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Books & arts

Experiencing Seismic Movements of DAS

Movimientos Emisores de Existencia by Héctor Zamora.

On the penultimate day of Dhaka Art Summit, better known DAS, Colors’ Lamyaa Yushra paid a visit to the epicenter of South Asian art, absorbed its energy and felt its ripples. Afsana Chowdhury Reevu and Kazi Mukul also contributed to this article.

The atmosphere was electric. The summit goers eyes were glued to exhibits, trying to experience the diverse sight and sound of artistic productions that adorn spaces of the Shilpakala Academy. 

The biennial event organized by Samdani Art Foundation since 2012, offered its 5th edition from 7-15 February planned in the manner of an orchestra. In the words of the chief curator of DAS Diana Campbell DAS has been ‘arranged into both improvised and organized movements that can be experienced separately, but the complete work requires all of the diverse sounds and rhythms resounding within it to be considered together’.  

The latest edition, that was held with the theme ‘Seismic Movement’ focused on artistic upheaval in the region over the years – anti-colonial or independence movement, and various social movements – as reflected in different artworks that were put on display during the nine-day exhibition.

In the Heart of Mountains by Omer Wasim 2019. Charcoal on canvas, lacquer, wooden armatures.
Installation image from Her garden, a mirror at The Kitchen by Chitra Ganesh.
Installation image from Her garden, a mirror at The Kitchen by Chitra Ganesh.
Installation image from Her garden, a mirror at The Kitchen by Chitra Ganesh.
Installation view of The Collective Body at DAS 2020, picturing SAVVY x Jothashilpa, ‘Geographies of Imagination’; and Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, ‘LOVE LETTER TO THE LAST SUN’, 2019-2020, mixed media.
Clarissa Tossin, A Queda do Céu (The Falling Sky) (2019). Laminated archival inkjet prints and wood. Exhibition view: Seismic Movements, Dhaka Art Summit, Shipakala Art Academy (7–15 February 2020).
Tokai_a very famous Bangladeshi cartoon featuring street children by Rafikun Nabi.
Fact of Matter, 2009. The development and international exhibition of Choreographic Objects by William Forsythe is made possible with the generous support of Susanne Klatten.
The Arch of the Dhuis, Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil by Aman Iwan 2019.

On the cool evening of Friday February 14, I found the Shilpakala Academy compound was buzzing with people of all ages, many admiring the cutting-edge artistic production of contemporary South Asia. It was Pahela Falgun, the first day of the spring in Bangladesh, coincided with the Valentine’s Day this year. Women were draped in colorful saris and brought life to the new immersive installation by Adrián Villar Rojas. Visitors entering the installation work walk over a marble floor encrusted with 400-million-year-old ammonite and orthoceras fossils. This work is a metaphor for a prehistoric time, time that is not human-bound, and points to common ground on which man and nature to come together. Villar Rojas creates site-specific installations using both organic and inorganic materials that undergo change over time. 

The installation features extinct species of undersea creatures thrived for 300 million years, swimming across the super-ocean Panthalassa from the safety of their shells and witnessing the creation and breakup of the single continent Pangaea. Their geological presence in the Himalayas speaks to a time when these melting peaks were once under water. This work serves as a metaphor to think of the mankind’s past, present, and future on this planet outside of human-bound time, and to consider common ground on which to come together.

Visitors entering through a newly commissioned performative installation by Kamruzzaman Shadhin in collaboration with the artist-led initiative Gidree Bawlee; the work considers the role of the British-era railways in changing Bengal’s lands from growing rice to producing jute through migration stories found in traditional folk songs from Bangladesh.

One of the most eye-catching work was by the famous Héctor Zamora who explores what a life emancipated from this burden might look like as women smash the pots that weigh them down with patriarchal burdens. The artwork of Nilima Sheikh who created one of her largest murals to date, chronicled women’s struggles in Kashmir, the epicenter of the destruction left in the wake of the British exit from the subcontinent.

Candice Lin’s work establishes a network of connections between historical and contemporary Asian and African diasporas in the Americas, as well as their generational traumas. Papaver Somniferum is a tapestry where a person is ravaged by snarling beasts, speaking to the necropolitical horrors of life in the Caribbean for Asian and African workers brought across the seas to grow commodities for imperial consumption.

In The Roots of Industry, Lin reinterprets an engraving of Bolivian silver mines by Theodor de Bry. The Andean potato was cultivated to feed indigenous miners mining silver and mercury in South America. This silver and the excess potatoes traveled across the sea and fueled the Industrial Revolution, changing the course of world history. In The Tea Table, Lin appropriates an engraving by John Bowles (c. 1710) which was a satire on affluent fashionable ladies and featured a devil lurking under the table as Envy drives Justice and Truth out of a door. In this rendition, Lin draws connections between tea, opium, and sugar by replacing the symbolic figures with images of tea production and opium abuse.

Lat Shaheber Chair, 2015 by Dhali Al Mamun.

Local artists too were celebrated with a rich array of art pieces being displayed at the event. Dhali Al Mamoon is known for his versatile experimental works. His drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations and videos explore history and identity of Bengal. Born in Chandpur and currently living in the port city Chattogram, Mamoon is a professor at the Department of Painting, Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Chittagong. His art writings reflect the anti-colonial perspective and shed light on issues related to colonial mentality such as inferiority complex in the colonized people.

One of his pieces, showcased at the Dhaka Art Summit, presents how the colonizers came to this part of the globe. The piece is a sculpture of a throne and composed mainly of two different materials, symbolizing what was left behind after the colonial rule. One part of the throne looks like wooden Victorian furniture, made of spices, representing what the colonizers have taken. And the other half is skeletal structure, which the artist composed using bandage and plaster, representing what the colonizers left behind. The legs of the throne are hooves, symbolizing movement.

A visitor takes photos of artworks displayed at the 5th Dhaka Art Summit.

Despite the delight of visiting the art summit, it eas shocking to see that some people tend to go over the boundary set for each of the artwork to click photos. Nonetheless, the Dhaka Art Summit was a success. It is extremely encouraging to see appreciation of art in our country. Hopefully in the coming years, many youth will be regular visitors to the Art Summit giving art the recognition it deserves. The summit celebrates the rich history of arts, and shows that the arts are alive in our nation.

Tousif Amin Noor

A young writer from NY

Tousif Amin Noor came all the way from New York to Bangladesh to visit the Dhaka Art Summit. The son of immigrant parents from Bangladesh, he explores in art the roots and traditions of the land of his forefathers and also global art works in a Dhaka atmosphere. ‘One of the great things about this art summit is that it shows greatness of Bangladeshi arts and artists. This is the place where a lot of cultural activities are happening and also shows what happens elsewhere in the world. This showcases richness of Bangladeshi culture,’ Tousif says of his enthusiasm for the event.

‘What is amazing in the summit is that every one was engaging.. This is just start of a (greater) dialogue’

A young writer, he sees the art summit as platform for dialogue and conversation with critical question if anyone is left of the conversation as art is also political. He was impressed by art works that portrayed feminism and also the diverse works of Bangladeshi artists. Appreciating learning attitude at the summit, he emphasizes that Bangladeshis as immigrants need to be represented and recognized on their new homelands. ‘What is amazing in the summit is that every one was engaging.. This is just start of a (greater) dialogue,’ he adds.

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