Publications

Photosynthesis The Ashmolean Samdani Visiting Artist Programme at the University of Oxford Like Spore, We Spread Social kitchen, Pakghor by Britto Arts Trust Kamruzzaman Shadhin at Delfina Foundation Spring Residency 2026 Novera Ahmed's Work from the Samdani Art Foundation Collection Exhibited at The Hepworth Wakefield Soma Surovi Jannat at the Ashmolean Museum University of Oxford TONDRA: Phase One A project commissioned by the Samdani Art Foundation, uniting ten Bangladeshi artists with international curators and mentors to create score-based works that explore the space between dreams and reality, unfolding across global partner institutions in 2026. Crafting Togetherness Crafting Togetherness is a collaborative programme initiated and led by Samdani Art Foundation, developed at Srihatta, Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet. The programme brings together local artisans and architecture students through workshops and knowledge exchanges focused on sustainable, vernacular building practices. তন্দ্রা /TONDRA OPEN CALL FOR LOGO DESIGN Submission closed When Winds in Monsoon Play, the White Peacock Will Sweep Away (2025) A collaborative film project developed at Srihatta, exploring Bangladesh’s six seasons through a poetic collaboration between Driant Zeneli and young Bangladeshi artists. The Six Seasons of the White Peacock Love- Power- Fall , Master Class Srihatta VIEW MORE Select Year All Projects The Samdani Art Foundation participates in a variety of projects, outside of the Foundation's regular programming, as part of a commitment to increasing world-wide engagement with the work of Bangladeshi and South Asian contemporary artists and architects. The Foundation assists in funding travel grants that enable artists to attend residencies or undertake research abroad and supports international institutions and festivals to include South Asian artists within their exhibitions and programmes. The Foundation also regularly loans works from its collection of modern and contemporary South Asian artists to international institutions and festivals.

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. PARTNERS TEAM DAS 2023 considers the ways in which we inherit and form vocabularies to understand the world around us, and the mistranslation that can ensue when we try to apply these vocabularies to unfamiliar contexts; the same word can migrate from positive to negative connotations and back depending on how and where it travels. Weather and water as shapers of history and culture as well as being metaphors for life in general are viewed in an embodied way through the lens of those who live in Bangladesh, next to the sea and rivers, underneath the storm systems, feeling the wind and rain. This is further explored through a consideration of how Bengali children encounter these phenomena, palpably but also via the stories passed down through generations. The aim is to see past the limits of translation which can be incapable of conveying the different ways we negotiate the world, and open up new channels for transcultural empathy. How do you tell the story of a crisis, while facilitating hope? The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. Exhibitions & Programmes বন্যা (Bonna) DAS 2023 Samdani Art Award Exhibition DAS 2023 Curated by Anne Barlow Very Small Feelings DAS 2023 Co-curated by Diana Campbell and Akansha Rastogi with Ruxmini Choudhury To Enter The Sky DAS 2023 Curated by Sean Anderson দ্বৈধ (A Duality) DAS 2023 Curated by Bishwajit Goswami with research support from Muhammad Nafisur Rahman, in collaboration with Brihatta Art Foundation Art Mediation Programme 2023 DAS 2023 Dhaka Art Summit Purposeful Goods DAS 2023 Curated by Teresa Albor Talks Programme DAS 2023 Dhaka Art Summit 2023 LOAD MORE Bonna is the fifth chapter under the Artistic Direction of Chief Curator Diana Campbell and is complemented by a series of intersecting exhibitions including the Samdani Art Award curated by Anne Barlow (Director, Tate St. Ives), To Enter the Sky curated by Sean Anderson (Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at Cornell University’s Department of Architecture), দ্বৈধ(a duality) curated by Bishwajit Goswami (Assistant Professor, Department of Drawing and Painting, University of Dhaka) with research support from Muhammad Nafisur Rahman (Assistant Professor of Communication Design at the School of Design, College of DAAP, University of Cincinnati) in collaboration with Brihatta Art Foundation, and Very Small Feelings, co-curated by Campbell and Akansha Rastogi (Senior Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art) with Ruxmini Choudhury (Curator, Samdani Art Foundation), and a transnational folklore research team with contributions from Kanak Chanpa Chakma and other indigenous thought leaders connecting traditions across Bangladesh and Northeast India. DAS is a continually unfolding story imagined by hundreds of contributors, and this edition will include over 120 artists, architects, and writers, over 60% Bangladeshi, and over 50% producing new work for the show. Rather, the DAS concept of Bonna challenges binaries - between necessity and excess, between regeneration and disaster, between adult and child, between male and female. DAS 2023 invokes and interprets Bonna as a complex symbol system, which is Indigenous, personal, and at once universal, an embodied non-human reversal of how storms, cyclones, tsunamis, stars, and all environment crises, and discoveries are named, allowing Bonna, the young girl, to speak from Bangladesh to the world; she asks why the words for weather are gendered, what the relationship between gender, the built environment, and climate change might be. During Bengali New Year, Bangladeshi people sing a song written by Rabindranath Tagore, Esho he Boishakh , which calls upon the first month of summer to bring storms to wash away any residue of ugliness from the previous year: “'Bring forth and sound your conch of storm, Let the foggy mesh of ugly illusion be gone.” Ebb and flow, drought and abundance are phenomena that have shaped the culture and history of Bangladesh (and South Asia) just as a river cuts an ever-changing path as it seeks lower ground. When considering this, and the traditional ways of coping and celebrating polar forces, we must acknowledge that climate change is accelerating and causing even more dramatic events, often beyond the capacity of even the most resilient people’s ability to survive. During the planning stages of DAS 2023, the north-western part of the country was overwhelmed with severe flooding and we are releasing the thematics of Dhaka Art Summit at a time when devastating floods and the many lives lost and made precarious in South Asia demand our urgent attention. This is a sobering instruction to consider the implications during DAS 2023 for a country that has always managed to co-exist with extremes. The word for flood, ‘Bonna,’ is also given as a common name for girls in Bangladesh. A flood in Bangladesh does not simply translate into the dominant idea of the word flood carrying a singular connotation of “disaster.” Storms have eyes and eyes have storms. We can be flooded with emotions, yet reduced to singular drops of tears. We give storms human names; we describe human emotions using terms that are also applied to weather. A tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal was captured in the iconic “Blue Marble'' image of the Earth in 1972, the first full image of the Earth taken from space and one of the most circulated images of all time. The Bangladeshi artist and climate justice activist Nabil Ahmed points out that the cyclone in this image derives “from the same tropical storm system that produced Bhola, which devastated the coast of East Pakistan in November 1970. In its aftermath followed a genocide and war of national liberation for present-day Bangladesh. After Bhola, looking at a cyclone will never be the same; the potential for political violence and an ever-circling wind are united as one.” Extreme weather and the absence of state management was the tipping point for Bangladeshis to declare independence in 1971 and fight for the right to express themselves in their own language. As the Ghanaian-Scottish designer, thinker, and educator Lesley Lokko insightfully points out, “When you are in the eye of the storm, this is often the right point to push for maximum change.” DAS 2023 aimed to listen to the lands and waters of Bangladesh and its people to tell stories and imagine futures where people regard what the planet and non-human bits of intelligence have to say, as opposed to the clock or the calendar. DAS 2023 was about the power of water and the double paradox of how floods and their impact may be (mis)understood. Bonna is also concerned with the power of translation– how do Bangladeshi understandings of life challenge those who might have only understood the flood and its manifestations as a mistranslation and those now experiencing similar climatic challenges? By extension, the Bangladeshi artist and researcher Shawon Akand expands upon mud as a metaphor for the adaptive power of Bengalis; mud can be hard as stone when baked under the summer sun, a fertile bed for crops during the harvest season, and liquid during the monsoon, all without losing its essence.

ALL PROJECTS Love- Power- Fall , Master Class Srihatta Driant Zeneli conducted an intensive six-day Master Class for five young Bangladeshi creatives at Srihatta: Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet. The workshop revolved around his upcoming film, 'Love Power Fall,' which intertwines themes of a white peacock, Bangladesh’s iconic Parliament Building designed by Louis I. Kahn, and the country's six distinct seasons. During the Master Class, Driant provided insights into his creative process, exploring idea development, working methodologies, and his inspirations. A significant influence on the film is Baroque music and theatre, which will be heavily reflected in its storytelling, aesthetics, and dramatic structure. He encouraged the participants to research and integrate local Bangladeshi elements into the narrative, ensuring a fusion of their cultural heritage with his artistic vision. Under Driant’s guidance, the participants collaboratively developed the film’s storyline, connecting their research with the theatrical traditions of Baroque. They explored local knowledge systems, particularly drawing from Khona’s proverbs—an ancient collection of agrarian and meteorological wisdom that continues to influence Bangladeshi agricultural and architectural practices. Khona, a philosopher and astrologer from Bengal, is believed to have lived sometime between 400 AD and 1200 AD. Notably, Khona’s observations on vernacular architecture resonate with the design principles of Bangladesh’s Parliament Building, offering a compelling conceptual link within the film’s narrative. Beyond script development, the young creatives are playing an active role in designing the film’s costumes, scenography, and assisting in cinematography and musical composition. Their collective efforts are shaping a film that seamlessly weaves together local knowledge and Italian artistic influences, creating a rich tapestry of love, power, and downfall. Through this Master Class, Driant Zeneli facilitated a dynamic exchange of ideas, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and artistic collaboration. The resulting film promises to be a unique and layered representation of storytelling, blending the dramatic elements of Baroque theatre with the deeply rooted traditions and wisdom of Bangladesh. The five young creative continue to work with Driant Zeneli and will be part the core team throughout the whole production. The five participants are: Scenography : Md. Tasnimul Izaz Bhuiyan, Pulak K. Sarkar Storytelling and script: Rafi Nur Hamid Production: Sondip Roy Costume Design: Sumaiya Sultana

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. PARTNERS TEAM The fourth edition of the Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) took place from 2 to 10 February 2018, featuring both an Opening Celebration Weekend (February 2–4) and a closing Scholars’ Weekend (February 8–10), and several tiers of new programming. Produced and primarily funded by the Samdani Art Foundation, DAS 2018 was held in a public-private partnership with the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the country’s National Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, with support from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Ministry of Information of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the National Tourism Board, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), and in association with the Bangladesh National Museum. DAS 2018 puts Bangladesh at the centre of its own cartography rather than at the periphery of someone else’s, recalibrating how we think about art in South Asia by focusing on the increased inclusion of minority positions and conflicted terrains. This allowed visitors to reconsider the diversity found in the region beyond national narratives, and to begin to navigate South Asia as a long-standing zone of global contact. The Solo Projects section of the Dhaka Art Summit was replaced with Bearing Points. This new initiative comprised large-scale thematic presentations from artists and architects, orienting the viewer towards lesser explored transcultural histories of the region, curated by DAS Chief Curator Diana Campbell, and weaving together strands of thought from the nine other guest curated exhibitions in the Summit. The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. DAS is unique in its ability to be a true hub for art and architecture related to South Asia. Expanding on the success of past editions, DAS 2018 extended its duration of exhibitions and programming to nine-days, and for the first time, widened its focus to create new connections between South, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean belt, highlighting the dynamic evolution of art in contemporary South Asia and reviving historical inter-Asian modes of exchange. Over three hundred artists were exhibited across ten curated exhibitions, and over one hundred and twenty speakers from all over the world participated in sixteen panel discussions and two symposiums that grounded future developments of art in South Asia within the region’s rich, yet lesser-known, past. This was the third Summit led by Samdani Art Foundation Artistic Director, Diana Campbell, who returned as the Chief Curator of DAS 2018. Exhibitions & Programmes The 4th edition of the Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) produced by the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) closed on 10th February, having brought together over 300 artists, 120 speakers, and welcomed record attendance with 317,000 visitors over 9 days Bearing Point 5 - Residence Time DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell Volcano Extravaganza | Total Anastrophes DAS 2018 Curated by Milovan Farronato With Runa Islam as Artistic Leader The Asian Art Biennale in Context DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell Art Mediation Programme 2018 DAS 2018 Displays Of Internationalism | Asia Interfacing with The World Through Exhibitions, 1947-1989 DAS 2018 Curated by Amara Antilla and Diana Campbell Bearing Point 2 - Dozakh-I-Puri N'imat (An Inferno Bearing Gifts) DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell Education Pavilion DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell Critical Writing Ensembles- Sovereign Words DAS 2018 Curated by Katya García-Antón 2-10 February 2018 | Dhaka Art Summit Bearing Point 4 - There Once Was A Village Here DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell Bearing Point 1 - Politics: The Most Architectural Thing To Do DAS 2018 Curated by Diana Campbell A beast, a god, and a line DAS 2018 Curated by Cosmin Costinas Below the Levels Where Differences Appear DAS 2018 Curated by Vali Mahlouji LOAD MORE

Rising from the red tinted alluvial soil of Sylhet, Northeast Bangladesh, Srihatta is the future home of the Samdani Art Foundation, rooted in the plurality found in Bangladesh’s history to conjure a more inclusive future through art, architecture, and culture. A unique combination of sculpture park, exhibition, residency, and education programme, Srihatta imagines what an experimental artist-centric institution can be in the 21st Century, beyond of western-centric paradigms. Srihatta Rising from the red-tinted alluvial soil of Sylhet , Northeast Bangladesh, Srihatta is the future home of the Samdani Art Foundation, rooted in the plurality found in Bangladesh’s history to conjure a more inclusive future through art, architecture , and culture. A unique combination of sculpture park, exhibition, residency, and education programme , Srihatta imagines what an experimental artist-centric institution can be in the 21st Century, beyond of western-centric paradigms. Founded by Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani and led by Artistic Director Diana Campbell, this art centre and sculpture park will also feature works from their collection and will be free and open to the public in 2025. Recent Projects ALL PREVIOUS NEXT View Photosynthesis View Srihatta Crafting Togetherness Workshop View Srihatta Love- Power- Fall , Master Class A lush and green rural tea district approximately 250km (or a 45 minute flight) from the capital city of Dhaka, and Sylhet International Airport has direct flights from London, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. There are nearly 800,000 people living in Sylhet, and Sylhetis form a significant part of the Bangladeshi diaspora in the United Kingdom, United States, and Middle East. Founders Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani are both from Sylhet and Srihatta is part of their long-term dream to share their love of art and this region with artists and the public. The roughly 40-minute drive to Srihatta from the airport is a journey through the agriculture landscapes of Sylhet through villages built around winding rivers and tea plantations built on hilly mounds punctuating an otherwise flat landscape. The many paddy fields make the landscape appear like a massive waterbody during the rainy season. Srihatta’s landscaping will be inspired by the wild natural wonders of the lands around the site which include gnarled mangrove swamp forests, turquoise rivers, and multicoloured sand hills and the art gallery will appear to float within a lush grassy paddy field. Reflecting the energy and vibrancy of the Bangladeshi people, Srihatta will be a live, active, changing and dynamic space with an emphasis on process, which differs from traditional ideas of sculpture parks and artists will be at the centre of this project via Srihatta’s international residency programme. Srihatta spans across more than one hundred acres of landscape with views of India’s Assam Hills in the distance. ABOUT SYLHET EXPLORE SECTORS Our Focus Areas Sectors Aga Khan Award winning Bangladeshi architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury (URBANA) has envisioned the initial phase of Srihatta as an open plan design that references the vernacular brick architecture of Bangladesh, a practice dating back to 3rd Century BC. The architecture looks to the modernist legacy left by visionary architects such as Muzharul Islam and Louis Kahn, who built some of their best work in Bangladesh, including the Dhaka University Library (1953-1954) and Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban (Parliament House, 1961-1982). Aligned with the ideology of the Samdani Art Foundation, Chowdhury’s architecture is born from the land of Sylhet: the brick-dyed concrete found in Srihatta’s built environment is derived from the colour of the soil on site. Architecture 01 A 10,000-square-foot residency space houses eleven brick-dyed, cast-concrete apartments, with windows facing Srihatta’s landscape. Created as a meditative space to inspire creativity and mesmerize the senses, these apartments have 11-foot ceilings – each with a different species of local scented tree to grow inside. The apartments, dining, recreation, and reading spaces are visually linked by plazas and walkways made of local green-tinged grey Kota stone. Blending the residency space with the surrounding landscape and sculpture park, the complex will exhibit works from the Foundation’s collection on a rotating basis. The first phase of the residency will begin with the Samdani Art Award short-listed artists from 2020 and 2023 as our first invited artists in residence. In addition to residencies with local and international artists, Srihatta will also host writing and curatorial residencies as part of a wider initiative of training a new generation of arts professionals in Bangladesh. The Residency program will be organized by SAF, with additional collaborations with international foundations and cultural councils, and independent from the Samdani’s collecting activities. Residency Spaces 02 Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury has also designed the first of several future gallery spaces at Srihatta. An undulating brick façade welcomes visitors into a 5,000 square-foot gallery with 14-foot ceilings anchored by an immersive installation of video, sound, and expanded cinema works from the Samdani collection by Cardiff and Miller, Olafur Eliasson, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Anthony McCall, and Lucy Raven which challenge boundaries between mediums. These expanded cinema works are also imagined as a teaching tool for artists in Bangladesh, where video/new media is not part of the art school curriculum. Future galleries will be built to allow for rotating temporary exhibitions produced by the Samdani Art Foundation. Galleries 03 Envisioned as a dynamic art centre, Srihatta embraces inclusivity with a welcoming design, an accessible public programme, and outdoor public works which engage the local community in their conception and production. More than just a private art museum, Srihatta aspires to cultivate a new community of art lovers in Bangladesh and the surrounding region. As with all Samdani Art Foundation activities, entry to Srihatta will be free, in an attempt to make art widely accessible to diverse audiences. Srihatta’s programming complements – but remains autonomous from the Dhaka Art Summit ( www.dhakaartsummit.org ). Led by Samdani Art Foundation’s Founding Artistic Director Diana Campbell, Srihatta encourages engagement with Bangladesh’s rural context. The organization will invest its roots locally – and broaden them internationally – by inviting artists, curators, architects, and writers from around the world to participate in its exhibitions, residencies, interventions in the landscape, and to engage in creative workshops with the local community. Srihatta is inspired by the ethos of Rabindranath Tagore, who created Shantiniketan in a village in West Bengal in 1901 – where the whole world could meet in a single nest. Artistic Programme URBANA’s plan for the landscape design embraces the natural phenomena that surround the site: winding rivers, a swamp forest, golden hills made of sand, and flaming natural-gas-fields with views of India’s Assam Hills and Sylhet’s tea gardens in the distance. Site-sensitive commissions by artists from Bangladesh and around the world will further transform the landscape. The first phase of architectural elements of Srihatta takes up less than a half-acre of the 100-acre property, with the majority of the grounds comprising a sculpture park. We don’t imagine a sculpture park as a space hosting static sculptures to be maintained in a landscape. Our expanded vision of a sculpture park invites artistic experiments with the weather as well as the human and non-human forms of life that inhabit our site and collaborate with the vision of artists. Over the past 9 years, Srihatta has been welcoming artists to develop long-term projects for the site, asking that each engage with the site and surrounding community. Once open, Srihatta will include a mix of permanent works, temporary works, and works on long-term loan, in an attempt to make Srihatta a living, evolving entity that changes regularly and welcomes repeat visits. All of the works in the sculpture park will be produced in Bangladesh, as part of the Foundation’s desire to engage the local community with craftsmanship and production, fostering collaboration as a tool for greater understanding. Sculpture Park While Srihatta officially opens in 2025, the first work for the Park, ‘Rokeya’, was completed in February 2017 after two years of development – and speaks to the socially engaged practices that the institution plans to regularly host. As part of the annual Samdani Seminars programme, Polish artist Paweł Althamer – along with members of his community (neighbours) from Bródno, Poland – engaged patients of Protisruti (the Promise) drug rehabilitation centre in Sylhet and the local community in an eight-day-long creative and collaborative Sculptural Congress workshop. This first project at Srihatta was realized in partnership with Bródno Sculpture Park, which Pawel Althamer inaugurated in 2009 with the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw. Bridging understanding across social and cultural divides, they created the communal work of art, ‘Rokeya’, which the village children named after the nineteenth century pioneer of female education in Bangladesh, Begum Rokeya. The resulting sculpture was a reclining woman constructed of locally woven palm fronds over a bamboo frame. She wears a colourful fabric costume stitched from local textiles by nearby village women, who also helped to drape the fabric. ‘Rokeya’ also contains a kiln inside, for village children to use in ceramic workshops. Srihatta continued its collaboration with Bródno Sculpture Park into 2019 with Polish artist Monika Sosnowska who created a monumental concrete river that becomes a walking path through the landscape. Here tributaries meander through and disappear into unexpected places, allowing for contemplation of one’s surroundings. The piece ties back to the natural terrain of Bangladesh, which has over 700 rivers (and is officially the country with the most rivers within its borders). Indian artist Asim Waqif is working on a monumental living sculpture titled ‘Bamsera Bamsi’ (meaning Bamboo flute in Bangla). The sculpture is envisioned as a living bamboo forest, consisting of several bamboo species researched and planted as part of a long-term collaboration with the Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Chittagong. As it grows, Waqif is sculpting the forest into a sculptural wind instrument reminiscent of a flute, which will emit sound when the wind blows through it. ‘Bamsera Bamsi’ will take nearly twenty years to complete. The initial size of the work is 140 x 100 ft and will expand as the project develops. The interwoven Animist, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi mystic, and Islamic histories that inform Sylhet’s plurality and distinct language remain powerfully visible in Bengali folk culture. Srihatta’s name is an homage to the multiple layers of history that have shaped this rich landscape; it is the ancient Indo-Aryan term for Sylhet. In this area once there was abundance of rocks know as shila. The hat (bazaar) sat on top of these rocks. The name of Sylhet was derived from the words ‘Shila’ and ‘Hat’ as Shila-Hat - to form Shilhatta. The last Hindu King Raja Gour Govinda kept large stones for protection at the entrance of his capital Shilhatta, whose name was transformed over time into Srihatta – with sri meaning, beauty, charm and wealth. The early 14th century brought the beginnings of Islamic culture and rule to Sylhet via the Middle Eastern Sufi mystic Hazrat Shahjalal and his 313 companions. On his arrival to the capital, Hazrat Shahjalal commanded the rocks to move away by uttering the term ‘Shill Hot’ (move away, stones), and local legend has it that the rocks moved to usher in a new era and the name Silhet came into existence. During the British colonial rule over the region, the word Sylhet was introduced to make ‘Silhet’ sound distinct from ‘Silchar’ (a town in Assam). Sylhet was a strategic location for the British during the colonial era because of its proximity to Burma and China. ABOUT THE NAME SRIHATTA

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. PARTNERS TEAM The 1st edition of the Summit was held in collaboration with Shilpakala Academy and Bangladesh National Museum and showcased the works of 249 artists and 19 galleries . The 1st edition of the Summit focused only on the local artists and galleries. The Summit was visited by over 40,000 visitors The Summit also organised talks. The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. Samdani Art Foundation also awarded the Samdani Artist Development Award to Khaled Hasan and Samdani Young Talent Award to Musrat Reazi at the closing ceremony of Dhaka Art Summit. The award was judged by a panel of international judges that consisted of Kyla McDonald, Assistant Curator from Tate Modern Museum; Deepak Ananth, a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France; Elaine W. Ng, Editor and Publisher of Art Asia Pacific Magazine; Bose Krishnamachari, founder of Kochi Biennale; renowned artist Ravinder Reddy from India, and Paris-based Bangladeshi artist Shahabuddin Ahmed.

EMK Center, Dhaka, 27 April 2017 Sean Anderson: A Talk about Moma’s Young Architects Program around the world Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, Dhaka, 21 April 2017 Rehearsing The Witness: The Bhawal Court Case, A Talk By Zuleikha Chaudhari Pathshala South Asian Media Institute & Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 10 - 11 April 2017 Breathe In Breathe Out: Susan Philipsz Soni Mongol Adda, Segun Bagicha, 4 April 2017 Tarun Nagesh: the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art: Art and Curating in the Asia Pacific Srihatta- Samdani Art centre & Sculpture Park, Sylhet, 20 - 28 February 2017 A Sculptural Congress: Pawel Althamer and the Neighbours National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 19 February 2017 Sebastian Cichocki: Art in Post Artistic (and Post Democratic) Times 7 - 8 April 2015 Workshop and Presentation with Tori Wranes Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 2 - 6 April 2015 Performance Workshop by Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore and Jana Prepeluh Faculty of Fine Arts, University Of Dhaka, 24 March 2015 'Death Class' and Draftmen's Congress' by Pawel Althamer Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts, University Of Dhaka. 23 March 2015 'Painting Performs' - A Presentation by Sandeep Mukherjee The Samdani Residence, and Alliance Francaise De Dhaka, 21 - 22 March 2015 'Introduction to Council'- A Presentation by Sandra Terdjman and Grégory Castéra 20 - 21 March 2015 Performance Workshop Tour by Myriam Lefkowitz Year Seminars The annual Samdani Seminars are a lecture and workshop programme that facilitates engagement between international arts professionals and local communities across Bangladesh through participatory artworks, lectures, and workshops. Open to all and free, the Seminar programme complements the existing syllabi of Bangladesh's leading educational institutions covering the mediums and subjects not currently included while expanding the audience engaging with art. LOAD MORE

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. PARTNERS TEAM Held at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 5th – 8th February 2016 Curated by Samdani Art Foundation Artistic Director and DAS Chief Curator Diana Campbell, Katya García Antón (Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway), Daniel Baumann (Director of the Kunsthalle in Zurich), artist Nikhil Chopra, Beth Citron (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Rubin Museum of Art), artist Madhavi Gore, curator Shanay Jhaveri (Assistant Curator-Modern and Contem-porary Art, South Asia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Aurelien Lemonier (Architecture Curator at the Centre Pompidou), Nada Raza (assistant curator at Tate Modern), Md. Muniruzzaman and artist Jana Prepeluh with Asia Art Archive Senior Researcher Sabih Ahmed and Amara Antilla (assistant curator at the Guggenheim Museum, New York). The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. DAS provokes reflections on transnationalism, selfhood and time with invited artists, curators and thinkers who build exhibitions through commissioned research and experience within the region—without being prescrip-tive. Neither a biennial, symposium nor festival but somewhere in between, the unique format of the Summit transforms the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy into a generative space to reconsider the past and future of art and exchange within South Asia and beyond. DAS 2016 included loans from the Bangladesh National Col-lection; the Museum Folkwang in Essen; the Pinault Collection and many public and private South Asian col-lections as well as partnerships with institutions such as the Centre Pompidou; Asia Art Archive and Harvard South Asia Institute, DAS considers South Asia from the view of doing and becoming rather than cartography, occupying the triplet planes of imagination, will and circumstance. In addition to new commissions and curated group exhibitions, DAS events included talks, critical writing, performances, films, book launches and the Summit’s first historical exhibition, Rewind. The Samdani Art Award finalists exhibition curated by Daniel Baumann; The Missing One curated by Nada Raza; Architecture in Bangladesh curated by Aurelién Lemonier; The Performance Pavilion, curated by Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore and Jana Prepeluh; Not as far as it seems, a series of conversations and sound pieces curated by Safina Radio Project; a Film Programme curated by Shanay Jhaveri; as well as Critical Writing Ensemble, panel dis-cussions, workshops, and more. Exhibitions & Programmes The Summit is a free and ticketless event and this year welcomed 138,000 visitors in 4 days, of which 800 were international visitors and operated tours for 2,500 students from 30+ schools. Those participating included over 300 emerging and established artists, 100 speakers who attended as part of the Talks Programme, as well as internationally renowned curators and writers, and attracted visitors from over 70 international institutions, who attended the Summit to extend and further their research into the region. Talks Programme DAS 2016 Soul Searching DAS 2016 Curated by Md. Muniruzzaman Safina Radio project DAS 2016 Architecture In Bangladesh DAS 2016 Curated by Aurélien Lemonier Film Programme DAS 2016 Curated by Shanay Jhaveri Shifting Sands, Shifting Hands DAS 2016 Curated by Nikhil Chopra, Madhavi Gore And Jana Prepeluh Live Feed Station - Asia Art Archive DAS 2016 Critical Writing Ensemble DAS 2016 Curated By Katya García-Antón, Antonio Cataldo, Diana Campbell, Chandrika Grover And Bhavna Kakar Solo Art Projects DAS 2016 Curated by Diana Campbell Rewind DAS 2016 Curated by Amara Antilla, Beth Citron, Diana Campbell and Sabih Ahmed Mining Warm Data DAS 2016 Curated by Diana Campbell The Missing One DAS 2016 Curated by Nada Raza LOAD MORE

Artist-led Initiatives The Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum is committed to supporting the work of Bangladesh’s independently established and self-funded art collectives and initiatives. Eleven groups vital to the growth of Bangladesh's creative communities participated in this Forum, led by Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation, and assisted by Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury, Assistant Curator at the Foundation. The Forum launched on April 13, 2017 at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Each of the participating initiatives remained members of the Forum and receive support from SAF until the 2020 Dhaka Art Summit. The work each of these initiatives undertakes to provide Bangladesh’s next generation of artists with opportunities is undisputed, yet many have limited resources, which reduces their marketing capacity and prevents them from connecting with a global audience. SAF is committed to supporting the work of Bangladesh’s contemporary artists, in part by increasing their international exposure. The Forum supported these initiatives’ ongoing efforts by helping each to continue to work locally, while building their profile internationally through SAF’s network and collaborators. AKĀLIKO An initiative born out of Dhaka’s Electronic Scene (DES), Akāliko was founded in 2012 by artists Khan Mohammad Faisal and Vru Patel, and later joined by Shoummo Saha and Jami Farooq. The group first aspired to connect Dhaka’s diverse community of bedroom electronic music producers, who at that time were working in solitude across the city. Since then, Akāliko has grown into its current identity as an independent record label with a DIY approach to sourcing new artists and helping other small record labels to grow their own identities. While electronic music is Akāliko's primary focus, the initiative also collaborates with non-musicians, including writers, choreographers/dancers, communication specialists, and psychologists, to produce workshops, music videos, and sound art projects. To watch Akaliko's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here ARTPRO Based primarily in Dhaka, Artpro promotes the work of Bangladesh’s contemporary artists, while expanding the reach of their work to new audiences, both nationally and internationally. Founded by artists, Arpita Singha Lopa, Md. Zahid Hossain ‘Sagor’, Farah Naz Moon, Lutfun Nahar, Mahbubur Rahman, and Ashim Halder ‘Sagor’, each of who actively maintain their own practice, the group’s multi-disciplinary approach utilises each of the founding members individual expertise while rigorously following the group’s collaborative mission to create unique opportunities for visual artists, and most importantly, for the public to engage with their work. To watch Artpro’s presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here BACK ART Finding it challenging to initiate contemporary art projects in Dhaka alone, BACK Art was formed as an endeavour to combine forces and develop activity which would open up the city’s art scene to provide emerging contemporary artists with opportunities to expand their practice and exhibit their work. Believing in the transformative power of art, the group promotes new languages for art within Bangladesh producing a variety of programmes from exhibitions, workshops, and most recently the international performance art festival, the Dhaka Live Art Biennale (D’Lab). To watch Back ART's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here CHARUPITH Charupith was founded in 1985 by Hironmoy Chanda and Mahbubur Jamal Shamim with the ambition of increasing the social impact of art within their local community. Based in Jessore, a district in the south-western region of Bangladesh, Charupith is heavily involved in local social awareness campaigns. Addressing the loss of local industries specific to the region—such as sola or spongewood craft makers and date-palm jaggery production—the group actively runs the Charupith Library, Research Centre, and Institute of Fine Arts—courses include art, dress-making, Architecture, craft, and Art History—from where 15,000 students have graduated for free to date. To watch Charupith's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here GIDREE BAWLEE FOUNDATION OF ARTS The Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts was established in 2001. It is a non-profit multidisciplinary organisation with the aim of bridging cultural gaps and promoting the indigenous presence in Bangladesh’s cultural landscape. Predominantly working in Bangladesh’s northern Thakurgaon district, the group creates space for cultural and artistic exchange between artists and skilled crafts people through site-specific environmentally focused art projects produced in rural communities. Each culminates in a collaborative artwork created through lively interactions and the exchange of ideas. To watch Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts' presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here HILL ARTIST GROUP The Chittagong Hill Tracts, comprised of Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban, are situated in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Division along the country’s south-eastern borders with India and Myanmar. An area with a rich culture and traditions, the Hill Artists’ Group was established here in 1992 to promote the region and its people by organising exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, of indigenous artists work while assisting the region’s novice artists to develop their careers. To watch Hill Artist Group's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here JOG ART SPACE Based in the city of Chittagong, a major coastal seaport city in south-eastern Bangladesh, Jog Art Space was formed by Zahed Ali Chowdhury, Shaela Sharmin, Zihan Karim, and Syed Md. Shohrab Jahan as a platform for artists to create innovative and experimental work not encouraged at the nearby Institute of Fine Arts, Chittagong University. Through mentoring and exhibition opportunities, Jog has created a space for the Chittagong’s artists to continue their education. To watch JOG Art Space's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here JOTHASHILPA A newly formed organisation, Jhothashilpa is a centre in the Adabor district of Dhaka city for traditional and contemporary art practices where all art forms are equal and not measured in terms like traditional, urban, folk, or craft. Pairing traditional and contemporary art, Jhothashilpa encourages artists to work collaboratively to expand their practice and helps traditional practitioners like rickshaw painters to find new income streams to make a sustainable living through their practice, despite the decline in its traditional use. To watch Jothashilpa's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here SHAKO Shako was established by a group of women artists over 13 years ago as a social initiative to raise funds through the sale of art to help fellow artists, male or female, who were in need of medical treatment. Taking their social responsibilities seriously, the group works closely with organisations across Bangladesh that support drug addicts and acid victims by facilitating workshops to teach new skills to these recovering women and help them find alternative ways to generate a sustainable living with the skills they already have. The group does not exclude male artists from their exhibitions; they have, until recently, chosen not to take part. To watch Shako: Women's Artist Association of Bangladesh's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here SHONI-MONGOL ADDA Shoni Mongol Adda is an informal discussion group that began meeting every Saturday (Shonibar) and Tuesday (Mongolbar) in a small artist-run cafe in the heart of Dhaka City during summer 2016. With each session organised by a core team, who prefer to remain nameless, the group covers a diverse range of topics, each session begins with a presentation from a nominated peer who discusses his or her ongoing work and ideas. A supportive space for people from varied professions, the group’s members range from artists and writers to cosmologists and police inspectors. To watch Shoni Mongol Adda's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here URONTO ART INITIATIVE Initiated as a pilot project in 2012, Uronto Artist Community was officially formed in 2013 by artist Sadya Mizan as a way of documenting disused or abandoned spaces in rural areas through art. Each of Uronto’s instalments begins as an open call for proposals with selected participants then attending a residential art exchange programme at the pre-selected space. Through Uronto’s a site-specific residential art exchange programme, selected participants are then challenged to work with unfamiliar mediums, re-animating the abandoned site and interacting with the local community for seven to nine days. To watch Uronto Artist Community's presentation at the inaugural Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum Meeting: Click here COLLABORATORS Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum 2020 Uronto Artist Community Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum 2020 Shoni Mongol Adda Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Shako and National Trovoa Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Jothashilpa Dhaka Art Summit 2020 JOG and ruangrupa Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Hill Artist Group Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Charupith Dhaka Art Summit 2020 BACK Art Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum 2020 Art Pro Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Akāliko and Jatiwangi Goethe Institut Auditorium, Dhaka, 5 Aug 2019 Pasar Ilmu, Activation Programme by Gudskul A week-long art workshop on Cinema Banner Painting took place from 5 October 2019 at Jothashilpa Studio in the Adabor area of Dhaka, organized by Jothashilpa (A Centre for Traditional and Contemporary Arts) in cooperation with the Samdani Artists Led Initiatives Forum (SALIF). Cinema Banner Painting Workshop Thakurgaon, 1 - 7 Dec 2018 Charcha Sessions Year PROJECTS LOAD MORE

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. PARTNERS TEAM The 2nd edition of the Dhaka Art Summit unfolded from February 7 to 9, 2014 at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Marking a strategic shift, the Summit decided to concentrate its focus on South Asia starting from this edition. DAS 2014 showcased a diverse array of programs, including five curatorial exhibitions by both international and Bangladeshi curators, along with 14 solo art projects curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt, the Artistic Director of the Samdani Foundation. These projects celebrated artists from across South Asia. The summit encompassed a citywide public art initiative, performances, the screening of experimental films, speaker panels, and the active participation of 15 Bangladeshi and 17 South Asia-focused galleries. The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. During the Dhaka Art Summit, the Samdani Art Award was presented to the talented Bangladeshi artist Ayesha Sultana. The winner was chosen by an international jury panel chaired by Aaron Cezar, the Director of Delfina Foundation, and included Adriano Pedrosa (Independent Curator), Jessica Morgan (Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art, Tate Modern), Sandhini Poddar (Associate Curator, Guggenheim Museum), and Pooja Sood (Director, KHOJ India). The awarded artist received a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in the United Kingdom. Exhibitions & Programmes The Summit is a free and ticketless event and this year welcomed 138,000 visitors in 4 days, of which 800 were international visitors and operated tours for 2,500 students from 30+ schools. Those participating included over 300 emerging and established artists, 100 speakers who attended as part of the Talks Programme, as well as internationally renowned curators and writers, and attracted visitors from over 70 international institutions, who attended the Summit to extend and further their research into the region. Visas to Happiness- Children's Workshop DAS 2014 Lifeblood DAS 2014 Curated by Rosa Maria Falvo Citizens of Time DAS 2014 Curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki Then | Why Not? -Solo Art Projects DAS 2014 Curated by Diana Campbell Ex-Ist DAS 2014 Curated by Ambereen Karamant B/DESH DAS 2014 Curated by Deepak Ananth Liberty DAS 2014 Curated by Md. Muniruzzaman assisted by Takir Hossain LOAD MORE

The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. Upcoming DAS Our curators and art mediators have been dreaming up the 7th edition of DAS - TONDRA. In TONDRA we will float between dreams and reality. The meaning of the word TONDRA in Bangla can be described as a state of existence where reality and dreams collide; a lucid dream that captivates the soul. The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. The meaning of the word TONDRA in Bangla can be described as a state of existence where reality and dreams collide; a lucid dream that captivates the soul. TONDRA is also a common female name in Bangladesh, which became popular during the mid 1990s-2000s for a character named Tondra in a novel by the Bangladeshi author Humayun Ahmed. Our story of TONDRA emerged from heartbreak expressed by a young visitor at DAS 2023, who wrote messages for a woman named TONDRA on the walls of our exhibition such as “Everyone is here, but you are missing from my life”. His writing style ranged from graffiti to poetry, referring to his Tondra as ‘a cloudy day’ and other beautiful metaphors that connected his deepest personal feelings for his beloved to the stories and films of Humayun Ahmed. We see this visitor as an emerging artist who found the need to express the feelings inside of him in a public cultural forum, transforming the delirious state of heartbreak into something others can connect to, as we do with some of our favourite love songs. TONDRA is a journey through the landscapes of emotions, where the line between what we feel, what we see and what we imagine becomes blurry. We want to draw the visitor into a TONDRA state inside of the exhibition so they can awaken to the realities of the world and dream the world differently outside. Every edition of DAS is new, but builds on ideas we introduced in previous editions. TONDRA encapsulates the liminal space where we also find Dilbar, a Bangladeshi migrant worker in the UAE whose name means "full of heart", balancing on the edge of sleep and consciousness, where the impossible becomes a possibility. This captivating film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chai Siris showcased at DAS 2018, carries the story of Dilbar, existing in a dream state, navigating between an under construction museum and his labour camp. In dreams, the wildest things are possible, and Dhaka Art Summit is napping to be wide awake for our next edition. Images: 1. Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Untitled 2016, photography. Courtesy of the artist. 2. Photograph of a message left behind for a girl named Tondra by the young visitor during the 2023 Dhaka Art Summit. 3. Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Chai Siris, Dilbar (2013), Single-Channel Video Installation. The film was initially commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and we are grateful to be able to partner with the foundation to showcase Dilbar in DAS 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Sharjah Art Foundation. TONDRA has now taken on a new shape. Explore the project in detail and see how it’s unfolding: [link]