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.

DAS 2026 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 in 2024 and 2025 to be wide awake in February 2026 for our 7th edition. Don’t worry about the year delay since we have something exciting in store for February 2025 - a celebration at Srihatta in Sylhet where we will also be producing collaborative projects for DAS 2026. ​ 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.

ALL PROJECTS Collective Movements ​ We have been witnessing movements of people of all ages from Chile, to Lebanon, India, Hong Kong and beyond, all voicing a desire for forms of agency in the context of persistent repressive colonial and authoritarian structures. DAS was formed through the collective building of a grassroots transnational civil space where culture can be shared beyond the limits of the nation state. Together with artists who create situations, build relations, and organise events and institutions, we aim to create a strong sense of community rooted in Dhaka. The word body can also be read as individuals who come together as a group. Like antibodies, individuals within any body need to maintain the ability to disagree with the group and contribute to the dynamic evolution of the fragments, situations, and personalities that make it up. A powerful aspect of groups is that they are dynamic and fluid; they can come together, break up into two or more groups, move when they need to, and dissolve when their work is done, reforming if/when they are needed again. Damián Ortega b. 1967, Mexico City; lives and works in Mexico City Sisters; Hermanas, 2019–2020 Bricks, Corn, Squash, Chiles, Beans Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist, kurimanzutto, White Cube, and Samdani Art Foundation. Realised with additional support from kurimanzutto and White Cube. A portion of the corn was grown and donated by Shakhawat Hossain In an empty, uninhabited lot covered by wild weeds and grass, a big conical figure is raised. It is made of red bricks and could be described either as a stupa, or a pre-Colombian pyramid. It is a sculptural silo, containing an offering with a sample of one of the native corn species of Mexico, a single seed. Seeds can be deposited on any land, and with some luck and under the right conditions, they multiply in a micro-explosion of fertility. Limits of private property are tested when rituals, knowledge and products are taken from one place to another. A ‘milpa’ is a piece of land that grows from using ancient Mesoamerican agricultural practices that are necessary to produce products to meet the basic needs of a family. A milpa contains a diverse ecosystem that produces corn, beans, squash and chile working in solidarity. This ecosystem is, to a certain point, what has fed us, and one of the most valuable gifts that Damian Ortega wishes to share from Mexico. Ortega uses sculpture, installation, performance, film, and photography to arrive at events of deconstruction, both material and conceptual. In his work, the familiar is altered and re-purposed, leading the viewer to inspect the unexpected interdependence of the components involved. Ortega highlights the complex social, political, and economic contexts that are embodied in every-day objects. Fernando Palma Rodríguez b. 1957, San Pedro Atocpan; lives and works in San Pedro Atocpan ‘Language programmes us’, shares Fernando Palma, indicating that it is possible to be a different person in different languages. Palma is an expert in programming; he has a background as an electrical engineer and he is interested in the transmission of systems, knowledge, and electricity. Part of Palma’s work is preserving the Nahua language, a group of languages related to the Aztec people, settled mainly in the central part of Mexico. ‘It is through indigenous languages that we begin to see a different relationship between people and their environment, their art and culture’, writes Palma. For example, the word for artist in Nahua language is derived from the word for the number five – because the artist is the fifth point connecting the four points on a compass: North, South, East, West. This definition does not contain the triangular axes of fame, power or money. The artist had a formative experience in Bangladesh visiting the Chakma community during a residency at Britto Art Trust in 2003, understanding that the condition of his community in Mexico was linked to that of indigenous people on the other side of the world. He returns to Bangladesh to catalyse transmission of indigenous knowledges of language and ecology through workshops related to his body of work creating Nahua inspired pictograms (found in The Collective Body). Palma makes robotic sculptures that perform narrative choreographies, addressing issues faced by Mexican indigenous communities, such as that in the agricultural region of Milpa Alta in Mexico. These include human and land rights, violence, and urgent environmental crises. He runs Calpulli Tecalco, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of Nahua language and culture as well as Libroclub Fernando Benitez In Cualli Ohtli, a book club active for over twenty years with Nahua reading groups for children, and Maspor Nosotros AC, an organisation constituted in order to prevent, mitigate and compensate for the environmental and social impact caused by industrial and consumer waste. Olafur Eliasson b. 1967, Copenhagen; lives and works in Berlin Your Uncertain Shadow (Black and White) , 2010 HMI lamps, glass, aluminium, transformers Courtesy of the artist and Samdani Art Foundation Several spotlights project light on a white wall, however these lights only become perceptible when visitors enter and move across the space, blocking the light source and filling the void of the room with the presence of their shadows. The moving shadows of visitors create a sort of choreography and stretch and contract in tones ranging from grey to black, varying based on the movements of bodies in the space. Differences in race, religion, age, and class are flattened in this work as details used to identify individuals are reduced to moving outlines, and we become more aware of the present moment and the patterns we can build by engaging with people around us. Olafur Eliasson’s art is driven by his interests in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. He strives to make the concerns of art relevant to society at large. Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world. Eliasson’s works span sculpture, painting, photography, film, and installation. Not limited to the confines of the museum and gallery, his practice engages the broader public sphere through architectural projects, interventions in civic space, arts education, policy-making, and issues of sustainability and climate change. Taloi Havini b. 1981, Arawa; Lives and works in Sydney. Reclamation , 2019–2020 Installation, mixed media Co-Curated by Diana Campbell, Alexie Glass-Kantor, and Michelle Newton. Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation and Artspace, Sydney for DAS 2020 with support from the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Realised with additional support from the Australian High Commission of Bangladesh Reclamation is a new work by Taloi Havini created in collaboration with her Hakö clan members. The artist draws from recent historical movements of conflict as well as acts of resilience and self-determination experienced within the social fabric of her inherited matrilineal birthplace, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Reclamation is a site-specific assemblage of natural materials, harvested from the artist’s own matrilineal Hakö clan land. Here, Havini traces the significance of impermanence in traditional Hakö architecture. Individual panels have been shaped, cut and lashed within an arched form to reference formal Indigenous knowledges and map-making, echoing temporal spaces created for ritual and exchange to assert aspace for collective agency. Reclamation speaks to notions of lineage and navigation. Underlying the ephemeral installation of cane and earth are questions about the ways in which we relate within temporal spaces; how borders are defined and claimed as well as the value of impermanence and embodied knowledge over fixed historical understandings. Havini weaves together the tensions of precarity and resilience, vulnerability and activism to create a space of encounter and transmission. Havini speaks through geographic and cultural specificity of situations with global implications, working at a time when communities across the globe find themselves at the tipping point of environmental and social change. Havini works with photography, sculpture, immersive video and mixed-media installations. She considers the resonance of space, ceremony, and how material culture can be defined and translated through contemporary practice. Vasantha Yogananthan b. 1985, Grenoble; lives and works in Paris The artist Vasantha Yogananthan photographed SECMOL’s moving Ice Stupa project in Ladakh . Yogananthan's work straddles fiction and documentary, and this project shows how an imagined idea for a utopian future can come into being through creativity and institution building. Yogananthan’s photographic approach has been developed over the last 10 years whilst working on the major independent projects Piémanson (2009–2013) and A Myth of Two Souls (2013–2020) which have been published, exhibited and awarded internationally. Yogananthan is deeply attached to analogue photography for its slow – almost philosophical – process. His interest in painting led him to work around the genres of portrait, still life and landscape. SECMOL/Ice Stupa The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) engages scientists and engineers with young people growing up in Ladakh (a highly border-contested mountainous zone of northern India bordering China), especially those from rural or disadvantaged backgrounds. SECMOL equips young Ladakhis with the knowledge, skills, perspective, and confidence to choose and build a sustainable future in a high desert, which is increasingly lacking in water. Temperatures in the Indian Himalayas are rising as a result of climate change, causing snow from glaciers to melt faster, negatively affecting local communities that rely on springtime meltwater for agriculture. Resulting from two years of experiments at SECMOL, ‘Ice Stupa’ is a local solution to a local problem. ‘Ice Stupa’ is an artificial glacier created by piping a winter mountain stream down below the frost line, and then cascading it out of a vertical spout in the desert plateau. When gushing water encounters freezing ambient temperatures, it transforms into a conical ice formation with minimal surface area exposed to direct sunlight. The artificial glacier lasts late into the spring, allowing communities extended access to water for irrigation, as opposed to normal ice, which melts much faster. This is a local solution at a human scale. These photographs were taken by the artist Vasantha Yogananthan in 2019 for the New Yorker. SECMOL’s travel to DAS was generously supported by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.

Connect with Bangladesh's Cultural Narratives Go PRESS NEWSLETTER Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) has been collaborating with artists, architects, curators, writers, and thinkers to shift how culture is experienced around the world by creating opportunities for profound encounters with Bangladesh Founded in 2011 by collector couple Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) believes that the planet has much to learn from Bangladesh and South Asia and it supports research for curators to ground their thinking with experience thinking and working in the region. Its international collaborations (which know no geographic borders) seek to expand creative horizons and collapse outdated frameworks for considering art and culture within the limited frameworks of North American and Eurocentrism. All of SAF’s education and exhibition programs are free and ticketless, and the foundation supports the production of new thinking through residencies, exhibition opportunities, and other programs that it produces with its partners. The foundation has developed and continues to produce the Dhaka Art Summit, the world’s highest daily visited contemporary art event that is now entering its seventh edition. DAS is part of the foundation’s ongoing work of expanding The audience engaging with contemporary art across Bangladesh and increasing international exposure for artistic practices that do not lie within the "art capitals of the world” or which have not yet been written into the limited canon of art history. OUR STORY PARTNERS TEAM ALL PROJECTS SAF produces and participates in a variety of projects in Bangladesh and around the world as part of its ongoing commitment to increasing cultural engagement in Bangladesh and broadening the creative horizons of the country’s artists and architects. Initiatives SAF 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. SAF assists and supports Bangladeshi artists in participating in art exhibitions and festivals around the world, and follows the international tours of projects it has produced as they grow and develop in the world. SAF AROUND THE WORLD VIEW The Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum is an initiative committed to supporting the work of Bangladesh’s independently established and self-funded art collectives and initiatives. Launched in 2017, this program will be revitalized in 2025 in partnership with Srihatta. ARTIST-LED INITIATIVES VIEW SAF 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. COLLABORATIONS VIEW 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. SEMINARS VIEW Most SAF publications are available for free download on our website. SAF partners with institutions who publish books related to ongoing collaborations in Bangladesh, which can be ordered online. PUBLICATIONS VIEW The Art Mediation Program plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between art and its audience, enriching the cultural experience for visitors through meaningful engagement and interpretation. Established in 2018, the program began with 25 Art Mediators at the Dhaka Art Summit, and as our February 2023 the program has grown in depth and scope with the collaboration of 123 mediators. These art mediators come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from fine art to political studies, mechanical engineering, journalism, etc, all sharing a common enthusiasm for art. ART MEDIATION PROGRAMME VIEW 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. INITIATIVES EXPLORE Recent Projects PREVIOUS ALL NEXT VIEW Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai 6 September to 7 December 2024 Fragility and Resilience, Ayesha Sultana VIEW Brussels Where Do The Ants Go? at the Horst Arts and Music Festival VIEW 20 Feb- 24 May 2024 Kather Nripati at Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale VIEW 2023 Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai Weaving Chakma VIEW 8 December 2023 — 1 September 2024, Kunstinstituut Melly, Netherlands My Oma VIEW Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art in Nusantara, Jakarta Voice Against Reason ​ ​ @samdaniartfoundation @dhakaartsummit ​ ​ About 2026 2023 2020 2018 2016 2014 2012 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. Dhaka Art Summit INITIATIVES EXPLORE 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. Bonna DAS EXPLORE Inspired by the geological reading of the word ‘summit’ as the top of a mountain, Seismic Movements: Dhaka Art Summit 2020 (DAS 2020) considers the various ruptures that have realigned and continue to shift the face of our spinning planet. Seismic movements do not adhere to statist or nationalist frameworks. They join and split apart tectonics of multiple scales and layers; their epicentres don’t privilege historical imperial centres over the so-called peripheries; they can slowly accumulate or violently erupt in an instant. Seismic Movements DAS EXPLORE 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. 2018 DAS EXPLORE The third edition of Dhaka Art Summit welcomed 138,000 visitors in four days, of which 800 were international visitors, and 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. The Summit attracted visitors from over 70 international institutions, who attended to extend and further their research into the region. 2016 DAS EXPLORE 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. 2014 DAS EXPLORE 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. 2012 DAS EXPLORE 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. DAS 2026 DAS EXPLORE 74 The Samdani Art Foundation collaborates with artists and creatives globally, fostering a diverse and inclusive artistic community. Countries 6 The 6th edition of the Dhaka Art Summit was held in February 2023 Dhaka Art Summits 248 ​ Projects 1919 ​ Participants

ALL PROJECTS Samdani Art Award Exhibition Curated by Anne Barlow The Samdani Art Award 2023 presents new works by twelve emerging Bangladeshi artists who reflect on various social, economic and ecological concerns in the midst of one of the most difficult climatic periods for South Asia. While each project is distinct in its focus and material form, collectively, the artists in the exhibition engage with critical societal issues by questioning mainstream and binary thinking, advocating for change, and imagining spaces of possibility in the future. The ongoing impact of industrialisation and climate change are key topics for Purnima Aktar, Sohorab Rabbey and Habiba Nowrose. Through references to folklore and mythology, Aktar’s work highlights the uncertain future and diminishing biodiversity of the Sundarbans, the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world known as the ‘lungs’ of Bangladesh. Rabbey’s spatial intervention, whose forms are partly inspired by dams and barrages on the Teesta river, acts as a critical commentary on the geopolitical, topographical and ethnocultural transformation of the Bengal Delta region. Reflecting on ancient flood myths that span diverse cultures and religions, and on our current-day emergence from a global pandemic, Nowrose’s installation of photographs and objects seeks to convey a utopian world in which humans might exist in harmony with other beings after a great deluge. Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq and Rakibul Anwar consider how urban and rural environments are affected by construction that errs towards the invasive. Remnants of unfinished bridges in open fields, canals and agricultural land are seen as both symbols of ‘abandoned dreams’ and systemic corruption in Fatiq’s poignant photographs, whereas Anwar’s expansive wall drawings are informed by his observations of seemingly arbitrary urban planning that continues to alter the cityscape of Dhaka, as well as its social and communal spaces. Concerns around human rights, particularly in relation to the disenfranchised, are powerfully expressed in the work of Ashfika Rahman and Faysal Zaman. Rahman’s project resembles the interior of a home in an indigenous Santal community, and questions the responsibility of state security forces in relation to the burning of Santal homes during land ownership disputes. Incorporating extracts from interviews and archival images of victims of ‘enforced disappearance’, Zaman’s haunting installation gives material presence to victims’ own words and those of their loved ones. Through references to such acts of intolerance or brutality against people, and to the damage humans inflict on nature and its ecosystems, the topic of violence becomes a recurring subtext throughout the exhibition. Sumi Anjuman, Rasel Rana and Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin focus on the challenges faced by those with diverse sexual and gender orientation. Through her evocative photographs, Anjuman brings a human dimension to the oppression of non-binary people in Bangladesh, giving voice to their stories, while Rana encapsulates the struggles and hopes of diverse communities in a fantastical landscape in which every being is welcome. Referencing figures including the Bangladeshi artist SM Sultan whose identity was considered to be ‘elusive’, Yasmin similarly advocates for the legitimacy of sexual and gender fluidity and for individuals to be recognized and respected for who they are. Mojahid Musa and Dinar Sultana Putul share an interest in using natural or recycled materials in much of their work. Musa’s experimental and imaginative animal forms made first in clay, and then fused with other materials or ready-made objects, test assumptions around the relative value of such components in everyday life. Putul’s respect for agricultural and more traditional ways of life is borne out in the environment and hand-made objects she creates; at the same time, her work is influenced by historical figures such as engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller and utopian visions of a self-sustaining, egalitarian society. Purnima Aktar আঠারো ভাটির দেশ, A Tale of Eighteen Tides, 2022-2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The Sundarbans mangrove forest, known as the ‘land of eighteen tides’, is host to a vast range of flora and fauna, including the Bengal tiger. According to local folklore, the Sundarbans is watched over by Bonbibi, a revered female deity. It is said that for hundreds of years, woodcutters, honey collectors and others whose livelihoods depend on the forest, have prayed to Bonbibi to protect them from harm. Despite being a UNESCO World Heritage site, the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans is increasingly under threat due to climate change and environmental pollution. A Tale of Eighteen Tides is an allegorical work that explores this loss of biodiversity in the forest alongside the cultures and traditions that are in danger of dying out with it. Comprising eighteen parts, the installation depicts the figure of Bonbibi alongside a Bengal tiger and other wild animals, with those species that are already extinct painted in monochrome. Aktar’s work is inspired by nature and the myths and symbols of the Bengal Delta, as well as by artistic source including Mughal miniatures, Tantric paintings and Bangla folk art. She often combines these in her work to address issues around social and environmental justice. b. 1997, Narayanganj; lives and works in Dhaka Rakibul Anwar মহানগর, Mohanagar, 2023 Drawings on paper Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Rakibul Anwar’s life is intertwined with the city of Dhaka where he has been living since childhood. For Anwar, the transformation of Dhaka from a former Mughal outpost to a developing metropolitan centre with its different neighbourhoods, languages, symbols and sounds, is an endless source of inspiration. His work brings together direct observations of daily life with visual imagery derived from his ongoing research into the history of Dhaka through novels, articles and archival sources. These new drawings, one of which resembles the form of a scroll, are made on dictionary pages that have been randomly joined together, creating a kind of subliminal ‘noise’ that for Anwar feels like the sensation of living in Dhaka itself. Capturing moments of daily life, they depict the shifting ‘footprint’ of the city: people, places and objects are out of proportion with one another and viewed from various perspectives from aerial to eye level. This agglomeration of images – including street scenes, bullfights, and architectural elements – present a disorientating and almost surreal ambience. Anwar also considers the loss of Dhaka’s ecological heritage that continues to occur through planning and construction projects that fail to take existing ecosystems into account, leading to a critical imbalance between the built and natural environment. Images of beehives and animals act as signifiers for a loss of biodiversity that results in part from Dhaka’s dying lakes, polluted rivers, and lost gardens. Collectively, these new drawings present a poignant reflection on the complex and ever-changing physical and psychological state of the city. B. 1993, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Rasel Rana একজন বাগানির স্বপ্ন , The Gardener’s Dream 2023 Acrylic on canvas Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The Gardener’s Dream presents an idyllic scene of a gardener surrounded by various species of plants - a beautifully crafted universe in which all living things co-exist in harmony. The garden acts as a metaphor for a world in which everyone and everything has equal importance and equal rights, in contrast to the discrimination and trauma often faced by those who have diverse genders. This new work follows on from Rana’s Gender Bird series in terms of its lush representation of a figure in a landscape, and a sense of longing for an individual to be accepted for who they are. In The Gardener’s Dream , this also manifests itself through the work’s unique shape, which for Rana, expresses the way in which queer lives are often ‘framed’ by society as being different. Informed by various sources including Voodoo art and symbols, the bright colours of Rickshaw painting and the figure of the TEPA PUTUL (folk doll), Rana’s work presents a multi-layered and deeply personal perspective on issues of identity and an individual’s place in the world. b. 1995, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Sumi Anjuman হাওয়ায় নেওয়া চাঁদ, Winds carry moon , 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary medium Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Much of Anjuman’s photography engages with individuals or communities who have been oppressed or silenced by mainstream society. Her collaborative approach is guided by ideas of inclusivity and reflects the depth of the relationships she builds over time. Winds carry moon continues her work with those who, due to their gender identity, are frowned upon and considered unlawful in society to the extent that some have received death threats. Her photographs reflect on the restrictions and lack of equal rights that many individuals face in daily life, offering a sensitive insight into their inner psyches, and life journeys that commonly diverge from accepted norms in terms of prevailing societal and religious beliefs. Winds carry moon creates a space of possibility between this reality and a world in which LGBTQIA+ individuals in Bangladesh can concentrate on their love, hopes and dreams, instead of being in a constant state of angst and homophobic isolation, struggling to be perceived as human. Born in a conservative society, Anjuman has faced internal conflicts around being a woman that have helped her connect and empathize with others' oppression and trauma. Anjuman considers her photography practice to be more poetic than documentary in nature, verging on the abstract as a way of creating a non-violent dialogue about contemporary society. b. 1989, Bogura: lives and works in Dhaka and The Hague Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq মরীচিকা, Mirage, 2022-2023 Photographs Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Mirage is a series of photographs that attempts to highlight the corruption that lies behind many construction projects in Bangladesh. Focusing on numerous bridges that started to be built in canals, open fields, and agricultural lands over the past two decades - but that now lie abandoned and unused – Fatiq draws attention to the ongoing impact and the sheer scale of this predicament. In several instances, his works depict bridges that have collapsed, with their approach roads in ruins if they were ever made at all. These monumental, almost surreal forms now dominate landscapes across the country, symbolising for Fatiq the systemic corruption in the construction industry where huge budgets are misused and projects left unfinished. Although this series of photographs is devoid of people, it nonetheless conveys lost hopes of connectivity between places and communities, particularly in rural areas where local populations have no option but to move around by water for much of the year. While his works can be hauntingly beautiful, Fatiq’s approach to his subject matter is shaped by an acute social and political sensibility. In Mirage , he deftly combines aspects of traditional photography with elements of abstraction, symbolism and ambiguity, giving rise to the question of what lies underneath the surface of an image. b. 1995 Cumilla; lives and works in Cumilla Sohorab Rabbey Almanac of an eroded land borrowed from our children, 2022-2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 ‘Blocked’ is a form of protest that indigenous and marginalised local people use to rescue their lands, rivers and natural resources from authoritarian corporations. However precarious this resistance might be, their statement is clear and powerful enough to be visible. Inspired by their actions - and reflecting on how the navigability of the rivers from the upper stream to the lower stream in the Bengal delta region has been controlled, politicised, redistributed and transformed in the last decades - Sohorab addresses the aftermaths of human-led catastrophes. Alongside, he engages with the everyday practices of the people in the region in terms of their respect for natural ecosystems and their resistance towards the ‘patchy Anthropocene’. Almanac of an eroded land borrowed from our children continues Sohorab’s interest in channelling the geopolitical, topographical and ethnocultural transformation of the river delta region of South Asia. In this new installation, fragmented ‘edifices’ traced from the blueprint of dams and barrages built on the ‘Teesta’ river conjure up an abandoned eroded site. Hand loomed textiles made using non-toxic natural dye processes with domestic ingredients, techniques learned from local people, create a muted yet strong atmospheric spatial intervention. Injecting the idea of ‘blocked’ in a prudent sculptural and material play, Sohorab draws attention to the urgency of respecting indigenous knowledge and natural resources, beyond human possibilities and interspecies entanglements. b.1994 Dhaka, lives and works in London Habiba Nowrose Salvation , 2023 Photography Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 In Salvation, Habiba Nowrose reflects on ancient flood myths that span diverse cultures and religions as a way of critically examining the times we live in today. In Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu reincarnated as a fish to warn King Manu of a great deluge. The fish instructed Manu to build a boat and take with him every living creature that ever existed on Earth, in a male and female pair. When the flood came, the fish grew into a giant one and asked Manu to tie the boat to its horn, and the fish navigated the flood, taking them to safe land. Thus the world was saved from total destruction. Similarly, according to Abrahamic religious texts, Prophet Noah received a warning from God about a great flood that would be a punishment for the wickedness of humanity. Eventually, the great deluge came and washed away the wicked, leaving only the righteous to repopulate the Earth. In our current era, often referred to as the Anthropocene, Nowrose questions how humans have become the single most destructive species, causing an existential threat to the earth, and whether another deluge is needed in order to salvage the world. Habiba Nowrose explores human relationships and gender identities through photography. She makes photographic portraits that introduce different interpretations and perspectives on topics such as the life of HIV positive patients or mourning the death of a loved one. Nowrose takes careful mental note of objects, colours, patterns and locations that attract her on a repeated basis, which she then re-introduces in her carefully constructed compositions. These elements play a fundamental role in her interactive and psychologically poignant image-making process. b. 1989 in Sirajganj, lives and works in Dhaka Mojahid Musa Assimilated Musing VI , 2022-2023 Sculptural installation using recycled materials, clay, machinery parts, wood, metal, hair, jute, ornaments, found objects from nature, adhesive Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Assimilated Musing VI is a juxtaposition of the natural and manmade. A meticulous process of clay modelling is combined by Mojahid Musa with found materials to make extraordinary creatures that are ambiguous in their form. Merging traditional motifs through the techniques of assemblage, they fuse such disparate elements as jewellery, twigs, bird feathers and various types of metal. These ‘composites’ intend to suggest that an earth consisting of diverse naturally occurring substances exists. Musa’s artistic language draws on the enormously rich history of clay culture, as well as Bangladeshi traditional motifs and folk art, but it does so in a way that actively connects with contemporary issues. For Musa, these sculptures of animal forms play with notions of ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’; they also implicitly critique the position of the domestic animal as an industrial by-product of our time. Overall, his work aims to challenge assumptions about what we require, how we utilize it, and how we value it in society – looking critically at how we assess these shifting factors, and how the decisions we then make affect our daily lives. As a way of interrogating these questions, Musa draws on his own experience of his surroundings, as well as on his interest in how, more broadly, human social behaviour relates to its environment. He often speaks about a ‘robotic’ cosmopolitan and materialistic lifestyle, where people yearn to return to their roots, but how, in the rush of life, they miss out on the innocence of nature. b. 1990, Narshingdi; lives and works in Dhaka Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin In association with Md.Solayman, Md. Dulal & Jagannath Das ঠাউর, Gaze , 2022-2023 Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 In Gaze , Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin presents an installation of paintings, several of which were created in collaboration with cinema and rickshaw painters. In society, Gaze is established on the basis of a 'higher power key'. Who do we make a hero, what will the hero look like? Have we thought about the politics of power behind the ‘gaze’ of all these things? Cinema banner painting is one of the mediums of popular culture in Bengal. Gaze is an attempt to deconstruct the male protagonists seen in movie banners or rickshaw paintings. Cinema banner artist Md. Dulal, rickshaw painter Md. Solaiman and Jagannath Das worked with her on this series. Gaze continues Yasmin’s interest in SM Sultan, a key figure in modern Bangladeshi art, and more specifically, in how his identity has been perceived primarily through the heteronormative gaze. While many books and films have focused on his life, SM Sultan nonetheless remains an intriguing figure, particularly as he spent many years living as a recluse. For Yasmin, Sultan’s way of thinking was ahead of his time. Sultan used to wear saree often, and there are many documentary photographs and movies that show him in shirt/pant/lungi at a young age. When his art began to be appreciated in the West, and his paintings exhibited, photographers in Bangladesh showed him in suits/coats/pants. Has a picture of SM Sultan wearing a saree ever been seen in this country? Would it have been insulting to do so, and is it still too much to question the politics of 'respect' and 'insult' in our way of thinking? We have seen the convergent gaze of society. Are we not yet ready to accept the divergent gaze? Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin works across disciplines from photography, collage and installation to film and animation. She often collaborates with people from communities of different gender and sexual identities and has established a safe space gallery for artists who work with queer issues. b.1990, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Dinar Sultana Putul A space without a ship , 2023 Mixed media Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 Putul adopts an almost archival, quasi-scientific method of categorizing and documenting various hues, forms, textures, surfaces, as well as materials such as clay, coal, graphite, pulp made from newspapers (to demolish written language and establish visual language), and a slew of other discarded ephemera found in nature - all in pursuit of understanding its materiality. Putul’s respect for traditional ways of life is borne out in the hand-made objects she creates, and many of these elements are like fossils to her. At the same time, she is influenced by historical figures such as the engineer and architect Buckminster Fuller and utopian visions of a self-sustaining, egalitarian society. These new works draw on ideas expressed in Fuller’s book Grunch of Giants and the formal characteristics of cartographer and architect Bernard J. S. Cahill’s Butterfly map, which she then merges with her own artistic language and world view. Her interest in cosmology and imaginative cartography is inherently connected with pressing concerns around income and resource inequality. A space without a ship alludes to Fuller’s concept of ‘Spaceship Earth’, a phrase Fuller used to describe the entire planet. In this case however, the title implies that our trajectory is adrift, as we forge ahead without adequate care for the planet itself or humanity. Her work advocates, as Fuller did, for a collective rebalancing, or global cooperation around human intelligence and the earth’s resources, in a way that allows for an ‘integrated regenerative system’. b. 1988, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Ashfika Rahman Death of A Home , 2023 Installation Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 The eviction of ethnic minorities in Bangladesh is highlighted as a major concern in Ashfika Rahman’s Death of a Home , as the authorities find different excuses to uproot communities from the lands they have been living in for centuries. Created in dialogue with Santals (l ower caste Hindu communities), this installation brings to mind the interior of a lost home. A boot and ethnic poetry carved on the traditional Sil Batta (an age-old home appliance collected from a Santal village) lies on the ground, while protest songs from the community play on an archival radio that once aired protest songs for the Bengali nation during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The rhythm of the space questions the freedom of such ethnic groups within Bangladesh after half a century of liberation. Rahman’s practice explores and experiments with photography, using media ranging from historical techniques from 19th century printmaking to documentary approaches and contemporary media. Photography is the predominant medium that she uses to express her views on complex systemic social issues such as violence, rape, and religious extremism – often overlooked by the administrative machinery of the state. In her practice, she creates a conceptual timeline of the stereotypes of victims, repeated across history, notably with regard to minority communities in Bangladesh. b. 1988, Dhaka; lives and works in Dhaka Faysal Zaman (অ )পূর্ণ , (un)filled , 2021-2023 and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2023 (অ )পূর্ণ, (un)filled , brings together a distinctive materialistic procession that evokes the sense of limitlessness, conveyed through cyberspace-sourced archives, of the sufferers of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. In parallel, extracts of re-collected interviews with their loved ones outline their endless condition of agony and uncertainty. At times, the trajectory disturbingly blinks yet invites the onlookers to consider the tale of 'Enforced Disappearances' in Bangladesh from spiritual, material and emotive perspectives. Zaman’s artistic practice investigates the psychical compass of socio-political currency, which is often rooted in implied experiences. At the same time, his practice confronts and criticizes the socio-political structures rather than simply demonstrating or elucidating them. Thus, his artistic landscape synthesizes a sense of abstractness and translucent reality conveyed by a transdisciplinary manner that encircles research-led archival components, moving snippets, digital and found imagery along with individual photographs that are often scorched, burned, scratched, and re-photographed. b. 1996 Madaripur; lives and works in The Netherlands

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 Geological Movements ​ We may think of ‘land’ as fixed but it is constantly shifting: below us through erosion, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes; swirling above us as dust clouds. The earliest signs of life, the impetus of cellular movement, as well as aeons of extinction are inscribed in stone and fossils. Fossil fuels, created from the remains of life from the deep geological past, power much of our way of life and threaten our collective future through the violent process of extracting and burning them. Geological and political ruptures often overlap, and the artists in this movement excavate metaphors to consider our past, present, and future on this planet beyond human-bound paradigms. Their works challenge us to find commonalities and to emerge from this sediment to heal, imagine, design, and build new forms of togetherness. What will coalesce and fossilise our presence on this planet for lifetimes to come? Adrián Villar Rojas b. 1980, Argentina; lives and works nomadically New Mutants, 2017–2020 Moroccan marble floor tiles encrusted with Devonian period micro Ammonite and Goniatites fossils; blue chroma key paint; spices (turmeric, chili powder, garam masala powder); plant-based pigments (indigo, sindoor, alta), gouache; sand; potatoes and coal, on aggregate rammed earth walls Commissioned and produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Samdani Art Foundation, Marian Goodman Gallery, and kurimanzutto Fragments of this installation will be permanently on display at Srihatta, the Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet in a dedicated pavilion designed by the artist. Realised with additional support from kurimanzutto and Marian Goodman Gallery New Mutants is a new immersive installation by Adrián Villar Rojas where visitors enter DAS by walking over a marble floor encrusted with 400-million-year-old ammonite and orthoceras fossils. These now-extinct species of undersea creatures thrived for 300 million years, swimming across the super-ocean Panthalassa and witnessing the creation and breakup of the single continent Pangaea. A painting of a burned-out fireplace emerges from the rammed-earth walls that rise from the fossil floor, tracing the seismic shift that occurred in the evolution of humanity and our planet when we learned to control fire, invented agriculture, and began to settle and build civilisations. This work serves as a metaphor to think outside of human-bound time, and to consider common ground on which to come together. Villar Rojas creates site-specific installations using both organic and inorganic materials that undergo change over time. Tied to their exhibiting context, they generate irreproducible experiences relying on a ‘parasite-host’ relation. His team-based projects that extend over open-ended periods allow him to question the aftermath of the normalised production of art in the Capitalocene era. Elena Damiani b. 1979, Lima; lives and works in Lima As the dust settles, 2019–2020 Watercolour on handmade Lokta Barbour grey paper. Commissioned for DAS 2020 Courtesy of the artist and Revolver Gallery ‘There is a strange sympathy between the atmospheric particles that float through the sky and the human beings who migrate across the ground and then across the sea. Each body sets the other into motion – a pattern of movement and countermovement.’ Adrian Lahoud Elena Damiani has created a collage of watercolour renditions of storming dust particles in the atmosphere as captured by NASA. Several hundred million tonnes of dust unsettle and travel through the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from deserts to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. We imagine land to be static, but deforestation, desertification, and climate-change-related storms distribute dust across vast distances in our planet’s atmosphere. The handmade Nepalese paper beneath the layers of paint making up this work is a surface that could be read as stone tiles, an aerial view of a desert, or even a microscopic view of human skin. Damiani creates installations, objects, and works on paper that focus on the politics of space and memory. She portrays landscapes and geological processes to reinterpret natural stages and their generative processes. Her work draws inspiration from collage techniques and historical science books, while the stone and metal in her sculptures recall the environments she studies and refracts. Jonathas de Andrade b. 1982, Maceió; lives and works in Recife Pacifico, 2010 Super8 transferred in HD, 12 min Courtesy of the artist and Vermelho Through the process of animating a styrofoam board model with maps and paper, Jonathas de Andrade proposes a fictional geological solution for the political turmoil and violence that normally accompanies changes of borders. A massive earthquake erupts over the Andes, detaching Chile from the South American continent. As a consequence, the sea returns to Bolivia, restoring its lost coastline, Argentina gains coasts with both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and Chile becomes a floating island adrift in the seas. The aesthetic approach of the film allows the artist to touch upon topics such as the notion of truth as an ideological construction and the fabrication of mass commotion/emotion as political artifice. De Andrade works predominantly with installations, videos, and photo-research. Addressing those overlooked in the dominant cultural narrative of Brazil, the artist ponders on the relationships between different social milieus. In collaboration with labourers, indigenous tribes, the disabled, and others, de Andrade commonly points out the inequality stemming from the discourses of colonialism and neo-imperialism. The artist co-founded the artistic collective A Casa como Convém in 2007. Karan Shrestha b. 1985, Kathmandu; lives and works between Kathmandu and Mumbai in these folds, 2019 Ink on paper, three-channel HD video Commissioned for DAS 2020 Courtesy of the artist Within Nepal’s contained geography, the landscape presents possibilities for adversity to spring from any fissure: be it a decade of revolutionary upheaval, political instability, natural disasters, economic ruptures, repressed social edifices, or perpetual state violence. Through the installation of a three-channel video and an ink drawing, in these folds addresses the resulting precariousness that has characterised Nepal’s recent past. Incorporating documentary and fiction, Karan Shreshta questions the rhetoric of progress prescribed for paving the way forward and considers how transcendental practices that have endured over time are attempts at grappling with the everyday. Shrestha’s works overlay encounters in physical landscapes on mental maps of people and spaces he comes across so as to examine and restructure notions of the present. His practice – incorporating drawings, sculpture, photography, text, film, and video – seeks to blur the oppositions that build and define our individual and collective identities. Matías Duville b. 1974, Buenos Aires; lives and works in Buenos Aires Untitled, 2019 Sanguine on paper My red way, 2019 Sanguine on paper Levitating in red, 2019 Sanguine on paper, sandpaper Courtesy of the artist and Barro Gallery Matías Duville’s earthy mud and iron-oxide-infused sanguine drawings call to mind landscapes in transition from natural disasters and also from human interference from the extraction and clearing processes needed for infrastructure development. Similar to these methods, Duville’s drawings pulse with expressive brutality, trying to represent what the end of the world might look like both in a geographical and psychological sense. These works are inspired by the mental landscapes that are created inside our heads when we look directly at the sun and close our eyes to recover from its blinding light. The artist takes us along on his journey deep into the mind, trying to connect us with the idea of a universe out of control. Duville works with objects, videos, and installations, although he predominantly employs drawing. His works evoke scenes of desolation with rarified, timeless atmospheres like those that precede a natural disaster: hurricanes, tsunamis, or situations of abandonment in the forest that act as a dreamlike vision of a wandering explorer, like a mental landscape. Omer Wasim b. 1988, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi In the Heart of Mountains, 2019 Charcoal on canvas, lacquer, wooden armatures Commissioned for DAS 2020 Courtesy of the artist In the Heart of Mountains situates us amidst Omer Wasim’s journey in the mountains of the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, a contested terrain that he scaled with queer friends and friendships. The work, as well as his action, denounces romantic visions and imaginaries of the area perpetuated by the state, and instead relies on charcoal to make visible the mountains as witnesses to state violence, colonial and neo-colonial rule, and as sites where many death-worlds arise. These mountains anticipate their own demise, foreshadowing capital interests in the region that are in diametric opposition to nature, ecology, and people. Queer bodies and community enable this mode of inquiry, becoming, in the process, insurgents that counter state-sponsored redaction and violence. While it also stands alone as an installation, the work also becomes an environment for new readings into the future. Wasim is an intermedia artist whose practice queers space, subverting the frames of development and progress that shape human relationships to the city and nature. His work bears witness to the relentless erasure, violence, destruction of our times by staying with queer bodies as they hold space and enact desire. Otobong Nkanga b. 1974, Kano; lives and works in Antwerp Landversation, 2020 Site-specific installation and conversations from Dhaka Commissioned and produced by Samdani Art Foundation for DAS 2020. Courtesy of the artist, Samdani Art Foundation, and Mendes Wood DM. Realised with additional support from Unilever Bangladesh. Project coordinator Helena Ramos Land extends beyond mere soil, territories, and earth. It relates to our connectivity and conflicts in relation to the spaces we live in and how humans try to find solutions through simple gestures of innovation and repair. As relationships with nature and people become affected, how can we find a platform to share, learn, exchange and heal? A series of tables forming a circular structure serve as the basis for an exchange between visitors and a group of people who all have close – professional, caring, vital – relationships with the earth. Otobong Nkanga weaves together strands of landversations realised in Beirut, Shanghai, and São Paulo in this project’s newest iteration in Dhaka, and her collaborators have included geologists, housing and land rights activists, farmers, and many others who transform the land itself into other realities. What is ordinarily constructed through their contact with land now forms the foundation for new situations of exchange and transmission, activating interpersonal networks that come together in DAS with the power to move the world outside the exhibition. Nkanga’s drawings, installations, photographs, sculptures and performances examine the social and topographical relationship to our everyday environment. By exploring the notion of land as a place of non-belonging, Nkanga provides an alternative meaning to the social ideas of identity. Paradoxically, she brings to light the memories and historical impacts provoked by humans and nature. Raphael Hefti b. 1978, Biel; lives and works in Zurich Quick Fix Remix, 2015/2020 Sculptures created from performance with thermite powder and sand Courtesy of the artist. Realised with additional support from Pro Helvetia Raphael Hefti uses the language of material to communicate a fascination with the behaviour of liquid metals, a material history which is part of the epic story of human civilisation across vast geographies. This performance, a spectacle between blunder and precision, is a conversation with the world of heavy industries and iron casting. The artist misappropriates thermite welding processes typically used to repair high-speed train tracks, transforming liquid steel through a blazing landscape of incisions that leaves behind a bed of solidified metal debris. Just as volcanic eruptions make visible the hidden energy properties of the molten rock and liquid metal moving deep within the earth, Hefti’s ‘artistic alchemy’ makes visible the hidden industrial practices and processes that form the machine-made landscapes powering our way of life. Working across sculpture, installation, painting, photography, and performance, Raphael Hefti explores how humans transform materials in the everyday urban landscape by pushing and testing material limits, while removing these materials from utilitarian obligations. He often works with teams of industry technicians to modify and misapply routine procedures and construction methods to open up new possibilities and unexpected beauty through guided accidents that he documents in his work.

ALL PROJECTS Shako and National Trovoa Dhaka Art Summit 2020 Several artist-led initiatives have been tearing away the cloak of invisibility thrown by structural racism within the art world. The manifesto of Brazil’s National Trovoa , a group of black and non-white women artists and curators which can be seen both as a collective and as a movement, states ‘We understand the need to speak of and to exhibit the plurality of our languages, discourses, research and media produced by us as racialised women’. A rallying call that lives in physical and digital space, Trovoa counts over 150 members and empowers the most disenfranchised members of the art world to become visible together. Shako – Women Artists Association of Bangladesh – for women and by women – believes art can play a role in healing society. It raises funds for individuals, male and female, who are unwell or in need of medical treatment; uses art to encourage physically or mentally challenged people; and promotes female artists and helps them develop skills. A ‘shako’ is a temporary bamboo bridge, built to make it possible to cross rivers and streams, an apt metaphor for Shako’s work connecting talented female artists to vulnerable communities. Reflections on blackness and racial subjugation must respond to different histories and contexts. The largest African diaspora in the world is found in Brazil. In South Asia also, the colour of a woman’s skin can subject her to structural prejudice. Skin-lightening creams are used widely across the country, derogatory phrases are directed at women with dark skin or indigenous features, and advertisements for arranged marriages explicitly favour ‘fair skin’. The Collective Body brings together these two generations of female-led collectives from South Asia and South America for a 5-hour tea party to compare experiences, and in their words, to ‘darken our thoughts.’ The results of these discussions was published in Bangla, English, and Portuguese on social media, follow #darkeningthoughts Shako also ran a workshop about black empowerment on 13 February from 4–6pm in the 4th floor workshop area.

ALL PROJECTS Art Pro Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum 2020 Artpro’s projects mobilise artists to work with less visible segments of society, often working to bridge expressions of urban and rural culture. Nakshi Katha: Interwoven Dialogues (2019–2020) exemplifies their collaborative process. This research-based project involved 4 Dhaka based artists and 24 Jamalpur based Nakshi Kantha embroiderers through storytelling workshops. In the Nakshi Kantha tradition, communities (primarily of women) share stories and pass time together embroidering closely linked linear stitches on found fabrics. Bangladesh once had 6 seasons which are depicted in its songs and folk culture, but climate change has reduced this number to 4 or 5 (depending on who you ask). Artpro engaged with the community in Jamalpur to share memories about these seasons, collaborating with the artisans to then stitch these on a saree that was divided into 6 individual panels. The depictions of Boishahk (Summer), the Rainy Season, Autumn, Winter, and Spring are joined by the ‘missing season’ of ‘Late Autumn’ created by the artisans during the first 2 days of DAS. Visitors share memories tied to this lost period of the year and these are memorialized in textile form through the expressions of the artisans.

ALL PROJECTS One Hundred Thousand Small Tales MMCA, Colombo, 12 Dec 2019 - 12 Mar 2020 Dhaka Art Summit 2018 exhibition one hundred thousand small tales travels to The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Sri Lanka. Commissioned by the Dhaka Art Summit, the exhibition was first shown at DAS in February 2018.

ALL PROJECTS ART BASEL HONG KONG 2018 RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN 27-31 MARCH 2018 | ART BASEL HONG KONG HAVING NOTICED THAT THERE ARE NOT VERY MANY PUBLIC MONUMENTS THAT CELEBRATE NON-WHITE OR NON-COLONIAL FIGURES, RAMESH MARIO NITHIYENDRAN TRIED TO ENVISION A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAY OF MEMORIALISING PEOPLE WHO SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS OF WHAT IS CONSIDERED ACCEPTABLE. Following their debut at the Dhaka Art Summit 2018, Ramesh Mario's, Idols (2016-2018) travelled to Art Basel Hong Kong where they formed part of the Art Fair's Encounters , curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor. Commissioned and Produced by Samdani Art Foundation and Artspace, Sydney for DAS 2018 with support from the Australia Council for the Arts. Courtesy of the artist, Samdani Art Foundation, Artspace Sydney, and Sullivan + Strumpf.