ALL PROJECTS BRODNO BIENNALE CURATED BY PAWEL ALTHAMER AND GOSHKA MACUGA 23 JUNE - 1 JULY 2018 | BRODNO SCULPTURE PARK, WARSAW The Samdani Art Foundation was pleased to support the 'Bangladesh Pavilion', which will form part of the 2018 edition of Bródno Sculpture Park's Contemporary Art Biennale , prepared by polish artists, Paweł Althamer and Goshka Macuga. The pavilion was a performative situation, activated by Paweł Althamer, consisting of a row of jamdani saris hanging loosely from the trees which the audience interacted with.

ALL PROJECTS Bearing Point 4 - There Once Was A Village Here Curated by Diana Campbell Bearing Point 4 - There Once Was A Village Here There Once was a Village Here was a Bearing Point that considered what anthropologist Jason Cons describes as “sensitive spaces” – spaces that challenge ideas of nation, state, and territory where cultures exist that do not fit the image that the state has for itself. These spaces, which like many villages, are often razed with its people forced to succumb to the state, subue to its needs, or submit to the domination of majority forces. However, the social fabric of a village often remains intact through oral tradition. South Asian artists have been advocating for these “sensitive spaces” for decades, however this Bearing Point differs in the sense that rather than advancing the visibility of internationally acclaimed and highly networked artists, it provides a space for artists from these communities to join these networks and speak for themselves.When the British carved out Pakistan from an independent India in 1947, creating East and West wings, they created a country only united by its common majority religion, Islam, ignoring the plurality found in Islam’s cultures of worship, as well as the vast cultural contributions that Buddhism and Hinduism lent to Bengal, especially from the perspective of village rituals that inspire much of Bangladeshi modern art. The name Bangla Desh means the land where people speak Bangla (Bengali) and Bangladesh was born in 1971 on the back of the Language Movement in the 1950s where people fought for the right to speak, live, and work in their own language. Linguistic lines offer far more room for cultural diversity than religious ones, however there are 42 other languages spoken within this territory. Bangladesh has recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of its peace accord with the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the cultural ministry remains committed to supporting the visibility of the rich cultures present there. While we enter vastly different landscapes while navigating this exhibition from Thailand in the east to Afghanistan in the west, the plight of the minority cultures tied to these lands shares uncanny similarity as development needs of the state, capitalist greed, and religious fundamentalism seek to mine resources from below the ground these people stand on and erase the religious beliefs which they stand for, often tied to cultures of fear and oppression. These artists bear witness to religious and ecological violence unfolding in their locales, and their work often acts as a register for this trauma. Despite carrying the weight of enormous pain, the deeply poetic practices of these artists are able to create spaces of empathy through which new modes of solidarity might be imagined. Artists Amin Taasha (b. 1995, in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, lives and works in Jogjakarta) secret, 2017 Be quiet, 2017 the battle, 2017 no one talks about, 2017 freedom, 2017 Forgiving, 2017 The beginning, 2017 Watercolour, acrylic, silver and gold leaf on paper Commissioned by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2018 Courtesy of the artist. Photographer: Noor Photoface Indonesia based artist of Hazara origin Amin Taasha was forced to flee Afghanistan at the age of 18 after being accused of blasphemy resulting from his art practice. He addresses contemporary violence in a region where free passage was once possible via the silk road which stretched from China into his native Bamiyan. Bamiyan was once a bustling centre for Buddhist philosophy, religion and art, as evidenced by the monumental 4th and 5th Century AD Bamiyan Buddha sculptures that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 as part of their attempt to remove this history from communal memory. Taasha uses ink techniques that span many Asian influences, from Iran to China, and tries to create landscapes to chronicle memories that risk being forgotten due to growing beliefs in iconoclasm. Taasha uses the scroll format, drawn from Chinese literati painting, in an attempt to imagine a space of co-existence for the many strands of history that create the conflicted identities of his former home. Ayesha Jatoi (b. 1979 in Islamabad, lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan) Residue, 2016/2018 Installation of garments with performance courtesy of the artist and Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid Presented here with additional support from Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid. Photographer: Pablo Batholomew and Noor Photoface A large mound of white garments of all shapes and sizes and for all ages and genders lies conspicuously in the exhibition space. Looking closely, the pile begins to slowly disappear as the artist Ayesha Jatoi takes each piece of clothing and folds and stacks it across the room. White is the color of mourning worn to funerals in many cultures of South Asia, and Jatoi’s performance Residue, 2016/2018 is a metaphorically burdened act in uncertain times of putting away the remnants of love, of longing; trying to make sense of the senseless: of what, or who, has been lost. Gauri Gill (b. 1970 in Chandigarh, lives and works in New Delhi) Rajesh Vangad (b. 1975 in Ganjad, Maharasthra; lives and works in Ganjad) Birth to Death, 2016 Sacred Gods, Revered Things, 2016 Archival ink on pigment print Courtesy of Samdani Art Foundation. Photographer: Noor Photoface Fields of Sight (2013-ongoing) is a moving collaborative project between Rajesh Vangad, a traditionally-trained artist from the Warli community of Maharashtra, and Delhi-based photographer Gauri Gill. The project investigates the idea of the site as formed by variant cultural practices, and how marginalized groups might occupy stolen landscapes. In both Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Warli community has been the target of dispossession to make way for industrial and energy projects. Gill and Vangad bring to question the politics of landscape as the site through which trauma is registered, drawing attention to the mass displacement of indigenous communities in an effort by governments, working with private corporations, to seize natural resources in the lands of these communities. Multiple points of focus are produced within Gill’s portraits of Vangad, and through Vangad's interventions on Gill's portraits, rejecting any unidirectional act of viewing. Layers of violent imperial history in both colonial and post-colonial periods share a continuum in their treatment of indigenous communities in the process of resource control. Hitman Gurung (b.1986 in Lamjung, lives and works in Kathmandu) This is My Home, My Land and My Country...(I), 2015 Drawing on Digital Print on Archival Fine Art Paper Courtesy of the artist. Photographer: Noor Photoface The act of portraiture becomes one of resistance when state and other actors work to deliberately deny or suppress certain communities or identities. Hitman Gurung’s work This is My Home, My Land, and My Country (2015) addresses the conflicted history between the Tharu indigenous community of the Terai region of southern Nepal and the national government. Like many indigenous people around the world, the Tharu consider that they have been denied equal rights and representation, resulting in widespread protests and demands for independence. Gurung presents a series of portraits of members of the community, holding identity cards, where their faces have been bandaged, visualizing the paradox of being identified by the state, while not being recognized by it. Htein Lin (b. 1966 in Ingapu, lives and works in Yangon) Mangrave, 2017 Iron, Charcoal, Monitor, Video Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2018 Courtesy of the Artist and Samdani Art Foundation. Photographer: Noor Photoface Mangrove forests on the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh serve as natural bio-guards to the surrounding villages, buffering them against the rising dangers of cyclones and tsunamis in the age of climate change. Mangroves suffer among the highest rate of deforestation in South and Southeast Asia, in part tied to the monoculture of plantations and infrastructure projects such as power plants, but also due to local fuel demands of villages given rising population density. Mangroves are one of the easiest sources of charcoal. In his menacing sculpture crafted from iron and charcoal, Mangrave (2017), Burmese artist Htein Lin warns of impending destruction resulting from making short-term decisions based on convenience and comfort at the grave expense of the environment. Jakkai Siributr (b. 1969 in Bangkok, lives and works in Bangkok) The Outlaw's Flag, 2017 Installation with embroidered found objects and video Courtesy of the artist and H Gallery Bangladesh welcomed over half-a-million Rohingya refugees into its borders in late 2017 who were fleeing years of oppression in Myanmar as Muslim minorities in a place where Buddhist fundamentalism is increasingly accepted. Buddhist fundamentalism is also on the rise in the sangha in Thailand, where the Rohingya refugees migrating eastwards found themselves during the previous crisis of 2015. Jakkai Siributr provides a critical perspective on rising communal tensions and Buddhist-Muslim relations in the region, which have become intensified by the mass movements of populations. Siributr’s The Outlaw’s Flag (2017) consists of subverted flags of imaginary nations, created by a process of embroidering detritus from the beaches of Sittwe in Myanmar and Ranong in Thailand – respectively departure and arrival points of fleeing Rohingya refugees – these flags are hoisted around a video of these seemingly idyllic landscapes. Joydeb Roaja (b. 1973 in Khagrachori, lives and works in Chittagong) Generation-wish-yielding Trees and Atomic Tree, 2017 Pen and ink on paper Courtesy of the artist and Samdani Art Foundation. Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew and Noor Photoface The militarization of the Chittagong Hill Tracts inspires the work of Chittagong based artist Joydeb Roaja who comes from the indigenous Tripura community. His performance practice inspires the seven intricate black and white drawings from the Generation-wish-yielding Trees and Atomic Tree series (2017), which are in turn activated by a performance on the opening day of DAS 2018. The thought, education, art, literature, and sports of the new generation reflect the fact that weapons were introduced to their visual landscape at a very young age. Roaja’s surreal drawings that fuse his indigenous community and its traditions with imported army equipment register the traces of this violence in his mental landscape of the hill tracts, and seek to invent ways of imagining another form of existence. Kanak Chanpa Chakma (b. 1963 in the Rangamati Hill Tracts; lives and works in Dhaka) Soul Piercing, 2014 acrylic and collaged photography on canvas courtesy of the artist Orange painting: The Fall, 2017 Red: And The Prayer, 2017 Blue: The History That Will Remain, 2017 Green painting: Snatched, 2017 Orange: The Burn, 2017 Red: But Life Will Continue, 2017 Acrylic and collaged photography on canvas Commissioned by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2018 Courtesy of the artist Photographer: Noor Photoface Bangladesh has layers of Buddhist history and in 2015 airport signage in the Dhaka international airport welcomed visitors to the catch phrase “home of Buddhist culture,” surprising for a country with a 90% Muslim population. While violence against Muslims and Hindus in Buddhist countries such as Sri Lanka and Myanmar is well documented in the international press, there is far less awareness of persecution of Buddhists (and other minorities) in the country. In 2012 in Southern Bangladesh, someone set up a fake Facebook account under a Buddhist name, and posted an image of a burning koran, inciting mob violence where over 25,000 people mobilised against Buddhist communities, destroying 12 Buddhist temples and over 50 houses in the process, now known as the Ramu Incident. Kanak Chanpa Chakma created a series in 2014 that collaged photographic documentation of the incident and newspaper clippings against imagery of the peaceful Buddhist architecture that growing hate and division in society tried to destroy. We invited Kanak to continue this series for DAS 2018, not anticipating that a similar incident would occur later on June 2, 2017 in the village of Longadu, Rangamati, which left the community devastated with over 300 houses torched. Kanak comes from the Buddhist community that was targeted in both of these incidents, and she shares that “my paintings bring to focus the ongoing cycle of intolerance and aggression against Bangladeshis of different faiths or ethnicity. This is, in my rawest form, an urge for peace.” Khadim Ali (b. 1978 in Quetta, lives and works between Sydney and Kabul) The Arrivals 2, 2017 Inkjet, gouache, and gold leaf on hahnemuhle paper courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery The Arrivals 4, 2017 Inkjet, goache, and gold leaf on hahnemuhle paper courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery Photographer: Noor Photoface Born of Afghan Hazara parentage now living in Australia, Khadim Ali grew up on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan and works in the miniature tradition, chronicling the plight of his culture and community who have been oppressed for centuries, even more so recently under the Taliban as a minority and Shia Muslim community. Biographically tied to his family’s experiences as refugees, as well as those of other communities around them, The Arrivals series places Rustom, the hero of the 10th Century epic poem Shahnamah (The Book of Kings) that charts the mythical history of Persia, in the plight of the refugee, placing him in a landscape of limbo adorned with motifs from Australian passport pages. Reflecting on this series, the artist states: War produces innumerable wounds, leaving scars of destruction that are carried through generations. It destroys and deconstructs societies and disrupts the sphere of time. In its displacement by war, the human body becomes the site of trauma and loss. It is exposed to harsh environments and a torrid political atmosphere. This displaced body has a name: refugee. The effects of the refugee’s fragmented journey of displacement differ from person to person. But in almost every case, the inner spirit is numbed, forcing memories to be forgotten. The smell of home, the scent of love, the delicacy of identity and the fluency of language are all erased by the trauma of loss. In our time, political circumstances and misrepresentation has painted these displaced souls as being beyond humanity. Even though they are merely attempting to escape the catastrophe of war, they are portrayed as demons (that is beings other than human) who threaten the social order. In doing this, our society represents the forlorn hope of human beings who have endured the very limits of survival, ignoring that they seek little more than peace. Yet what is at stake in how we treat them is not just their humanity, it is ours. Munem Wasif (b.1983 in Dhaka, lives and works in Dhaka) Seeds Shall Set Us Free, 2016-2018 (ongoing) Cyanotype prints on acid free paper Courtesy of the artist and Project88. Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew and Noor Photoface Munem Wasif seeks to reimagine an indigenous “ecosophical” mode of agriculture, where grain is a companion species to humanity, having names, deities and spirits, around which the village organizes itself. He investigates the cultural history of grain, connected to memories of the 1944 Bengal famine. Seeds Shall Set Us Free (2017) is a series of cyanotype prints of rice seeds, referencing at once both scientific representation and the traditional practice of alpona, the Bengali tradition of creating ritual floor paintings using rice paste. The artist excavates layers of ecological colonialism from the destruction of agricultural ecologies with the introduction of plantation farming and cash crops. Indigo was one such cash crop, alluded to in Wasif’s use of bright blue hues in his cyanotypes. Agriculture moved away from the subsistence needs of the local communities as it was harnessed towards sustaining flows of capital with the introduction not only of crop monocultures, but also of genetically modified seeds, producing cycles of debt that lead to dispossession and displacement. Nilima Sheikh (b. 1954 in New Delhi, lives and works in Baroda) Construction Site, 2009-2010 Casein tempera on canvas Courtesy of Chemould Prescott Road Presented here with additional support from Chemould Prescott Road, Bombay. Photographer: Pablo Batholomew Nilima Sheikh creates an almost magical universe where rivers are woven and leaves clothe the towering figure of Lal Ded, the 14th Century Kashmiri saint and mystical poet whose vakh (spoken poems) occupy a significant space in the construction of a Kashmiri identity across religious lines. Construction Site (2009-2010) examines the layers of cultural history that produce an idea of the landscape of Kashmir. On the front face of the painting, we see a broken city, alluding to the Indian army’s occupation of Srinagar, being reconstructed by its citizens – using imagery drawn from Indian and Persian miniatures that she renders in the muted colours of Kashmiri textiles. She weaves these references together with texts from historical sources such as Kashmir chronicler Kalhana’s 12th Century Rajatarangini and excerpts from Lal Ded’s poetry, found on the back of the painting. Sheikh’s expansive use of washes pays tribute to the adoption of the technique by Abanindranath Tagore (whose work can be seen within Raqib Shaw’s adjacent presentation), whose pan-Asian vision imagined a modernity oriented eastwards. Using the form of the scroll, an oblique reference to Chinese scroll paintings and the patachitra painting of Bengal, Sheikh argues for the performativity of the narration of history. Pablo Bartholomew (b. 1955 in New Delhi, lives and works in New Delhi) Untitled, 2017-2018 (ongoing) Photographs, woven textiles, video Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2018 Courtesy of the artist and Samdani Art Foundation. Photographer: Noor Photoface Through several bodies of work created with indigenous communities in Northeast India, Pablo Bartholomew has observed that these communities wear their cultural DNA through their clothing, ornamentation and markings on their bodies; codes that they keep as a form of self identity. With a father hailing from Burma and mother who is of partial Bengali origin, Bartholomew traces in his newly commissioned project (a work in progress as part of a longer ongoing cross-border inquiry) the links between geographically fractured indigenous communities/ethnic minorities in Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh. Working within the Chakma community into which he is related from his mother’s side, he extends the scope of his practice by working with weavers. The artist asked these artisans to use their traditional idioms on back-strap looms (carried on the body through periods of migration) to weave graphic DNA patterns the imagery rendered through scientific testing. Through this project Bartholomew hopes to weave together science, myth, legend and tradition, exploring a cross border ethnic identity. Prabhkakar Pachpute (b. 1986 in Chandrapur, lives and works in Mumbai) The Resistance Movement, 2017 Charcoal and acrylic on canvas Courtesy of Samdani Art Foundation Presented here with additional support from Experimenter, Kolkata. Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew Hailing from the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, a major site of coal mining in India, and belonging to a family who have worked as miners for generations, Prabhakar Pachpute imagines a landscape where the people of the land can hold onto their own resources and dignity in his surreal charcoal drawings on mill-produced cloth. The use of mill cloth ties Pachpute materially to the history of labour movements in Mumbai led by unions of textile mill workers. In The Resistance Movement, 2017, the artist creates fantastical labouring bodies, alluding to the effects that working in the toxic atmospheres of mines has on these workers, who must invent new modes of living with and inhabiting landscapes. Raqib Shaw (b. 1974 in Calcutta, lives and works in London) Generously supported by White Cube and the Arts Council England. Courtesy of Raqib Shaw, White Cube, Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, the University of Manchester and the Bangladesh National Museum. Co-curated by Diana Campbell, Chief Curator of Dhaka Art Summit and Artistic Director of Samdani Art Foundation, Dr Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate, and the artist. This exhibition is part of the New North and South, a network of eleven arts organisations from across South Asia and the North of England in a three-year programme of co-commissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchanges. The network consists of Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), Colombo Art Biennale, (Sri Lanka), Karachi Biennale and Lahore Biennales (Pakistan), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (India), Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth, Manchester Museum, Liverpool Biennial, The Tetley, Leeds (UK) and the British Council. Photographer: Noor Photoface Raqib Shaw’s paintings present a landscape of the imagination, bringing together a remembered Kashmir, his extraordinary studio in Peckham, London, and a passionate engagement with the history of Eastern and Western art. Born in Calcutta to Muslim parents, raised in Kashmir (a historically Buddhist territory), and educated by Hindu teachers at a Christian school, celebration of plurality and difference is core to the artist’s work and to the Kashmiri culture that fundamentalism strives to quash. Shaw’s meticulous attention to detail creates a surface of theatrical extravagance that draws on Renaissance architecture, Japanese prints and Hindu iconography. This complex imaginary space is populated by extreme re-workings of myths, gods, animals and humans as fantasies of excess through which the artist reflects back his own status as post-colonial subject and plays back ‘the oriental’ to both West and East for very different political, sexual and emotional purposes. This is the artist’s first major presentation in South Asia, and the newly commissioned wallpaper speaks to Shaw’s love of fairy tales and his use of motifs of tumbling coins and mythic creatures create an intense domestic disruption in the public spaces of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, where close inspection reveals the lush beauty of the decorative as turbulent and disturbing. Together with his paintings the wallpaper forms the backdrop to the display of historic collections, drawn together by the artist from his own collection, the Whitworth, Bangladesh National Museum, The Collection of Aysha and Shahab Sattar and the Samdani Art Foundation collection. Totemic objects such as the 19th century Kashmir shawl, Japanese woodblock prints, a rose water sprinkler and cloisonné charger map his cultural references and shape a new context in which we can read his work. Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran (b. 1988 in Colombo, lives and works in Sydney) Idols, 2016-2018 Earthenware, Glaze, Bronze, Cotton, Resin, Shells, Rubber Snakes, Human Hair and Concrete Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation and Artspace, Sydney for DAS 2018 with support from the Australia Council for the Arts Courtesy of the artist, Samdani Art Foundation, Artspace Sydney, and Sullivan + Strumpf Co-curated by Diana Campbell, Alexie Glass-Kantor, and Michelle Newton Photographer: Noor Photoface Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran fled Sri Lanka at the age of one with his Tamil Hindu father and Christian Burgher mother, escaping religious and ethnic persecution during the civil war. While he himself is not religious, the artist felt naturally drawn to the temple where he learned about a polytheistic view of the world, with multi-gendered gods who could change forms. Nithiyendran noticed that there were not very many public monuments in existence that celebrated non-White or non-Colonial figures, and by considering temple iconography and Brutalist architecture, which captivated his imagination in terms of scale and authority, the artist tried to envision a different kind of way of memorializing people who slip through the cracks of what is considered acceptable. While homosexuality remains illegal in most of South Asia due to draconian British laws, the recognition of multiple genders has gained legal standing due to complex indigenous understandings of gender. Nithiyendran’s work references totems and indigenous clay toys, found in villages around South Asia, attempting to create a mythology of a post-gender world, over which his towering figures preside. In this newly commissioned body of work, Nithiyendran creates 21st Century deities in drag, whose dripping multi-coloured glazes pay homage to the famously colourful festivals of South Asia such as Holi and Pohela Boishakh. Soe Yu Nwe (b. 1989 in Yangon, lives and works in Yangon) On Ghost, 2016 Sagger fired ceramics with sand, salt, underglaze and oxides, cone 10 Courtesy of the artist and Myanm/ Art Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew and Noor Photoface Burmese sculptor Soe Yu Nwe chronicles her own need for protective space in the increasingly repressive environment of Myanmar that embraces Buddhist fundamentalism in her haunting ceramic installation On Ghost, 2016. Referencing the animist traces of Burmese culture found in spirit houses built around sacred trees, the artwork, weighed down by tangles of chains, evokes the violent tension that greed creates between nature, body, and spirit in a sinuous and violent form evoking an ashen sense of loss. Shahid Sajjad (b. 1936 in Muzaffarnagar, British India, d. 2014, Karachi) Hostage II, 1992-1993 Smoked Persian Lilac Courtesy of the Estate of Shahid Sajjad Hostage IV, 1992-1993 Smoked Mulberry Courtesy of Shezi Nackvi Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew The immaculate wood carving technique found in Shahid Sajjad’s Hostage II and Hostage IV (1992-1993) express the fear and state of limbo that indigenous communities have historically endured in the Rangamati Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The artist lived with indigenous communities in Indonesia to learn carving techniques and later had a profound encounter with Paul Gaugin’s Tahitian body of work while traveling in Paris, experiences which sparked his interest in indigenous modes of representation in South Asia in the 1960s. The artist lived in Rangamati from 1965-67, spending two years working with its native wood species and learning wood smoking techniques from the communities there. Inspired by animist and sufi traditions in the region, Sajjad tried to release the spirit of the wood and draw out its hidden mystic qualities. The Hostage series, made nearly three decades after his life in Rangamati, transforms foreign Persian Lilac and Mulberry wood to further draw out the pain inflicted on indigenous ways of life and nodes of knowledge. This series was exhibited soon after it was made in Bangladesh at the the Third Asian Art Biennale in 1993. Sonia Jabbar (born 1964, in Calcutta; lives and works in Darjeeling) Granted Under Fear, 2009 2 channel video with sound Courtesy of the artist One of the cruelest ways of keeping society “under control” is through the practice of enforced disappearances, where a family lives in suspense not knowing whether their loved one is alive or dead, and forced into submission in hopes of bringing them back. According to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, around 8,000 to 10,000 cases of enforced disappearances have been reported in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. Artist and activist Sonia Jabbar’s haunting two-channel video Granted Under Fear (2009) places side by side the haunting sound of military bagpipes, an echo from colonial era marching bands, with the frightening image of stomping army boots in a military parade alongside documentation of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers holding pictures of their missing relatives. Veer Munshi (b. 1955 in Srinagar, lives and works in New Delhi) Leaves like Hands of Flame, 2010 Two channel video with sound Courtesy of the artist and Latitude 28 Veer Munshi’s two-channel video, Leaves Like Hands of Flame (2010) juxtaposes images of the burnt-out houses of Kashmiri pundits in Srinagar, with a video of the artist walking laboriously through the snow. Munshi’s departure from the Kashmir Valley to work in New Delhi coincided with the forced mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus due to rising communal tensions in the 1990s. The Kashmir valley is one of the most militarized zones in the world today and the Indian government has often been accused of using the trauma of exiled Kashmiri pundits to justify cruel measures of repression against those agitating for an independent Kashmir. Finally able to return home in 2008, Munshi attempts to reclaim this trauma, creating a slow, contemplative space to imagine modes of living with difficult histories as he walks through the desolate snowy landscape to the home he once inhabited, now in ruins.

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 Srijan-Abartan A Workshop for Exhibition Making and Unmaking led by common interest with support from Pro Helvetia-Swiss Arts Council How is the practice of exhibiting—be that of art, design, history, or science—fundamentally implicated in the imminent threats of climate change? And, conversely, how can exhibition-making help us attain political momentum and agency around ecology? How can it support communities fighting on the frontline of climate change who are leading the way in safeguarding our collective future? These are the fundamental questions that prompted the start of a workshop for exhibition-making and unmaking at the heart of DAS. Srijan-Abartan was a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research project aimed at developing new tools and methodologies for creating culturally rooted, ecologically sustainable, and socially responsible exhibition displays. Its international team consisted of artists, designers, researchers, architects, engineers, exhibition-makers, curators, and producers from Bangladesh, Switzerland and beyond. They worked alongside to discuss, problematise, envision, conceive, conceptualise exhibition displays, and support structures that take sustainability as their core concern. The generated design strategies and solutions developed collaboratively made up the exhibition design for the DAS 2020. Nodding to the summit’s impetus of igniting a movement beyond the confines of an art exhibition, Srijan-Abartan’s process, methodology, and learning outcomes has been compiled and shared in the form of open-access research. The goal was to provide thinking tools to help others and also to start reimagining exhibition-making as a practice of resistance that strives for more just and sustainable forms of living. Background Often referred to as the ‘ground zero’ for climate change, Bangladesh has long been trailblazing innovative strategies to adapt to threats such as rising sea levels, water-logged land, and increased salinity. Ecology and sustainability are core concerns for DAS which happens biannually at the Shilpakala Academy. Dr. Huraera Jabeen, a core member of Srijan-Abartan, assessed the environmental impact of DAS 2018 utilising the Equity Share Approach. The aim is to create a baseline to determine the upcoming DAS 2020. The operational process will follow PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act). Based on the information received on materials, venue design, communication materials produced, estimated waste generated, and energy usage, the estimated total emission for DAS 2018 comes to 18043 tons of CO2 emission. Which is equivalent to: An average car could be driven for 80.02 years Non-stop A 747 could fly for 23.73 days non-stop Taking 3,538 cars off the road for a year Producing 1,357 tons of Beef A 42-inch LCD TV could be used for 12,334 years continuously The assessment points to multiple strategies that can be used to reduce the negative ecological effects of DAS 2020, for example: venue design accounts for about 77% of the emission. The use of particleboards with timber frames forms 58% of the 77%. Although they are assumed to be reused by vendors, management of them as waste accounts for almost 14% of the emission. Additional new surfaces also require additional paint. Therefore, CO2 emissions can be significantly reduced intelligently through venue design. One possible way could be to use the existing spaces and infrastructure of the building rather than creating new temporary structures that cannot be reused or recycled multiple times. Plastic films used for printing communication account for 15% of the total emissions, and they have no options for recycling or reusing and end up fully as waste. Paper-based publications for communication form 0.03% emission production and 0.09% for managing waste. Consideration can be given to how to reduce waste, especially for communication. Waste management accounts for around 20% of the emissions. Food and water waste accounts for 6% of emissions. Vendors running food stalls can be given recommendations to reduce waste as much as possible. About 0.02% of emissions result from electricity usage for lights and air conditioning. Considerations can be given to make spaces less environmentally controlled if not needed. Process Srijan-Abartan officially started in February 2019, when the Bangladeshi and international participants met in Dhaka for the first time. They visited museums, galleries, cultural sites, monuments, artist studios, factories, workshops, and more. In the process, they spent time together and slowly started to get acquainted with each other. At the end of the eight-day visit, the team agreed on a working structure: the project’s core members would assemble again in Switzerland to conduct an intense schematic design workshop. At that point, the team started collectively brainstorming the project’s name, and unanimously agreed it should be formulated in Bangla. ‘Srijan-Abartan’ in English means creation and revolution/ rotation, speaking to the idea of creating something new using existing structures with negligible changes. In other words, why not see the Bangladesh Shilpakala Building for its potential rather than its shortcomings, and enhance the existing building with local materials and know how, reducing waste and bettering the building for future exhibitions? The resulting plan would be subsequently developed by the Bangladeshi team, with the international participants regularly following up on the process to provide alternative perspectives, thoughts, and ideas on the design. Methodology The schematic codesign workshop took place in Basel in April 2019. The local participants hosted the Bangladeshi participants, which helped strengthen the bonds between the group. Each workshop day started with a collective breakfast, also meant to foster an informal space of togetherness. Through different group dynamics, participants shared references, thoughts, and perspectives around display practices and discussed strategies to challenge the so-called ‘white cube’. Inteza Shariar shared samples of local recyclable, biodegradable, and alternative materials that could be used to build up temporary exhibition displays, for example bamboo, mud, coconut straws, canes, hogla leaves, recycled board, and corrugated boards, jute, coconut ropes, fishing net ropes, cotton ropes, and etc. Considering the widespread vernacular usage of such materials, Shariar stressed the importance of ‘tweaking’ those elements so that they do not appear ordinary or banal to local audiences. The team worked with a 1:50 scale model of the Shilpakala Academy, which could be stacked and unstacked to reveal the different floors and levels of the building. The model helped the participants to analyse the spatial opportunities of the Shilpakala Academy and provided a common ground for discussions. Participants were able to intuitively place the artworks that had been confirmed up to that point, which were also rendered as scale models. The set-up ultimately allowed for team members to play different roles, for example, for the curator to act as an architect or exhibition designer and vice versa. The process eventually led to the sketching of different schematic solutions, which were discussed and consolidated into one plan. The schematic design is currently being developed, refined, and tested. It is supplemented by the set of guidelines overleaf, which were also generated by the group. Guidelines Approach environmental impact holistically Take into account other types of sustainability alongside environmental (i.e. social, cultural, economic, etc.) Design for the experiences of the local audiences instead of those of international audiences (i.e. privilege the use of local language, local script, and local artists/practices/works) In case the minimized displays generate any savings, these should be re-allocated into wages (first local wages and secondly into international wages) Work with the building instead of against it Minimise material resources by building as little as possible (new walls or structures should be essential and sized to support a given set of artworks and not more than that) Place artworks site-specifically where the building already provides the best support (i.e. artworks that require darkness should be allocated to windowless rooms, artworks that require climate control should be placed in rooms with pre-existing air-conditioning, artworks that require security should be allocated to enclosed galleries, etc.) Harness natural light whenever possible (new lights should be added only when necessary, opt for LED tubes as night lights, and a few intentional dramatic/spotlights). Make use of natural ventilation and avoid the use of air-conditioning whenever possible (i.e. AC rooms should be used only for artworks that require climate control or museum conditions) Minimise, recycle, and reuse Opt for reusable or recyclable materials whenever possible Opt for sea freight over air freight whenever possible Opt for local labor, local materials, and local modes of production/fabrication whenever possible Minimise size, page count, and print runs for publications, whenever possible Opt for sustainable curatorial strategies. When selecting and sorting works and planning their transportation, fabrication and building logistics. For example, by opting to produce new commissioned works on site using local materials and local labor For example, by planning ahead so that there is less energy consumption and human stress. Address the actual impact rather than the aesthetics of ecology. Avoid ‘greenwashing’ or ‘symbolic environmental’ moves such as mock/fake usage of natural materials or using natural materials in an unsustainable way Improve the building as a lasting collective resource Clean, fix, restore, renovate, and upgrade existing structures whenever possible; their reuse is also a contribution for future sustainability Strip back unnecessary and redundant past constructions whenever that improves the building's usability for the future (i.e. in terms of circulation, spatial experience or aesthetics) Srijan-Abartan is funded by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, and led by the Swiss design research practice common-interest in collaboration with the Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. The project’s core team is comprised of Diana Campbell Betancourt (chief curator, Dhaka Art Summit), Dries Rodet (architect, Truwant + Rodet), Huraera Jabeen (architect, Brac University), Inteza Shariar (artist/architect, Bangladesh), Khan Md. Mobinul (engineer, Dhaka Art Summit), Mohammad Asifur Rahman (architect, Dhaka Art Summit), Mohammad Sazzad Hossain (head of administration, Dhaka Art Summit), Nina Paim (design researcher, common-interest), and Prem Krishnamurthy (exhibition maker, Wkshps). The team was further supported by the expertise of Ashfika Rahman (freelance artist, Bangladesh) and Shawon Akand (freelance artist and researcher, Bangladesh).

ALL PROJECTS My Rhino is not a Myth, Art Encounters Biennial 19 May- 16 July 2023, Timișoara, Romania- Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury We are delighted to partner with the Art Encounters Biennial to support DAS 2018 Samdani Art Award winner Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury (Sakib) to further develop his practice as he prepares to create a new installation for Srihatta , our permanent space. The curator of the biennial, Adrian Notz shares: "I got to know Sakib in late 2021 in Zurich during his residency there, where I saw his installation “Fear of Social Bin” in real life. Immediately, I was triggered to write a small text about it. So much even, that I thought I need to be a bit poetic about it. On a skiing lift, where we went sledging in the mountains Sakib told me about how he mixes different realities and spiritualities in the research for his work. I like to call his works community based performative installations. For the 5th Art Encounters Biennial Sakib expanded the collaborative and performative community to the whole European cultural capital Timisoara. Using the eternally stretched time in his installations Sakib got to know Timisoara and its hidden stories and treasures in no time. Like a detective and forager, a hunter and gatherer he brought back small precious ingredients from different personal archives and stories around the town that composed his “Weltraum” (German for outer space, literally meaning “world room”) under the title “Waiting for the Becoming Song”. Ganda, the rhino we referred to in the title “My Rhino is not a Myth”, may have the same Bengali homelands like Sakib, but it is the subtitle “art science fictions” that describes best, what he was doing. He created a real world artistic and scientific fiction of our present and future world and reality. It was a great honour and pleurae to be working with Sakib thanks to the support of the Samdani Foundation."

ALL PROJECTS Geographies of Imagination Envisioned by SAVVY Contemporary with Antonia Alampi, Bonaventure S.B. Ndikung, and Olani Ewunnet with Jothashilpa in association with the Goethe Institut, Bangladesh and Samdani Art Foundation Geographies of Imagination is a growing research and exhibition project that manifests itself as a cartographic time-line, a performative process of un-mapping the geography of power and a space of discourse. The project is an attempt to rethink, reconfigure and pervert history-at-large and cartographic histories in particular. Each iteration of Geographies of Imagination assumes a different point of departure, situates itself within another real or fictional geography, and thus brings about differing bresearch processes and outcomes. For this rendition in Bangladesh, Geographies of Imagination had two vantage points. For its first point, it takes the partition of 85 million people throughout Bengal in 1905 implemented by the British Raj in an effort to ‘reorganise’ but ultimately to divide and rule, by cutting through the middle of the Bengali-speaking ‘nation’. Its second point is the Congo Conference hosted in Berlin in 1884, a moment in which fourteen Western ‘great powers’ partitioned the African continent amongst themselves for their geopolitical, exploitative economic and colonial agendas and fantasies, thereby re-imagining the cartography of the African continent irrespective of the peoples, cultures, and languages of Africans. This incomplete timeline winding across the South Plaza of DAS features significant socio-political and cultural movements that pre-defined identities and nationhood, as well as rebellions and revolts against colonial rule, such as those that forged forms of resistance that planted seeds for future emancipation across different geographies. This includes how the socio-political movements on the African continent informed resistance movements in Asia and vice-versa. One such example is the Indigo revolt (ca. 1859–1862), through which Bengali farmers organised against plantation owners who severely undercut the price of indigo, thereby forcing farmers to sell their products at a price far below their own cost of production. We trace lines that move across centuries and oceans, looking for instance at the Anlu revolt (1958–1961), brought forth by Kom women in western Cameroon against the British administrative interference in agriculture (which was a female domain) and the alleged plan by the ruling political party to sell Kom land to Nigerian Igbos. The rebellion, which was crucial for the victory of the democratic party at the time of independence from colonial rule, had at its core women stripping naked in front of men as a weapon of rebellion – a practice implemented by other groups like the Takembeng. We weave in connections between conferences and alliances that have strengthened positions of emancipation in contexts facing similar conditions of oppression. Novel forms of trans-national solidarity, from the first Pan-African conference held in London (in 1900), through the Baku Congress (1920), the Asian Relations Conference (1947), the Bandung Conference or African-Asian Conference in Indonesia (1955) and to the foundation of the Movement of the Non-Aligned that followed in Belgrade (1961–ongoing), among others. We pause on movements for independence and listen to fragments of charismatic political speeches bearing witness to new proposals and ideas with regards to justice, and sovereignty. But we also look at populistic and nationalistic speeches of more recent political leaders, at new border control monitoring systems, visa regulations, economic trades, and import and export of labour forces, that create and multiply invisible frontiers and partitions, and at how recent technological developments have facilitated novel forms of cartographic scarification and forced constructions of spaces and communities. In a time when in Cameroon the lines of citizenship are drawn upon remnants of colonial language structures between Anglophones and Francophones, in a time when the Citizen Amendment Act and national register of citizens want to make Indian Muslims foreigners in their own country, in a time when black Africans are kicked out of South Africa in several waves of xenophobic attacks, in a time when the Rohingyas are openly persecuted in Myanmar, we must reconsider the powers that make geography be. This iteration of Geographies of Imagination was developed through a wide range of interviews with academics and researchers from various disciplines, artists, curators, and researchers based predominantly in Dhaka in collaboration with the Samdani Art Foundation and Goethe Institut, Bangladesh. The timeline recurs with dates held in Bengali, Ethiopian and Gregorian calendars, to emphasise how the system of time itself is situated and subject to different representations and variations. The visualisation is the outcome of a close dialogue with the Dhaka based Jothashilpa collective, working with master cinema banner painter Ustad Mohammad Shoaib, artist and researcher Shawon Akand, and artists Sharmin Afroz Laboni and Alia Kamal. RESEARCH: Antonia Alampi, Bonaventure S.B. Ndikung, Olani Ewunnet and Shawon Akand. VISUALIZATION: Jothashilpa PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Hamayet Himu PAINTERS : Mohammad Shoaib, Didarul Dipu, S., M. Sumon, Abdur Rob, Mohammad Yusuf, Rafiqul Islam Shafikul, Md. Rahim Badir, Mohammad Iqbal, Mohammad Dulal, Aftab Alam, Mohammad Javed, Md. Selim Dhaka Art Summit 2020 "Seismic Movements" CURATOR: Diana Campbell Betancourt ASSISTANT CURATOR: Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury RESEARCH ASSISTANCE: Eshan Kumer Maitra and Taiara Farhana Tareque Thanks to the many conversations had with Dhaka-based artists, researchers, historians, professors, and designers, including Sadya Mizan, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Mahbubur Rahman, Emran Sohel, Jewel A Rob and Sanjid Mahmud, Reetu Sattar, Mustafa Zaman, Rezaur Rahman, Tanzim Wahab, Kabir Ahmed Masum, Nurur Khan, Amena Khatun, Sanjoy Chakraborty, Shayer Gofur, Nazrul Islam, Wakilur Rahman, Shishir Bhattacharjee, Huraera Jabeen, Imtiaz Ahmed, Marina Tabassum, Parsa Sanjana Sajid and Sayeed Ferdous.

ALL PROJECTS 55th CIMAM Annual Conference Museo Moderno in Buenos Aires At CIMAM’s annual conferences, professionals from various institutions around the world meet to discuss the challenges and priorities of museums, exchange information, projects, and best practices, and strengthen the international network of museums and contemporary art. Last year's theme was “The Co-Creative Museum: Social Agency, Ethics, and Heritage”. 56 modern and contemporary art curators, museum directors, and researchers were awarded support to attend the CIMAM 2023 Annual Conference. Samdani Art Foundation was one of the supporters for the Travel Grant Beneficiaries.

ALL PROJECTS Weaving Chakma Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai International Art Museum (CIAM) Pablo Bartholomew's work "Weaving Chakma" (2017-2018) commissioned for the Dhaka Art Summit 2018 was shown at the 2023 Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai 2023 at Chiang Rai International Art Museum (CIAM). The first local curatorial team of Artistic Directors Rirkrit Tiravanija and Gridthiya Gaweewong , with Curators Angkrit Ajchariyasophon and Manuporn Luengaram , explored the theme titled “The Open World” . Inspired by a Buddha statue from the 13th century at Pa Sak temple in Chiang Saen, the “Open World” concept embodies wisdom, enlightenment, and the opening up of our perceptions of art and reality, prompting contemplation on envisioning a better future. Through several bodies of work created with indigenous communities in Northeast India, Pablo Bartholomew has observed that these communities wear their cultural DNA through their clothing, ornamentation, and marking on their bodies; codes that they keep as a form of self-identity. In this work, Bartholomew traces the links between the geographically fractured indigenous community/ethnic minority Chakma in Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh.

ALL PROJECTS Charcha Sessions Thakurgaon, 1 - 7 Dec 2018 The Samdani Art Foundation was delighted to partner with Samdani Artist Led Initiatives forum member Gidree Bawlee on their inaugural Charcha Sessions festival in rural Balla, Thakurgan, Bangladesh from December 1-7, 2018 as part of our annual grant program. The four artists in residence for in this inaugural session were Kamruzzaman Shadhin, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Khandakar Nasir Ahmed and Anisuzzaman, Rubel. Learn more about this program from the text below by Salma Jamal Moushum. The ‘Charcha Sessions’ came into being to facilitate continuing collaborations between visiting artists and the artists/artisans from the village to catalyze a long-term impact on both of their practices. As an organization Gidree Bawlee's aim is to create a balance of influence in the artistic processes of the visiting artists and the community art/craft practitioners. In the future, this project will be held several times of the year to support continuous projects that will be developed by the artists, and also to encourage new experimentation in regards to community engagement. We believe these frequent sessions will help both the visiting artists and the community art practitioners to find an equal ground in their collaborative practice. The sessions will bring interested artists in short-term (or long-term) residencies, or sometimes bring together only the community practitioners working with various materials to experiment and collaborate with each other. Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Shushila Rani and Somari Rani Yasmin Jahan Nupur has been researching the traditional practices of weaving in Bangladesh for several years. In this session she continued her research and practiced with her co-artists Shushila Rani and Somari Rani. Exploring the relationship of women's body to the waist loom while weaving, the artists experimented and attempted to push the boundaries of traditional jute weaving with backstrap looms. This is an ongoing project with learning and experimentation continuing past the residency. Kamruzzaman Shadhin and Prodip Roy Kamruzzaman Shadhin's interest in the traditional crafts of the region and their underlying history and relationship with communities has been a major part of his artistic research and journey. Shadhin and Prodip Roy have been working together for the last several years experimenting with various methods and techniques of bamboo craft. In this session, the artists worked together to transfer the brush strokes from an action painting by Shadhin into a bamboo canvas using traditional bamboo bending methods that Prodip specializes in. The bamboo platform was installed as part of the ceiling of a room of the residency. This is an on-going, process-driven collaborative experiment which will continue in the years to come. Nasir Ahammed, Shariful Islam and Shubesh Barman In his previous visit, Nasir Ahammed in collaboration with bamboo craftsmen from the community, experimented with bamboo twigs creating a large installation in collaboration with the bamboo craftsmen of the village. This time Nasir and his co-artists Shariful Islam and Shubesh Barman used dry branches and twigs and straw which were abundant due to the harvest season and created a dome-like structure which was installed in various spaces around the community. The experimentation will continue as the artists plan on more future explorations with bamboo twigs. Anisuzzaman Rubel, Chandra Kumar and community children Rubel, a recent graduate from the department of sculpture at Dhaka University, collaborated with Chandra Kumar, a clay artisan specialized in idol making. Combining both of their creativity and technique they experimented with clay, straw and bamboo which to create a shade providing sculpture beside a pond. The artists have plans to expand their experiment further in the next visits.

ALL PROJECTS Hill Artist Group Dhaka Art Summit 2020 The Hill Artists’ Group is based in 3 districts along Bangladesh’s south eastern border with India and Myanmar known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Home to 11 distinct indigenous groups with different languages and cultures, the region is under the control of the Bangladeshi army. In this highly militarised environment, many indigenous people are reluctant to be visible in public space. The Hill Artists’ Group organises exhibitions and also art camps for artists and young people, underlining the need for solidarity across the 11 ethnic communities to preserve their diversity of cultures and languages within a Bengali majority country. Their project for DAS was developed through a workshop with Alejandra Ballón Gutiérrez on the methodologies of SÖI (a public mural project in Lima, Peru with the Amazonian community Shipibo-Conibo). The Hill Artists’ Group identified a key shared practice of ‘jhum’ cultivation, also known as ‘slash and burn agriculture’, where crops are planted on land first cleared of trees and vegetation that are burnt on the spot. The soil contains potassium from the burnt plant materials which increases the nutrient content of the soil. The place of cultivation shifts annually, and every year indigenous farmers raise temporary houses in the mountain forests for months known as ‘Jhum Houses.’ This mural of a Jhum House weaves together textile patterns from the 11 communities, identified by different members of the Hill Artists’ Group as a statement of togetherness.

ALL PROJECTS The River Remembers at Islamic Arts Biennale 2023 Jeddah Kamruzzaman Shadhin was commissioned to show his new project The River Remembers (2023), for the Islamic Arts Biennale 2023, curated by DAS 2023 artist Sumayya Vally. Samdani Art Foundation has supported the transportation of the project.

ALL PROJECTS La Biennale di Venezia - 56th International Art Exhibition 9th May - 22nd November 2015 Dhaka Art Summit 2014 Solo Project Bangladeshi artist Naeem Mohaiemen and Indian artist group Raqs Media Collective were selected to show their works in the centre pavilion, supported by the Samdani Art Foundation.