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. Nadia Samdani CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT Nadia Samdani MBE is the Co-Founder and President of the Samdani Art Foundation and Director of Dhaka Art Summit (DAS). In 2011, with husband Rajeeb Samdani, she established the Samdani Art Foundation to support the work of Bangladesh and South Asia’s contemporary artists and architects and increase their exposure. As part of this initiative, she founded DAS, which has since completed five successful editions under her leadership. She is a member of Tate’s South Asia Acquisitions Committee, Tate’s International Council and Alserkal Avenue’s Programming Committee, one of the founding members of The Harvard University Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute’s Arts Advisory Council and member of Asia Society’s Advisory Committee. In 2017, with her husband Rajeeb, she was the first South Asian arts patron to receive the prestigious Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to global art philanthropy and supporting the arts in South Asia and the United Kingdom. She has also received the Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters by the Cultural Ministry of France.A second-generation collector, she began her own collection at the age of 22. She collects both Bangladeshi and international art, reflecting her experience as both a proud Bangladeshi and a global citizen. She has written about collecting for Art Asia Pacific and Live Mint and has been a guest speaker at art fairs and institutions including the Royal Ontario Museum, Art Basel, Frieze and Harvard University among other institutions. Works from the Samdanis’ collection have been lent to institutions and festivals including: Kiran Nadar Musem of Art, New Delhi (2023); Hayward Gallery, London (2022); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2019); Para Site, Hong Kong (2018); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2018); documenta 14, Kassel and Athens, (2017); Shanghai Biennale (2017); Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Olso (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein, Düsseldorf (2015); Gwangju Biennale (2014); and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014). Rajeeb Samdani CO-FOUNDER AND TRUSTEE Rajeeb Samdani is a Co-Founder and Trustee of the Samdani Art Foundation, and Managing Director of Golden Harvest Group - one of the leading diversified conglomerates in Bangladesh. Together with his wife Nadia Samdani MBE, he established the biannual Dhaka Art Summit, and Srihatta- Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park. Rajeeb is also known for his modern and contemporary art collection. He is a founding member and Co-Chair of Tate’s South Asian Acquisitions Committee, a member of Tate’s International Council and Tate Advisory Board and Alserkal Avenue’s Programming Committee, a founding member of The Harvard University Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute’s Arts Advisory Council, Delfina Foundation’s Global Council member, a member of Art SG and a member of Art Basel Global Patrons Council. In 2017, with his wife Nadia, he was the first South Asian arts patron to receive the prestigious Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. He has been a guest speaker at art fairs and institutions including the Royal Ontario Museum of Art, UC Berkeley, Harvard University and the Private Museums Summit. Diana Campbell ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Diana Campbell is a Princeton educated American curator and writer working in South and Southeast Asia since 2010, primarily in India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. She is committed to fostering a transnational art world, and her plural and long-range vision addresses the concerns of underrepresented regions and artists alongside the more established in manifold forums. Since 2013, she has served as the Founding Artistic Director of Dhaka-based Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh and Chief Curator of the Dhaka Art Summit, leading the last five editions of the platform with a global team of collaborators. Campbell has developed the Dhaka Art Summit into a leading research and exhibitions platform for art from South Asia, bringing together artists, architects, curators, and writers through a largely commission based model where new work and exhibitions are born in Bangladesh, adding a scholarly element to the platform through collaborations with the Getty Foundation, Asia Art Archive, Cornell University, Harvard University, RAW Material Company, Gudskul, and many other formal and grassroots educational initiatives around the world. Pacific Islands and Bangladesh are at the forefront of climate change; Campbell’s maternal family is indigenous CHamoru from the island of Guam, and her heritage inspires her curatorial practice and the development of DAS as a platform to amplify indigenous practices both in South Asia and internationally. In addition to her exhibition making and writing practice, Campbell is responsible for developing the Samdani Art Foundation collection and drives its international collaborations ahead of opening the foundation’s permanent home and community-based residency program at Srihatta, the Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet. Campbell’s practice specializes in building networks. She is part of the facilitation group of AFIELD, a global network of socially engaged initiatives, and leading the international development of EDI Global Forum, a global network of art education departments as an initiative of the Campania Region of Italy developed by the Fondazione Morra Greco in Naples that is convening over 150 global institutions to address needed change in art education. She is currently curating the 2023 edition of DesertX in the Coachella Valley opening in March 2023, linking the climatic challenges of droughts and floods across California and Bangladesh. Mohammad Sazzad Hossain HEAD OF ADMINISTRATION Mohammad Sazzad Hossain is the Head of Administration of the Samdani Art Foundation. Sazzad has worked for the Samdani Art Foundation since 2012 and has been a key member of the management team from the first edition of the Dhaka Art Summit, now moving into its 7th edition. He is responsible for the artistic production of DAS, along with the management of all the teams on site, as well as the production for Srihatta and its artistic program. From the outset, Sazzad has managed the production of major international artist’s projects, such as Rana Begum, Afrah Shafiq, Antony Gormley, Shilpa Gupta, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Nilima Sheikh, Damian Ortega and Antonio Dias to name a few. He was one of the key members of the Srijan Abartan, a cross-disciplinary sustainable exhibition design research programme introduced in 2020. Sazzad Hossain completed his M.A. and B.A. from Stamford University Bangladesh majoring in English Literature. DAS 2014 Team Guest Curators Others CHAIRMAN Farooq Sobhan DHAKA ART SUMMIT, BANGLADESH Nadia Samdani MBE SAMDANI ART FOUNDATION, BANGLADESH Rajeeb Samdani Organising Comittee Members

ALL PROJECTS তন্দ্রা /TONDRA OPEN CALL FOR LOGO DESIGN Submission closed OPEN CALL FOR LOGO DESIGN তন্দ্রা / TONDRA Samdani Art Foundation invites young artists and graphic designers to submit logo proposals for TONDRA/ তন্দ্রা . We are looking for a static logo (in both English and Bangla) along with a short animation/GIF version of the logo . The moving version does not have to be final at the submission stage — a rough or simple animation is completely fine. The animation/GIF will primarily be used for social media storytelling , while the static logo will be used across digital, print, and exhibition contexts . The design should reflect the poetic, emotional, and dream-like world of TONDRA —a liminal space where reality and imagination blur, where longing, nostalgia, transformation, and new futures coexist. Your logo may be: Graffiti-inspired Cartoon/comic style Minimal Experimental Hand-drawn, illustrated, or digitally designed Or any creative visual language that captures the spirit of TONDRA We strongly encourage submissions that creatively respond to the Tondra text and express how you interpret its themes. Find the Tondra text below: Tondra text .pdf Download PDF • 113KB Prize The selected artist/designer will: Receive BDT 30,000 See their design used across TONDRA ’s platforms and possibly at the next Dhaka Art Summit The winning artist/designer must be willing to: Work with the Samdani Art Foundation team to refine the logo Develop/adjust the GIF or short animation for social media and other platforms Additional financial support may be provided to the winner through mutual conversation SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Who can apply Young artists, students, new designers, emerging creatives Age limit — 20 to 40 years old Must be Bangladeshi and based in Bangladesh What to submit Logo in English (PNG preferred) Logo in Bangla (PNG preferred) GIF / short animation (a rough version is acceptable for submission) A short explanation (150–300 words) describing: What inspired your design How your logo connects to the ideas of TONDRA Meaning behind colours, shapes, symbols, metaphors, etc. Full name + Phone number + Email + (optional) Portfolio link Technical Requirements PNG format (transparent background preferred) GIF (under 10 seconds) File size: max 10MB total No AI-generated submissions No copying or modifying existing copyrighted work Important Notes The winning designer must be open to edits, refinements, and changes to both the static logo and the animated version in conversation with the SAF team. Final design must function across print, digital, and exhibition formats. DEADLINE Please submit by 23 :00 on 16 December, 2025 SUBMISSION FORM Click here to fill up the submission form. For any query please write to apply@samdani.com.bd

ALL PROJECTS Risquons-Tout Wiels, 19 Sept 2020 – 1 Jan 2021 Shezad Dawood's research about Bangladeshi modern architecture through the archives and history of Muzharul Islam took a new form at Wiels, expanding upon his Samdani Art Foundation supported co-commissions with the Bagri Foundation and Jhaveri Contemporary at Frieze LIVE London 2019 (with Timothy Taylor Gallery) and Dhaka Art Summit 2020.

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 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 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 Manifesto of fragility, 16th Biennale de Lyon 14 September - 31 December 2022, Lyon, France Munem Wasif's works were shown extensively across three venues: The Fagor Factory, Guimet Museum, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon at the 16th Biennale de Lyon. Mostly comprising photographs, videos and sound installations, Munem Wasif’s oeuvre reflects a long-term engagement with the places and stories of his home country. The Machine Matter installation evokes the demise of the jute industry in Bangladesh following the transfer of power in East Bengal to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947, the widespread use of artificial materials, and the container and cargo-ship boom. Alternating long shots and close-ups, Wasif moves through an abandoned jute factory, amid immobile people. The echo of birdsong, the drip-drip of water and the rays of sunshine create an illusory sense of life in a space reduced to silence. The weight of memories, machinery and bodies underscores the fragility of the economy in post-colonial Bangladesh. The exhibition is supported by the Samdani Art Foundation & Project 88. Image courtesy Munem Wasif

ALL PROJECTS The Six Seasons of the White Peacock The Six Seasons of the White Peacock, by Albanian artist Driant Zeneli, in collaboration with an amazing group of interdisciplinary creative practitioners: Md. Tasnimul Izaz Bhuiyan, Pulak K. Sarkar, Rafi Nur Hamid, Sondip Roy, and Sumaiya Sultana. This unique and poetic collaboration between Bangladesh and Italy reimagines the familiar four seasons of Baroque music through the lens of Bangladesh’s rich cycle of six seasons. The film was developed at Srihatta – the Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park – where this beautiful vision came to life. This visionary project brings together the Samdani Art Foundation (Bangladesh), EMΣT – National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (Greece), the Art House of Adrian Paci and Melisa Paci in Shkodër (Albania), the Civic Museum of Castelbuono (Italy), and the Museo Castromediano with the Region of Puglia, through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Economy, and Territory Valuation. The film is set to be released in September 2025.

Partners The Samdani Art Foundation is proud to have partnered with the following organisations and institutions on its various initiatives.

Partners The Samdani Art Foundation is proud to have partnered with the following organisations and institutions on its various initiatives.

ALL PROJECTS Art Mediation Programme 2023 Dhaka Art Summit The 2023 Art Mediation Programme, led by Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury and assisted by Swilin Haque, was a remarkable success. Artist, art educator, and art mediator Tarana Halim played a pivotal role in managing the programme, which brought together an impressive team of 123 skilled art mediators. With an audience exceeding half a million over the course of just nine days, the mediators expertly guided visitors through a vibrant and inclusive Dhaka Art Summit experience. Their efforts ensured that the diverse range of activities offered at the summit was accessible, engaging, and enriching for all attendees.

ALL PROJECTS BACK Art Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Game Time – ‘Khela-Ramer Khel’ Project Coordinators: Adil Hasnat, Afsana Hasan Shejuti, Mahmuda Siddika, Sanjid Mahmud. BACK Art refers to the founders’ ‘backpack’ approach to the portability of art and ideas in public spaces. They are particularly interested in rural life and issues related to urbanisation, water systems and climate change. Various projects, including ‘Dhaka Live Art Biennale’ (‘D’LAB’), use performance to explore folklore and long-standing aesthetic forms, seeking ways to locate these within contemporary art practice. Game Time – ‘Khelaram Khel’ is a performative game labyrinth addressing the question ‘Are ghosts real?’and considering shared time and play. It was developed from BACK Art’s Native Myth rural residency project in which they collaborated with local children to create ghost characters used in games later on. Games are widely played in rural areas of Bangladesh by people of different ages. Danguli, Ekka-Dokka/Kut-kut, Saat Chara, Saap Ludo, Ha-Du-Du, Bou Chi and Dariya Banda are very old games in this region that are no-longer common in urban areas. The collective is interested in rewiring and reviving older ways of being together, using contemporary art practice as a vehicle for this. The audience enters a playing area with a design pattern created from children’s drawings to experience and engage with a series of customized games.