On its second day, Dhaka Art Summit arranged a session “Collecting South Asian Art in a Non-Western Institutional Context.” Session panellists were Hammad Nasar, Suhanya Raffell, Rina Igarashi, Roobina Karode, Sheikha Hoor al Qasimi. It was moderated by Beatrix Ruf, the Director of Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Panelists from across Asia from both private and public institutions provided a holistic overview of the challenges and possibilities of collecting art from South Asia and how it is being archived in a non-Western context.
Hammad Nasar, head of Research and Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, said: “Today we are going to talk about how to re-construct the past and imagine the future. In some ways museum archives and their collection are instruments out of which collective memories can be created.” He describes Asia Art Archive as an invitation to collaborate and shape its goal. He elaborated the extensive work done on collecting archives in the region and making them accessible digitally in Hong Kong.
Suhanya Raffell, deputy director and director of collections at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, briefly discussed how collecting art gradually flourished at Australia, which allowed her to gain more experience on the instrumental work she did to set up the Asia Pacific Triennial. The Asia Pacific Triennial is one of the most important events in the South Asian region, which also preserves the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane.
Rina Igarashi from Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan has over two decades long experience conducting research and collecting art from Bangladesh. She elaborated activities that the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, one of the leading platforms for South Asian art, follows to collect art and organises on-site research, Asian art shows, Fukuoka Triennale exhibitions, and art exchange programmes and documentations.
Sheikha Hoor al Qasimi discussed the history of the collection and the authorisation process for the Sharjah Biennial and the Sharjah Art Foundation collections. She shared her observation on why collecting south asian art is important for them since Middle East has a bigger population than South Asia.