The great Pablo Picasso once said, “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” At the 17th Asian Art Biennale, being held in Dhaka for the month of December, painters, sculptors, photographers and other artists from 54 countries from Asia and the Asia-Pacific region have been doing just that – creating an oasis of creativity and inventiveness at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), located in the heart of our bustling megacity.
Whether the daily grind of city life represses the creativity of artists or rather, inspires them to find beauty in the routine, is another topic all together. However, like in previous years, the BSA decided to add fuel to the fire of inspiration and host a three-day art camp as a part of the Biennale, starting from December 05 and ending on December 07, 2016. And for a change in scenery, they chose the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), located on the south bank of the river Karnaphuli in Chittagong.
While this may seem an odd choice for the location of an art camp, the KEPZ is actually an incredible expanse of greenery and waterbodies in a terrain that only ten years ago, resembled a barren wasteland. With the investment of KEPZ, a subsidiary of Youngone Corporation which works in creating ecofriendly infrastructure for industrial zones and has planted almost two million trees in the area, among many other things, the entire area has been completely transformed.
The art camp was officially inaugurated on December 05, 2016 by Asaduzzaman Noor, minister of Cultural Affairs, who spoke of BSA's plans for the 2018 Biennale and mentioned a greater focus on curating and longer art camps. He also thanked Youngone Corporation chairman Kihak Sung for his continued investment in the arts in Bangladesh, including his work in restoring heritage houses in Panam Nagar, Sonargaon, saying “his projects are not driven by corporate social responsibility only, but by a love for art.”
Farooq Sobhan, renowned art collector and former foreign secretary of Bangladesh, Kwak Sam-ju, deputy chief of Mission (counsellor) of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Dhaka, Jahangir Saadat, president of KEPZ, and eminent artists Samarjit Roy Chowdhury from Bangladesh and Dhiraj Chowdhury from India were present as special guests.
Kwak Sam-ju thanked the BSA and KEPZ for collaborating and organising the art camp, saying “I hope our shared love of art and culture will continue to deepen our relations in the years to come, and that this will allow us all to speak in the common language of culture.”
Farooq Sobhan also commended the initiative to have an art camp alongside the Asian Art Biennale, and Jahangir Saadat spoke of Youngone's commitment to supporting talented Bangladeshi artists, saying “we in Youngone sincerely believe that the art camp will go a long way in advancing the cause of fine arts in Bangladesh.”
Artist Dhiraj Chowdhury also gave an emotional speech remembering his childhood in Chittagong, before the Partition of 1947, and said it was one of the biggest honours of his life to be back there again. Eminent artists Rafiqun Nabi and Hashem Khan, and art critic and environmentalist Professor Nazrul Islam also spoke at the event.
A total of 19 artists participated in the art camp at KEPZ, including artists from India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan and Korea. Each artist created two pieces of work at the camp, which will also be displayed at the Asian Art Biennale.