In an attempt to address the challenges South Asian artists face in a world where western exotic views of foreign contexts set the dominant narrative, the Dhaka Art Summit invited four artists to share their perspectives on stereotypes of Bangladeshi art.
At a panel entitled “Beyond the stereotypes of Bangladeshi Art” on Wednesday, Nazia Andaleeb Preema, Munem Wasif, Zihan Karim, and Rasel Chowdhury, spoke about maintaining artistic autonomy and moving beyond stereotypes often ascribed to Bangladeshi and South Asian art.
Rickshaw art displayed in Dhaka Art Summit
Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka TribuneCurator Abhijan Gupta spoke about politics of representation. He wanted to know how artists located their own practice within a shifting paradigm. Munem Wasif, famous for stark black & white photography that investigates complex social and political issues with a traditional, humanistic language, said vulnerability is important for an artist whose work is constantly being judged.
Rasel Chowdhury, a documentary photographer, spoke about his unique approach to documenting climate change. “Everyone speaks about beautiful colour composition. But when the subject is different, for example, a flood in Kurigram, we take pictures different from those shown in newspapers.”
Rickshaw art displayed in Dhaka Art Summit
Syed Zakir Hossain/Dhaka TribuneNazia Andaleeb Preema, a prolific and prominent visual artist of Bangladesh, spoke on the issue of women's representation in art. Her work reveals a personal narrative that can be extended to a depiction of a larger situation.
With a core focus on Bangladesh, the discussion re-examined how we think about art in both a regional and international context. The artists agreed on the need to adopt a new language to tell stories.
Dhaka Art Summit Highlights for Thursday
Symposium: Displays of InternationalismAsia Facing the World, 1955–89 Organized by Amara Antilla & Diana Campbell Betancourt from 1–5pm, at the auditorium. Through a series of panels, curators, artists, and scholars examine under-studied international and regional exhibitions that took place prior to 1989 and the associated networks and communities that they represented. Amara Antilla (Guggenheim Museum, New York), Diana Campbell Betancourt (Samdani Art Foundation), Iftikhar Dadi (Associate Professor, History of Art Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY), Ruxmini Choudhury (Samdani Art Foundation), among others.
A Utopian Stage; Below the Levels Where Differences Appear Curated by Vali Mahlouji, A Utopian Stage... explores the radical ‘Third World-ism’ at play at the Festival of Art, Shiraz-Persepolis (1967–77).
