The Samdani Art Award, Bangladesh's premier art award, has created an internationally recognised platform to showcase the work of young Bangladeshi Artists to an audience of international arts professionals. Since it was founded in 2012, the Samdani Art Award has steadily developed into an internationally recognised platform, highlighting the most innovative work being produced by young Bangladeshi artists. Created to honour one talented emerging Bangladeshi artist, the award does not issue the winner with a monetary prize, and instead funds them to undertake an all-expenses paid, six-week residency at the Delfina Foundation in London: a career-defining moment for the artist to further their professional development. Khaled Hasan was the winner of the 1st Samdani Art Award in 2012, along with Musrat Reazi. Samdani Art Award 2012 INTERVIEW: KHALED HASAN Emma Sumner: You initially studied printmaking, how did your practice evolve to become what it is today? Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury: It is very interesting for me to talk about this shift. When I studied printmaking at Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. I tried to embrace the fact that many of the printing processes I learnt were all steeped in tradition, but no matter what I tried, I never felt that the process fitted with what I wanted to achieve and communicate within my practice. While I was studying, I tried to experiment with mixing and matching various print making techniques and introducing found photography into my lithograph prints, although it was prohibited in our academy at that time, so in parallel to my studies, I continued my own experimental art practice. ES: So, printmaking did not allow you to communicate what you wanted to get across to your audience? Did this change at all after you graduated and had more freedom with the way you were able to work? MRC: Even after graduating I was never really convinced that printmaking would give me the tools to communicate what I wanted through my practice. The sensibility of printmaking was a way to develop my ideas, but the outcome always became something else, like a form of assemblage, or an installation. During my study, I became interested in the moving image—especially the genres of psychedelic and experimental film—and wanted to explore them in my practice. Later, after graduation, I also began to experiment with performance, photography, collage, object sculpture and video installation. These multiple approaches helped steer my practice into the direction it has taken today. ES: Do you still make prints now? MRC: I love woodcarving, and I did begin working in this way during my graduation but my lifestyle doesn’t allow me to practice like this anymore. Its partly for this reason, and the limitations of the media itself, which have moved my practice in a very different directioN. ES: Your practice today is interdisciplinary and embraces installation and many other media. How do you decide what media you want to work with? Do you keep objects of interest to you in stock that you feel you might use later, or you source everything after you have devised an idea for a project? MRC: My work has always been sensitive to the time and space in which I create it so my processes are never fixed and I allow my intuition to guide me when developing new works. I usually find an object which forms the basis of an idea which I then begin to ‘open-up’ through my working processes to explore its core subject in greater depth I only ever select objects that appeal to me, a process which is very subjective as the same object might not appeal to others in the same way it does to me, making the process very much about my connection to the objects I work with. ES: Where do you go to source your materials? Is there anywhere particular where you feel more inspired? MRC: I find my materials in all sorts of places but generally I never go looking for things as I tend to just come across things as I go about my daily tasks, making most of the objects I source ephemeral. For one of my more recent projects I collected a lot of boxes over the period of Ramadan. The boxes contained oranges which had been imported from Egypt, but I was drawn in by the striking logo on the front of the box. Ramadan was the only time that the boxes had been in stock in my local market. As I was already familiar with the store owners, I took the time to talk to them and gained a lot of information about how the boxes had come from Egypt to Bangladesh, making me question the ideas of globalisation and international trade and how these matters might affect the everyday person. This formed the foundation for a new work which I am still developing the work in my studio now. ES: So the conversations that you have with other people as you develop your ideas are also a key part of your working process? MRC: In my project The Soul Who Fails to Fly into the Space (2017), which I exhibited during the Dhaka Art Summit, the chairs on which the television was placed were rented from a local company in Dhaka. The man who owned the company was very open and welcoming towards me, and he was very excited to be playing a small part in my project. But when he showed the chairs to me, every chair had a very shiny sticker of his company logo placed prominently in the centre of the back rest, which wasn’t part of how I’d originally envisaged the work. I thought about it all night but slowly realised that I couldn’t remove the logos, as the interactions between us had helped us to build a relationship of respect, a love that had an impact on my decision making and led to me keeping the logos as they were and allowing in the unexpected. In the end, the logo fitted magically on that installation. All the interactions and discussions that I have with the people I meet during my working process are very important to me and often influence my work in positive ways. The curator, Simon Castets also played an important role while installing the works as we discussed at length about how my work could respond to the space to create a more meditative and playful exhibit. ES: Since arriving in London for your residency at the Delfina Foundation have you started work on any new projects? or is there anything that you are working on now? MRC: I lived in London previously back in 2014 when my wife was undertaking her MA. During that time, I was struck by how many road signs there were and I began taking photos of the streets. I had began working on a project called Land, and now I am back in London for this residency, I have had a chance to restart and develop the ideas I was working on further. While I have been here, I visited the National History Museum and I saw that they had analysed Bangladesh by looking at the structure of our land, particularly our rivers, and the types of our soil. What interested me most about this display, was seeing how Bangladesh is divided by a tectonic plate that goes through the centre of the country which means that my native land could, at some point in the future, be shifted by nature dispelling the concept of land that we conventionally perceive through mapping. Overall, I am more interested in the land inside us, our spirituality and how this connects us to the cosmos and defines who we are and which land we ultimately belong to. SAF: After you have finished your residency at Delfina Foundation and return to Dhaka, what’s next for you? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or are you planning to work on any new projects? MRC: It’s a big question, currently I’m a little overwhelmed by the spotlight of winning the Samdani Art Award and having many curators and fellow artists wanting to meet me, but it has been a great opportunity to develop my network which I know will be helpful in moving forward with my career. I am very thankful to Samdani Art Foundation and Delfina Foundation for establishing such a valuable platform for young artist in Bangladeshi artists. While I have been here, I’ve had the time and space to open up new critical perspectives on my practice and developed my approach to research and new projects. After developing them further in Dhaka, I am hopeful to show them in exhibitions soon. SAF: You describe photography as a force that gives you a deeper understanding of human beings and life in general. Could you explain how photography has changed your understanding of life and the way you experience it? KH: I find it very difficult to explain exactly what I mean by this as it is something that is related to the practicalities of my everyday life. As a tool, photography has made it simpler for me to share my daily experiences, and gives me a very positive outlook on what is happening around me. For example, if you see a leaf that has dropped into a pool of water, it is a very normal scenario, but when I see it, I try to find the beauty by capturing the best visualisation of it through my camera. If anything, photography has taught me to see that every flower must grow through the dirt before it blooms. However, if I am talking about how photography has changed my life as a human being, I would go as far as expressing that it is the best thing that has happened to me. When I was working on projects documenting a home for the old-aged, or with acid victims or valiant women, every single person I met during my documentation process taught me something, which, at the beginning of each project, was a something I did not expect. Just listening to the hardships that each person had endured made me a stronger person. This might sound a little far-fetched, but if you have not experienced something like this personally, it would be difficult for you to understand exactly what I experienced during each of these projects. SAF: Your early work concentrated on telling the narratives of your native country, Bangladesh. Since moving to the USA, how have your new surroundings changed the way you work? KH: When I lived in Bangladesh, I was travelling all the time to different countries for my work, so I don’t feel that my move to the USA has changed the way I work as a photographer or the way I document my subjects. My passion for the work I make remains that same wherever I go, and the concepts I choose to work with are a bit like my shadows: they follow me wherever my work takes me. Although life in the USA is very different to Bangladesh, I maintain my own unique way of working which will not change because I am living in a new place: although I am trying to cut back on my travel to allow myself time to concentrating on improving my skills to add value to my career. SAF: Seeing yourself as not just a photographer but also as a socially responsible person, how do you ensure the work you make also has a positive contribution to the communities you document? KH: When I first started working as a photographer, it was a priority for me that the work I did would contribute to the communities I worked with, but I also knew that by working as a photographer and documenting other people’s experiences, I would be able to experience the lives of others in a way that most other people are never able to. The contribution I can make to other people’s lives through my work might be very minimal but I believe that every little bit of effort made contributes to a greater change. I feel grateful that I am able to make the work I do, and that the images I create make other people think more deeply about what they can do to help change society for the greater good. SAF: During your career has there been a community or subject that you have documented which has had a real impact on you as both a photographer and a socially responsible person, and if so, why? KH: All of the work I make stays close to my heart, and each and every image I shoot has its own individual impact. However, documenting residents in an old-aged home made me realise how cruel many people are to their parents and as someone who is very family orientated, it was difficult for me to accept the situation that many of the residents had been left to live with. If anything, the experience made me more responsible towards my own mother and the rest of my family. Although the old-aged home was a fairly depressing environment which could understandable make anyone feel very low, my time there increased my motivation to work harder as a photographer and help raise the residents’ voices through my camera. SAF: Can you tell us about the projects you are currently working on and what we can expect to see next? KH: I am currently working on a project titled ‘Living Odd’ through which I am documenting both the past and present situations of Bangladeshi non-residents and immigrants living in the USA. I want the series to capture the truth behind the mental trauma and various difficulties that many migrants go through to survive in unfamiliar surrounds while documenting the cultural gaps between different races in America. My other ongoing project is focused on women and aims to help visualise the many different characters o women—their appearance, uprising, depressions, beauty, aggression, loneliness, fear, revolution, frustration, and more—and is a project I am excited to see come to fruition. As my documentation of the women I am working with grows, I can see how the project will be one of great strength. Since it was founded in 2012, the Samdani Art Award has steadily developed into an internationally recognised platform, highlighting the most innovative work being produced by young Bangladeshi artists. Created to honour one talented emerging Bangladeshi artist, the award does not issue the winner with a monetary prize, and instead funds them to undertake an all-expenses paid, six-week residency at the Delfina Foundation in London: a career-defining moment for the artist to further their professional development. The award’s latest winner, Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, travelled to London earlier this year in July to undertake his residency. Providing him with the time and space to revisit old ideas, and explore new, while expanding his networks. I caught up with Chowdhury while he was in residence to discuss his ongoing practice and how winning the award has impacted his career to date. Samdani Art Award 2012 INTERVIEW: MIZANUR RAHMAN CHOWDHURY

ALL PROJECTS Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts in northwest Bangladesh acts as a catalyst for social inclusivity through community-focused activities, bringing together diverse members of their neighbourhood as well as artists to experiment with local cultural traditions. In 2018, they created ‘Hamra’ to develop experimental forms of puppeteering. The presentation in DAS, ‘Golpota Shobar’ performs local history and myths surrounding a small village and the many living and non-living beings that inhabit it – as imagined by a theatre company of children. The handmade puppets made with found materials by the children tell stories of small incidents in the village – natural and/or supernatural that connect to long histories of waves of migration through to recent south-to-north movements of climate change refugees. ‘Golpota Shobar’ is realized in collaboration with Jolputul Puppet Studio and was performed inside of Taloi Havini’s ‘Reclamation’ installation at 4pm on 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15 February, with periodic interventions within the puppet theatre within this amoeba. The children also conducted theatre workshops with Dhaka based children during the DAS school days, performing the results of their workshop from 12.45–1.15pm on 11 and 13 February.

ALL PROJECTS Collective Movements Curated by Diana Campbell We have been witnessing movements of people of all ages from Chile, to Lebanon, India, Hong Kong and beyond, all voicing a desire for forms of agency in the context of persistent repressive colonial and authoritarian structures. DAS was formed through the collective building of a grassroots transnational civil space where culture can be shared beyond the limits of the nation state. Together with artists who create situations, build relations, and organise events and institutions, we aim to create a strong sense of community rooted in Dhaka. The word body can also be read as individuals who come together as a group. Like antibodies, individuals within any body need to maintain the ability to disagree with the group and contribute to the dynamic evolution of the fragments, situations, and personalities that make it up. A powerful aspect of groups is that they are dynamic and fluid; they can come together, break up into two or more groups, move when they need to, and dissolve when their work is done, reforming if/when they are needed again. Damián Ortega b. 1967, Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City Sisters; Hermanas, 2019–2020 Bricks, Corn, Squash, Chiles, Beans Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist, kurimanzutto, White Cube, and Samdani Art Foundation. Realised with additional support from kurimanzutto and White Cube. A portion of the corn was grown and donated by Shakhawat Hossain In an empty, uninhabited lot covered by wild weeds and grass, a big conical figure is raised. It is made of red bricks and could be described either as a stupa, or a pre-Colombian pyramid. It is a sculptural silo, containing an offering with a sample of one of the native corn species of Mexico, a single seed. Seeds can be deposited on any land, and with some luck and under the right conditions, they multiply in a micro-explosion of fertility. Limits of private property are tested when rituals, knowledge and products are taken from one place to another. A ‘milpa’ is a piece of land that grows from using ancient Mesoamerican agricultural practices that are necessary to produce products to meet the basic needs of a family. A milpa contains a diverse ecosystem that produces corn, beans, squash and chile working in solidarity. This ecosystem is, to a certain point, what has fed us, and one of the most valuable gifts that Damian Ortega wishes to share from Mexico. Ortega uses sculpture, installation, performance, film, and photography to arrive at events of deconstruction, both material and conceptual. In his work, the familiar is altered and re-purposed, leading the viewer to inspect the unexpected interdependence of the components involved. Ortega highlights the complex social, political, and economic contexts that are embodied in every-day objects. Fernando Palma Rodríguez b. 1957, San Pedro Atocpan; lives and works in San Pedro Atocpan ‘Language programmes us’, shares Fernando Palma, indicating that it is possible to be a different person in different languages. Palma is an expert in programming; he has a background as an electrical engineer and he is interested in the transmission of systems, knowledge, and electricity. Part of Palma’s work is preserving the Nahua language, a group of languages related to the Aztec people, settled mainly in the central part of Mexico. ‘It is through indigenous languages that we begin to see a different relationship between people and their environment, their art and culture’, writes Palma. For example, the word for artist in Nahua language is derived from the word for the number five – because the artist is the fifth point connecting the four points on a compass: North, South, East, West. This definition does not contain the triangular axes of fame, power or money. The artist had a formative experience in Bangladesh visiting the Chakma community during a residency at Britto Art Trust in 2003, understanding that the condition of his community in Mexico was linked to that of indigenous people on the other side of the world. He returns to Bangladesh to catalyse transmission of indigenous knowledges of language and ecology through workshops related to his body of work creating Nahua inspired pictograms (found in The Collective Body). Palma makes robotic sculptures that perform narrative choreographies, addressing issues faced by Mexican indigenous communities, such as that in the agricultural region of Milpa Alta in Mexico. These include human and land rights, violence, and urgent environmental crises. He runs Calpulli Tecalco, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of Nahua language and culture as well as Libroclub Fernando Benitez In Cualli Ohtli, a book club active for over twenty years with Nahua reading groups for children, and Maspor Nosotros AC, an organisation constituted in order to prevent, mitigate and compensate for the environmental and social impact caused by industrial and consumer waste. Olafur Eliasson b. 1967, Copenhagen; lives and works in Berlin Your Uncertain Shadow (Black and White) , 2010 HMI lamps, glass, aluminium, transformers Courtesy of the artist and Samdani Art Foundation Several spotlights project light on a white wall, however these lights only become perceptible when visitors enter and move across the space, blocking the light source and filling the void of the room with the presence of their shadows. The moving shadows of visitors create a sort of choreography and stretch and contract in tones ranging from grey to black, varying based on the movements of bodies in the space. Differences in race, religion, age, and class are flattened in this work as details used to identify individuals are reduced to moving outlines, and we become more aware of the present moment and the patterns we can build by engaging with people around us. Olafur Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. He strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world. Eliasson’s works span sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installation. Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice engages the broader public sphere through architectural projects, interventions in civic space, arts education, policy-making, and issues of sustainability and climate change. Taloi Havini b. 1981, Arawa; Lives and works in Sydney. Reclamation , 2019–2020 Installation, mixed media Co-Curated by Diana Campbell, Alexie Glass-Kantor, and Michelle Newton. Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation and Artspace, Sydney for DAS 2020 with support from the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Realised with additional support from the Australian High Commission of Bangladesh Reclamation is a new work by Taloi Havini created in collaboration with her Hakö clan members. The artist draws from recent historical movements of conflict as well as acts of resilience and self-determination experienced within the social fabric of her inherited matrilineal birthplace, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Reclamation is a site-specific assemblage of natural materials, harvested from the artist’s own matrilineal Hakö clan land. Here, Havini traces the significance of impermanence in traditional Hakö architecture. Individual panels have been shaped, cut and lashed within an arched form to reference formal Indigenous knowledges and map-making, echoing temporal spaces created for ritual and exchange to assert aspace for collective agency. Reclamation speaks to notions of lineage and navigation. Underlying the ephemeral installation of cane and earth are questions about the ways in which we relate within temporal spaces; how borders are defined and claimed as well as the value of impermanence and embodied knowledge over fixed historical understandings. Havini weaves together the tensions of precarity and resilience, vulnerability and activism to create a space of encounter and transmission. Havini speaks through geographic and cultural specificity of situations with global implications, working at a time when communities across the globe find themselves at the tipping point of environmental and social change. Havini works with photography, sculpture, immersive video and mixed-media installations. She considers the resonance of space, ceremony, and how material culture can be defined and translated through contemporary practice. Vasantha Yogananthan b. 1985, Grenoble; lives and works in Paris The artist Vasantha Yogananthan photographed SECMOL’s moving Ice Stupa project in Ladakh . Yogananthan's work straddles fiction and documentary, and this project shows how an imagined idea for a utopian future can come into being through creativity and institution building. Yogananthan’s photographic approach has been developed over the last 10 years whilst working on the major independent projects Piémanson (2009–2013) and A Myth of Two Souls (2013–2020) which have been published, exhibited and awarded internationally. Yogananthan is deeply attached to analogue photography for its slow – almost philosophical – process. His interest in painting led him to work around the genres of portrait, still life and landscape. SECMOL/Ice Stupa The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) engages scientists and engineers with young people growing up in Ladakh (a highly border-contested mountainous zone of northern India bordering China), especially those from rural or disadvantaged backgrounds. SECMOL equips young Ladakhis with the knowledge, skills, perspective, and confidence to choose and build a sustainable future in a high desert, which is increasingly lacking in water. Temperatures in the Indian Himalayas are rising as a result of climate change, causing snow from glaciers to melt faster, negatively affecting local communities that rely on springtime meltwater for agriculture. Resulting from two years of experiments at SECMOL, ‘Ice Stupa’ is a local solution to a local problem. ‘Ice Stupa’ is an artificial glacier created by piping a winter mountain stream down below the frost line, and then cascading it out of a vertical spout in the desert plateau. When gushing water encounters freezing ambient temperatures, it transforms into a conical ice formation with minimal surface area exposed to direct sunlight. The artificial glacier lasts late into the spring, allowing communities extended access to water for irrigation, as opposed to normal ice, which melts much faster. This is a local solution at a human scale. These photographs were taken by the artist Vasantha Yogananthan in 2019 for the New Yorker. SECMOL’s travel to DAS was generously supported by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.

ALL PROJECTS Dog Eye Kunsthalle Münster, 3 Sept - 22 Nov 2020 Produced in Bangladesh with the Samdani Art Foundation, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s narrative film Fog Dog and photographs produced from the artist's Bangladesh experience inform the ghostly narratives found in his solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Muenster, Dog Eye. Watch the work and an interview with the artist here: www.artbasel.com Watch Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s ‘Fog Dog’ A horror film from the point of view of Dhaka's street dogs

ALL PROJECTS Below the Levels Where Differences Appear Curated by Vali Mahlouji The first iteration of an ongoing transnationally roving amphitheatre, as part of A Utopian Stage, artists, performers and filmmakers were inclusively incorporated within a collective arena of experimentation echoing the progressive pitch of the Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis (1967-77), and the highs and lows of universalist utopian ideals. Amidst resurgent forces of cultural and political reactionism around the world, below the levels… proclaimed a radical site of collective exchange. During the Dhaka Art Summit 2018, below the levels… drew upon the music, theatre, dance and politics that informed the utopian aspirations and contradictions of the original festival, with contributions by Hassan Khan, Goshka Macuga with Vali Mahlouji, Silas Riener (Merce Cunningham Trust), Reetu Sattar, Yasmin Jahan Nupur with Santal performers and Lalon Baul singers. GOSHKA MACUGA AND VALI MAHLOUJI | LIKE WATER ON HOT ROCKS (2018) An inaugural performative collaboration in which a procession of known characters from the Festival of Arts, Shiraz – Persepolis protested and occupied. HASSAN KHAN | PURITY (2013) What is it that is so comforting about the narrator’s voice? And is conflict always predicated on some sort of agreement? What does the hammer strike when it does? And why do I hate this word yet choose to speak of it? REETU SATTAR | HARANO SUR (LOST TUNE) Performance with 30 musicians and 30 harmoniumsHow do we encapsulate time via our shared past? This performance engaged visitors with the sound people grew up within South Asia, simultaneously recognising the receding path into so-called ‘modernity.’ This project was co-commissioned by the Samdani Art Foundation and Liverpool Biennial, in association with Archaeology of the Final Decade and the New North and South. SILAS RIENER | FIELD DANCES (1963), BY MERCE CUNNINGHAM Silas Riener engaged with the local audience and leading them through Merce Cunningham’s Field Dances workshop, culminating in a site-specific performance. Inspired by children’s carefree, unstructured play, Field Dances was first performed in 1963 to music by John Cage with costumes designed by Robert Rauschenberg. YASMIN JAHAN NUPUR AND SANTAL PERFORMERS Collaborating with the Indigenous Santal people and Lalon Baul singers, Yasmin Jahan Nupur’s performative dance and video series broke down language barriers through a process of body movements and participatory dances, telling stories about life, spirituality, and culture, to create a bridge between city and local dialects, cultures and lost languages.

ALL PROJECTS Monika Sosnowska at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art 24 July - 25 Oct 2020, Warsaw, Poland Monika Sosnowska's first extensive monographic exhibition in Poland at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw includes works inspired by her multiple visits to Bangladesh from 2017-2020, contextualized within her ongoing interest in deconstructing and reconstructing diverse histories of architecture across the world. We facilitated her research visit for the Dhaka Art Summit 2020 and her commission 'Concrete River' 2020 at the Srihatta: Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park which encouraged her to create new works for the summit as well as her solo exhibition at Zachęta. Monika Sosnowska's sculpture draws from the modernist architecture of Dhaka, in that particular case the inspiration comes from Muzharul Islam’s faculty of Fine Arts and the spiral staircase that he designed. Sosnowska transforms, modifies and distorts basic architectural elements. She deforms metal constructions, guardrails, staircases, beams and angle profiles, giving them unusual shapes. Deprives them of their original function and rescales them, creating expressive sculptures. These architectonic installations are meant to affect our senses, distort our sense of gravity, weight and hardness of matter, and instill anxiety with their rescaled forms, unnatural deformation. Image: Monika Sosnowska, Stairs, concrete and painted steel, 110 x 185 x 150 cm, 2020. Courtesy of the Foksal Gallery Foundation.

ALL PROJECTS One Hundred Thousand Small Tales MMCA, Colombo, 12 Dec 2019 - 12 Mar 2020 Dhaka Art Summit 2018 exhibition one hundred thousand small tales travels to The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Sri Lanka. Commissioned by the Dhaka Art Summit, the exhibition was first shown at DAS in February 2018.

ALL PROJECTS Performance Workshop by Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore and Jana Prepeluh Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 2 - 6 April 2015 The 2nd phase of Spring session of Samdani Seminars 2015 started with closed door performance conducted by leading Indian performance artist Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore along with Slovenian artist Jana Prepeluh. 15 Bangladeshi artists were selected for the 5 days’ workshop that ran from 2nd till 6th April. The workshop worked as incubator for the emerging artists which would eventually lead to further performance workshop at the Heritage Hotel, Nikhil Chopra’s residency programme in Goa. On 8th open house performances were arranged as a final output of the workshop all day long.

ALL PROJECTS Spatial Movements Curated by Diana Campbell Universes exist within us and universes exist beyond us. We inhabit our bodies; our bodies inhabit dwellings; and our imaginations inhabit limitless realms free from our mortal limitations. The artists in this movement explore the spaces that we move through (physical, social, political, discursive) and the ways we are able to transmit stories and knowledge across (life)times, building bridges from past to present to future. These stories and the belief and value systems embedded in them often speak to how humanity related to physically inaccessible worlds below the earth’s crust and beyond the sky. Certain works of art have the transformative power to make us feel and understand what is at stake, inspiring us to take action and bring new worlds into being. Your movement through the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy was carefully considered in our design of the Summit, contributing to the activation of artworks and ideas found across the venue. By sharing your experience with others both in physical and digital space, we can make history together. Clarissa Tossin b. 1973, Porto Alegre; lives and works in Los Angeles A Queda do Céu (The Falling Sky), 2019* Laminated archival inkjet prints and wood *after Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa’s autoethnography, and cosmoecological manifesto. Commissioned and produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Commonwealth and Council, and Samdani Art Foundation A Queda do Céu (The Falling Sky), 2019, Laminated archival inkjet prints and wood, Commissioned and produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020, Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. When we talk about environmental concerns relating to the Amazon, we must consider its native peoples as part of the ecology. For instance, the terra preta, or black soil–the most fertile in the Amazon Basin–is a product of long-term indigenous land management practices, going back to ancient times. Discoveries such as this expand our perception of the forest beyond wild land myths and re-signify the ‘jungle’ as a result of human interactions with nature over time. The Amazon rainforest has been the recurring subject of Clarissa Tossin’s work, providing a rich study in the impacts of global commodity chains and by extension, the perpetuation of colonial forces enacted on the region’s environment, cultures, and people. A Queda do Céu (The Falling Sky) further engages with themes of ecological precarity and social justice. The weavings combine satellite images of the recent fires in Amazônia with Nasa images of the Mars plane named after the forest (Amazonis Planitia), the Amazon River and the Milky Way. The patterns were made to resemble the geometric partition of land created by agribusiness mostly visible from satellite images or bird’s-eye view. The triptych suggests a constellation of planets that project ambiguous visions of futurity, post-human landscapes and the ruins of a world yet to come. Clarissa Tossin uses installation, video, performance, sculpture, and photography to negotiate hybridisation of cultures and the persistence of difference. By embracing semantic displacements in given material cultural ecosystems, Tossin’s work reflects on circulation from the level of the body to the global industry. Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic b. 1986, Bangkok; lives and works in New York and Bangkok b. 1986, Chicago; lives and works in New York Together (Dhaka Edition), 2019–2020 Clay, Electrical Wires, Leaves and Branches activated by performance with video and sound Performance is active at 7pm on 7–8 February Commissioned and Produced for by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artists, BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY, C L E A R I N G, Carlos/Ishikawa. Realised with additional support from MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum. Presented with in-kind support from BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY Rising up three-storeys of the DAS venue, Korakrit Arunanondchai’s monumental sculpture of a ‘naga’ (a reincarnating deity found across the mythology of South and Southeast Asia that shifts between snake and human form) transforms into a stage for the artist’s newest performance work in collaboration with Alex Gvojic that connects the river-based histories of Bangladesh and Thailand. Arunanondchai will create a soundscape within an environment based on Ghost Cinema, a post-Vietnam War ritual in Thailand where outdoor screenings function as communions between the audience and the spirits. Introduced by American soldiers stationed in Thailand who screened films in the forests, creating enigmatic projections which locals attributed to ghosts, the appropriation of the ritual by locals reflects the rich history of military coups and their effect on local folklore and rituals. Arunanondchai works with performance, video, and installation, addressing the crossing over of themes like family, superstition, spirituality, history, and politics. With an interest in collaboration, he transforms gallery spaces into arenas of connections, personal and cross-cultural. These allow him to explore relationships in recorded history while sidestepping its preoccupation with linear narratives. Alex Gvojic specialises in the interdisciplinary crossing of art, fashion, and music. Within his breath of multimedia projects, which span from entertainment production to environmental design, each embodies a signature sharpness in both imagery and concept. Minam Apang b. 1980, Naharlagun; lives and works in Goa Sisyphean Sea, 2019 Charcoal on Canvas Commissioned for DAS 2020 Courtesy of the artist and Chatterjee and Lal Minam Apang produces expansive intricate imaginary landscapes that reveal her spiritual connection to who she is and where she comes from. The artist moved from Arunachal Pradesh to Goa, mirroring the migration of large numbers of youth from Northeast India who are forced to leave due to a rampant military presence and the consequent lack of employment opportunities. Apang’s savage yet delicate drawing registers this trauma, reimagining it at a mythical scale suspended above the heads of viewers. The sea seems to lay siege to the mountains, tilting the axis of the world – alluding to the conflicted landscape of Arunachal Pradesh, but also to the many chapters of change that our planet has experienced: the same Himalayas that are melting today were once completely underwater. Apang’s practice predominantly employs drawing with charcoal. In early works, she painted scenes inspired by the folktales and myths passed down orally by her tribe in Arunachal Pradesh. More recently, her landscapes and figures are drawn from imagination and informed by hybrid experiences of the landscapes she has inhabited. Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury b. 1981, Noakhali; lives and works in Dhaka LOVE LETTER TO THE LAST SUN, 2019–2020 Mixed media Commissioned and produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Samdani Art Foundation This newly commissioned interactive installation is composed of a combination of everyday objects and natural elements (fire, water, earth, air) and aims to recalibrate the ecological co-existence of human and non-human living organisms in our universe. The work resides between fiction and reality, between the conceptual and the concrete, between an imagined reality and the construction of it. It fights against normative expectations. The progress of modernity is leading us towards the great destruction of this planet. Through Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury’s use of cameras and projectors, the viewer is able to locate her/himself within the web and connectivity of a total magnetic force, while perceiving the energetic pulses of the universe. Immersing the viewer in his utopian world, s(he) is re-connected with planets and other beings, both human and not. Chowdhury’s interdisciplinary practice plays with different media, ranging from installation, assemblage, video, collage, sculpture, found footage, experimental film and more to conjure a multifaceted artistic universe. By creating unfamiliar space and situations for everyday mundane objects, Chowdhury creates unique interpretations while engaging new experimental territories with vast potentials. Subash Thebe b. 1981, Nepal; lives and works in London NINGWASUM- Moving Across Time and Space, 2019 Acrylic on canvas Commissioned for DAS 2020 Courtesy of the artist Memories of possible and not so possible events woven into stories have been a fundamental way of accessing and disseminating knowledge to future generations in almost all indigenous communities, including Subash Thebe’s Limbu community. In a sense, memory is more significant for the future than for the past. The glacial lakes in Subash Thebe’s new painting are rendered in actual and imaginary time frames; sometimes they freeze back into glaciers and other times they grow bigger. At times, the Himalayas are rich with snow and glaciers and at other times they are nothing but grey tectonic rocks. There’s a spaceship in the frame, its shape inspired by the object called ‘Silamsakma’ commonly used in Limbu rituals. This memory of its existence in the future explores implications previously unimaginable. Thebe works with sound, film, music, performance, painting, and podcasts, exploring the relation between art and social change. He records the sound and images of his public engagements to later incorporate them in his works. His work is inspired by science fiction, future scenarios of struggle, resistance, climate change, and indigeneity. William Forsythe b. 1949, New York Fact of Matter, 2009 Polycarbonate rings, polyester belts, ground support rigging Courtesy of the artist. Presented with additional support from ifa | Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the EMK Center. The development and international exhibition of Choreographic Objects by William Forsythe is made possible with the generous support of Susanne Klatten Fact of the Matter, one of William Forsythe’s ‘Choreographic Objects’, poetically speaks to the interplay of collective and individual experience in navigating the world and its challenges and forms of thinking that can be activated through movement. The object is not so much there to be seen as to be used, and engaging with the object and the artist’s instructions gives the user a new perspective of the self as they become aware of their body’s mass, strength, and coordination as a unified system. These three qualities are not as unified as we would like them to be, and we invent strategies to pull through what might seem like an unnavigable space while learning from the strategies devised by other people using the object. Forsythe is known for his radical innovations in choreography and dance. His deep interest in the fundamental principles of organisation has led him to produce a wide range of projects. Parallel to his career as a choreographer, he creates installations, film works, and interactive sculptures, known as ‘Choreographic Objects’.

ALL PROJECTS Art Pro Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum 2020 Artpro’s projects mobilise artists to work with less visible segments of society, often working to bridge expressions of urban and rural culture. Nakshi Katha: Interwoven Dialogues (2019–2020) exemplifies their collaborative process. This research-based project involved 4 Dhaka based artists and 24 Jamalpur based Nakshi Kantha embroiderers through storytelling workshops. In the Nakshi Kantha tradition, communities (primarily of women) share stories and pass time together embroidering closely linked linear stitches on found fabrics. Bangladesh once had 6 seasons which are depicted in its songs and folk culture, but climate change has reduced this number to 4 or 5 (depending on who you ask). Artpro engaged with the community in Jamalpur to share memories about these seasons, collaborating with the artisans to then stitch these on a saree that was divided into 6 individual panels. The depictions of Boishahk (Summer), the Rainy Season, Autumn, Winter, and Spring are joined by the ‘missing season’ of ‘Late Autumn’ created by the artisans during the first 2 days of DAS. Visitors share memories tied to this lost period of the year and these are memorialized in textile form through the expressions of the artisans.

ALL PROJECTS The Space Between - Rana Begum At The Parasol Unit Foundation For Contemporary Art 13th June - 18th September 2016| The Parasol Unit Foundation For Contemporary Art, London, UK Dhaka Art Summit 2014 Solo Project artist Rana Begum had her first solo show, supported by the Samdani Art Foundation at The Parasol Unit.

ALL PROJECTS Samdani Art Award Exhibition Curated by Anne Barlow The Samdani Art Award 2023 presents new works by twelve emerging Bangladeshi artists who reflect on various social, economic and ecological concerns in the midst of one of the most difficult climatic periods for South Asia. While each project is distinct in its focus and material form, collectively, the artists in the exhibition engage with critical societal issues by questioning mainstream and binary thinking, advocating for change, and imagining spaces of possibility in the future. The ongoing impact of industrialisation and climate change are key topics for Purnima Aktar, Sohorab Rabbey and Habiba Nowrose. Through references to folklore and mythology, Aktar’s work highlights the uncertain future and diminishing biodiversity of the Sundarbans, the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world known as the ‘lungs’ of Bangladesh. Rabbey’s spatial intervention, whose forms are partly inspired by dams and barrages on the Teesta river, acts as a critical commentary on the geopolitical, topographical and ethnocultural transformation of the Bengal Delta region. Reflecting on ancient flood myths that span diverse cultures and religions, and on our current-day emergence from a global pandemic, Nowrose’s installation of photographs and objects seeks to convey a utopian world in which humans might exist in harmony with other beings after a great deluge. Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq and Rakibul Anwar consider how urban and rural environments are affected by construction that errs towards the invasive. Remnants of unfinished bridges in open fields, canals and agricultural land are seen as both symbols of ‘abandoned dreams’ and systemic corruption in Fatiq’s poignant photographs, whereas Anwar’s expansive wall drawings are informed by his observations of seemingly arbitrary urban planning that continues to alter the cityscape of Dhaka, as well as its social and communal spaces. Concerns around human rights, particularly in relation to the disenfranchised, are powerfully expressed in the work of Ashfika Rahman and Faysal Zaman. Rahman’s project resembles the interior of a home in an indigenous Santal community, and questions the responsibility of state security forces in relation to the burning of Santal homes during land ownership disputes. Incorporating extracts from interviews and archival images of victims of ‘enforced disappearance’, Zaman’s haunting installation gives material presence to victims’ own words and those of their loved ones. Through references to such acts of intolerance or brutality against people, and to the damage humans inflict on nature and its ecosystems, the topic of violence becomes a recurring subtext throughout the exhibition. Sumi Anjuman, Rasel Rana and Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin focus on the challenges faced by those with diverse sexual and gender orientation. Through her evocative photographs, Anjuman brings a human dimension to the oppression of non-binary people in Bangladesh, giving voice to their stories, while Rana encapsulates the struggles and hopes of diverse communities in a fantastical landscape in which every being is welcome. Referencing figures including the Bangladeshi artist SM Sultan whose identity was considered to be ‘elusive’, Yasmin similarly advocates for the legitimacy of sexual and gender fluidity and for individuals to be recognized and respected for who they are. Mojahid Musa and Dinar Sultana Putul share an interest in using natural or recycled materials in much of their work. Musa’s experimental and imaginative animal forms made first in clay, and then fused with other materials or ready-made objects, test assumptions around the relative value of such components in everyday life. Putul’s respect for agricultural and more traditional ways of life is borne out in the environment and hand-made objects she creates; at the same time, her work is influenced by historical figures such as engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller and utopian visions of a self-sustaining, egalitarian society. Purnima Aktar আঠারো ভাটির দেশ, A Tale of Eighteen Tides, 2022-2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The Sundarbans mangrove forest, known as the ‘land of eighteen tides’, is host to a vast range of flora and fauna, including the Bengal tiger. According to local folklore, the Sundarbans is watched over by Bonbibi, a revered female deity. It is said that for hundreds of years, woodcutters, honey collectors and others whose livelihoods depend on the forest, have prayed to Bonbibi to protect them from harm. Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage site, the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans is increasingly under threat due to climate change and environmental pollution. A Tale of Eighteen Tides is an allegorical work that explores this loss of biodiversity in the forest alongside the cultures and traditions that are in danger of dying out with it. Comprising eighteen parts, the installation depicts the figure of Bonbibi alongside a Bengal tiger and other wild animals, with those species that are already extinct painted in monochrome. Aktar’s work is inspired by nature and the myths and symbols of the Bengal Delta, as well as by artistic source including Mughal miniatures, Tantric paintings and Bangla folk art. She often combines these in her work to address issues around social and environmental justice. b. 1997, Narayanganj; lives and works in Dhaka Rakibul Anwar মহানগর, Mohanagar, 2023 Drawings on paper Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Rakibul Anwar’s life is intertwined with the city of Dhaka where he has been living since childhood. For Anwar, the transformation of Dhaka from a former Mughal outpost to a developing metropolitan centre with its different neighbourhoods, languages, symbols and sounds, is an endless source of inspiration. His work brings together direct observations of daily life with visual imagery derived from his ongoing research into the history of Dhaka through novels, articles and archival sources. These new drawings, one of which resembles the form of a scroll, are made on dictionary pages that have been randomly joined together, creating a kind of subliminal ‘noise’ that for Anwar feels like the sensation of living in Dhaka itself. Capturing moments of daily life, they depict the shifting ‘footprint’ of the city: people, places and objects are out of proportion with one another and viewed from various perspectives from aerial to eye level. This agglomeration of images – including street scenes, bullfights, and architectural elements – present a disorientating and almost surreal ambience. Anwar also considers the loss of Dhaka’s ecological heritage that continues to occur through planning and construction projects that fail to take existing ecosystems into account, leading to a critical imbalance between the built and natural environment. Images of beehives and animals act as signifiers for a loss of biodiversity that results in part from Dhaka’s dying lakes, polluted rivers, and lost gardens. Collectively, these new drawings present a poignant reflection on the complex and ever-changing physical and psychological state of the city. B. 1993, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Rasel Rana একজন বাগানির স্বপ্ন , The Gardener’s Dream 2023 Acrylic on canvas Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The Gardener’s Dream presents an idyllic scene of a gardener surrounded by various species of plants - a beautifully crafted universe in which all living things co-exist in harmony. The garden acts as a metaphor for a world in which everyone and everything has equal importance and equal rights, in contrast to the discrimination and trauma often faced by those who have diverse genders. This new work follows on from Rana’s Gender Bird series in terms of its lush representation of a figure in a landscape, and a sense of longing for an individual to be accepted for who they are. In The Gardener’s Dream , this also manifests itself through the work’s unique shape, which for Rana, expresses the way in which queer lives are often ‘framed’ by society as being different. Informed by various sources including Voodoo art and symbols, the bright colours of Rickshaw painting and the figure of the TEPA PUTUL (folk doll), Rana’s work presents a multi-layered and deeply personal perspective on issues of identity and an individual’s place in the world. b. 1995, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Sumi Anjuman হাওয়ায় নেওয়া চাঁদ, Winds carry moon , 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary medium Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Much of Anjuman’s photography engages with individuals or communities who have been oppressed or silenced by mainstream society. Her collaborative approach is guided by ideas of inclusivity and reflects the depth of the relationships she builds over time. Winds carry moon continues her work with those who, due to their gender identity, are frowned upon and considered unlawful in society to the extent that some have received death threats. Her photographs reflect on the restrictions and lack of equal rights that many individuals face in daily life, offering a sensitive insight into their inner psyches, and life journeys that commonly diverge from accepted norms in terms of prevailing societal and religious beliefs. Winds carry moon creates a space of possibility between this reality and a world in which LGBTQIA+ individuals in Bangladesh can concentrate on their love, hopes and dreams, instead of being in a constant state of angst and homophobic isolation, struggling to be perceived as human. Born in a conservative society, Anjuman has faced internal conflicts around being a woman that have helped her connect and empathize with others' oppression and trauma. Anjuman considers her photography practice to be more poetic than documentary in nature, verging on the abstract as a way of creating a non-violent dialogue about contemporary society. b. 1989, Bogura: lives and works in Dhaka and The Hague Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq মরীচিকা, Mirage, 2022-2023 Photographs Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Mirage is a series of photographs that attempts to highlight the corruption that lies behind many construction projects in Bangladesh. Focusing on numerous bridges that started to be built in canals, open fields, and agricultural lands over the past two decades - but that now lie abandoned and unused – Fatiq draws attention to the ongoing impact and the sheer scale of this predicament. In several instances, his works depict bridges that have collapsed, with their approach roads in ruins if they were ever made at all. These monumental, almost surreal forms now dominate landscapes across the country, symbolising for Fatiq the systemic corruption in the construction industry where huge budgets are misused and projects left unfinished. Although this series of photographs is devoid of people, it nonetheless conveys lost hopes of connectivity between places and communities, particularly in rural areas where local populations have no option but to move around by water for much of the year. While his works can be hauntingly beautiful, Fatiq’s approach to his subject matter is shaped by an acute social and political sensibility. In Mirage , he deftly combines aspects of traditional photography with elements of abstraction, symbolism and ambiguity, giving rise to the question of what lies underneath the surface of an image. b. 1995 Cumilla; lives and works in Cumilla Sohorab Rabbey Almanac of an eroded land borrowed from our children, 2022-2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 ‘Blocked’ is a form of protest that indigenous and marginalised local people use to rescue their lands, rivers and natural resources from authoritarian corporations. However precarious this resistance might be, their statement is clear and powerful enough to be visible. Inspired by their actions - and reflecting on how the navigability of the rivers from the upper stream to the lower stream in the Bengal delta region has been controlled, politicised, redistributed and transformed in the last decades - Sohorab addresses the aftermaths of human-led catastrophes. Alongside, he engages with the everyday practices of the people in the region in terms of their respect for natural ecosystems and their resistance towards the ‘patchy Anthropocene’. Almanac of an eroded land borrowed from our children continues Sohorab’s interest in channelling the geopolitical, topographical and ethnocultural transformation of the river delta region of South Asia. In this new installation, fragmented ‘edifices’ traced from the blueprint of dams and barrages built on the ‘Teesta’ river conjure up an abandoned eroded site. Hand loomed textiles made using non-toxic natural dye processes with domestic ingredients, techniques learned from local people, create a muted yet strong atmospheric spatial intervention. Injecting the idea of ‘blocked’ in a prudent sculptural and material play, Sohorab draws attention to the urgency of respecting indigenous knowledge and natural resources, beyond human possibilities and interspecies entanglements. b.1994 Dhaka, lives and works in London Habiba Nowrose Salvation , 2023 Photography Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 In Salvation, Habiba Nowrose reflects on ancient flood myths that span diverse cultures and religions as a way of critically examining the times we live in today. In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu reincarnated as a fish to warn King Manu of a great deluge. The fish instructed Manu to build a boat and take with him every living creature that ever existed on Earth, in a male and female pair. When the flood came, the fish grew into a giant one and asked Manu to tie the boat to its horn, and the fish navigated the flood, taking them to safe land. Thus the world was saved from total destruction. Similarly, according to Abrahamic religious texts, Prophet Noah received a warning from God about a great flood that would be a punishment for the wickedness of humanity. Eventually, the great deluge came and washed away the wicked, leaving only the righteous to repopulate the Earth. In our current era, often referred to as the Anthropocene, Nowrose questions how humans have become the single most destructive species, causing an existential threat to the earth, and whether another deluge is needed in order to salvage the world. Habiba Nowrose explores human relationships and gender identities through photography. She makes photographic portraits that introduce different interpretations and perspectives on topics such as the life of HIV positive patients or mourning the death of a loved one. Nowrose takes careful mental note of objects, colours, patterns and locations that attract her on a repeated basis, which she then re-introduces in her carefully constructed compositions. These elements play a fundamental role in her interactive and psychologically poignant image-making process. b. 1989 in Sirajganj, lives and works in Dhaka Mojahid Musa Assimilated Musing VI , 2022-2023 Sculptural installation using recycled materials, clay, machinery parts, wood, metal, hair, jute, ornaments, found objects from nature, adhesive Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Assimilated Musing VI is a juxtaposition of the natural and manmade. A meticulous process of clay modelling is combined by Mojahid Musa with found materials to make extraordinary creatures that are ambiguous in their form. Merging traditional motifs through the techniques of assemblage, they fuse such disparate elements as jewellery, twigs, bird feathers and various types of metal. These ‘composites’ intend to suggest that an earth consisting of diverse naturally occurring substances exists. Musa’s artistic language draws on the enormously rich history of clay culture, as well as Bangladeshi traditional motifs and folk art, but it does so in a way that actively connects with contemporary issues. For Musa, these sculptures of animal forms play with notions of ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’; they also implicitly critique the position of the domestic animal as an industrial by-product of our time. Overall, his work aims to challenge assumptions about what we require, how we utilize it, and how we value it in society – looking critically at how we assess these shifting factors, and how the decisions we then make affect our daily lives. As a way of interrogating these questions, Musa draws on his own experience of his surroundings, as well as on his interest in how, more broadly, human social behaviour relates to its environment. He often speaks about a ‘robotic’ cosmopolitan and materialistic lifestyle, where people yearn to return to their roots, but how, in the rush of life, they miss out on the innocence of nature. b. 1990, Narshingdi; lives and works in Dhaka Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin In association with Md.Solayman, Md. Dulal & Jagannath Das ঠাউর, Gaze , 2022-2023 Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 In Gaze , Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin presents an installation of paintings, several of which were created in collaboration with cinema and rickshaw painters. In society, Gaze is established on the basis of a 'higher power key'. Who do we make a hero, what will the hero look like? Have we thought about the politics of power behind the ‘gaze’ of all these things? Cinema banner painting is one of the mediums of popular culture in Bengal. Gaze is an attempt to deconstruct the male protagonists seen in movie banners or rickshaw paintings. Cinema banner artist Md. Dulal, rickshaw painter Md. Solaiman and Jagannath Das worked with her on this series. Gaze continues Yasmin’s interest in SM Sultan, a key figure in modern Bangladeshi art, and more specifically, in how his identity has been perceived primarily through the heteronormative gaze. While many books and films have focused on his life, SM Sultan nonetheless remains an intriguing figure, particularly as he spent many years living as a recluse. For Yasmin, Sultan’s way of thinking was ahead of his time. Sultan used to wear saree often, and there are many documentary photographs and movies that show him in shirt/pant/lungi at a young age. When his art began to be appreciated in the West, and his paintings exhibited, photographers in Bangladesh showed him in suits/coats/pants. Has a picture of SM Sultan wearing a saree ever been seen in this country? Would it have been insulting to do so, and is it still too much to question the politics of 'respect' and 'insult' in our way of thinking? We have seen the convergent gaze of society. Are we not yet ready to accept the divergent gaze? Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin works across disciplines from photography, collage and installation to film and animation. She often collaborates with people from communities of different gender and sexual identities and has established a safe space gallery for artists who work with queer issues. b.1990, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Dinar Sultana Putul A space without a ship , 2023 Mixed media Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Putul adopts an almost archival, quasi-scientific method of categorizing and documenting various hues, forms, textures, surfaces, as well as materials such as clay, coal, graphite, pulp made from newspapers (to demolish written language and establish visual language), and a slew of other discarded ephemera found in nature - all in pursuit of understanding its materiality. Putul’s respect for traditional ways of life is borne out in the hand-made objects she creates, and many of these elements are like fossils to her. At the same time, she is influenced by historical figures such as the engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller and utopian visions of a self-sustaining, egalitarian society. These new works draw on ideas expressed in Fuller’s book Grunch of Giants and the formal characteristics of cartographer and architect Bernard J. S. Cahill’s Butterfly map, which she then merges with her own artistic language and world view. Her interest in cosmology and imaginative cartography is inherently connected with pressing concerns around income and resource inequality. A space without a ship alludes to Fuller’s concept of ‘Spaceship Earth’, a phrase Fuller used to describe the entire planet. In this case however, the title implies that our trajectory is adrift, as we forge ahead without adequate care for the planet itself or humanity. Her work advocates, as Fuller did, for a collective rebalancing, or global cooperation around human intelligence and the earth’s resources, in a way that allows for an ‘integrated regenerative system’. b. 1988, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Ashfika Rahman Death of A Home , 2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The eviction of ethnic minorities in Bangladesh is highlighted as a major concern in Ashfika Rahman’s Death of a Home , as the authorities find different excuses to uproot communities from the lands they have been living in for centuries. Created in dialogue with Santals (l ower caste Hindu communities), this installation brings to mind the interior of a lost home. A boot and ethnic poetry carved on the traditional Sil Batta (an age-old home appliance collected from a Santal village) lies on the ground, while protest songs from the community play on an archival radio that once aired protest songs for the Bengali nation during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The rhythm of the space questions the freedom of such ethnic groups within Bangladesh after half a century of liberation. Rahman’s practice explores and experiments with photography, using media ranging from historical techniques from 19th century printmaking to documentary approaches and contemporary media. Photography is the predominant medium that she uses to express her views on complex systemic social issues such as violence, rape, and religious extremism – often overlooked by the administrative machinery of the state. In her practice, she creates a conceptual timeline of the stereotypes of victims, repeated across history, notably with regard to minority communities in Bangladesh. b. 1988, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Faysal Zaman (অ )পূর্ণ , (un)filled , 2021-2023 and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 (অ )পূর্ণ, (un)filled , brings together a distinctive materialistic procession that evokes the sense of limitlessness, conveyed through cyberspace-sourced archives, of the sufferers of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. In parallel, extracts of re-collected interviews with their loved ones outline their endless condition of agony and uncertainty. At times, the trajectory disturbingly blinks yet invites the onlookers to consider the tale of 'Enforced Disappearances' in Bangladesh from spiritual, material and emotive perspectives. Zaman’s artistic practice investigates the psychical compass of socio-political currency, which is often rooted in implied experiences. At the same time, his practice confronts and criticizes the socio-political structures rather than simply demonstrating or elucidating them. Thus, his artistic landscape synthesizes a sense of abstractness and translucent reality conveyed by a transdisciplinary manner that encircles research-led archival components, moving snippets, digital and found imagery along with individual photographs that are often scorched, burned, scratched, and re-photographed. b. 1996 Madaripur; lives and works in The Netherlands