonna’, will explore the theme of Bangladesh’s climate, and how it has shaped the country’s history, identity and culture. (Also read: Muzaffar Ali to showcase his lesser-known artistic works at upcoming exhibition )
The headlining exhibition by KNMA and SAF, ‘Very Small Feelings’, will showcase extensive exchange between contemporary artists of Bangladesh and India through exhibition-making, publishing, co-commissioning, and loans of artworks. The exhibition has been co-curated by Akansha Rastogi, senior curator at KNMA, and chief curator of Dhaka Art Summit Diana Campbell with Ruxmini Choudhury, assistant curator at SAF.
“The collaboration with Samdani Art Foundation advances our goal of providing a platform for emerging and younger voices from India and the subcontinent. It will be the first time that two major South Asian contemporary art institutions collaborate on such a scale, and we are excited to create this space for learning and exchange for people from both countries and around the world,” Kiran Nadar, chairperson, KNMA said.
As part of the exhibition, award-winning author Amitav Ghosh’s “Jungle Nama” will come to life through its audio-visual presentation and collaboration with painter Salman Toor and singer Ali Sethi. “This is a collaborative project and there could be no better way of bringing the different aspects of the work together than in an installation for this exhibition, which celebrates the role of storytelling in society,” Ghosh said.
The fourth exhibition under KNMA’s multi-part, long-term program ‘Young Artists of Our Times’ aims to address and engage the younger voices of the subcontinent, bringing them into the fold and forming new forms of institutional collaboration.
Other highlights of the exhibition include a new commission work by Mumbai-based architect duo Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, sculptural installation by Delhi-based artist Murari Jha, and a performance work by Shillong-based artist Lapdiang Syiem that connects India and Bangladesh via the folklore of Shillong’s Khasi hill tribes.
The collaboration will also feature a presentation by the Anga Art Collective focusing on the memories of village elders in western Assam close to the Bangladesh border, who were forced to abandon their homes as their village drowned in the Bramhaputra river due to erosion.
The Summit at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy will also host artists and architects including Rana Begum, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Simon Fujiwara, Antony Gormley, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Ashfika Rahman, Joydeb Roaja, Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, Lapdiang Syiem, Sumayya Vally and Anpu Varkey.
While Over 50 per cent of the works on view will be new commissions, exhibitions and performances, historic works by artists such as Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Leela Mukherjee, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Satyajit Ray and Lala Rukh will also be featured at the Summit. The art festival will conclude on February 11.
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This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.