Visit here to learn more about DAS 2023

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. Founded in 2012 by the Samdani Art Foundation—which continues to produce the festival—in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, DAS is hosted every two years at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Following the fifth edition subtitled Seismic Movements which welcomed nearly 500,000 visitors in nine days in February 2020, its sixth edition is the first edition with a Bangla subtitle; বন্যা/Bonna. 

DAS 2023 considers the ways in which we inherit and form vocabularies to understand the world around us, and the mistranslation that can ensue when we try to apply these vocabularies to unfamiliar contexts; the same word can migrate from positive to negative connotations and back depending on how and where it travels. Weather and water as shapers of history and culture as well as being metaphors for life in general are viewed in an embodied way through the lens of those who live in Bangladesh, next to the sea and rivers, underneath the storm systems, feeling the wind and rain. This is further explored through a consideration of how Bengali children encounter these phenomena, palpably but also via the stories passed down through generations. The aim is to see past the limits of translation which can be incapable of conveying the different ways we negotiate the world, and open up new channels for transcultural empathy. How do you tell the story of a crisis, while facilitating hope?

The word for flood, ‘Bonna,’ is also given as a common name for girls in Bangladesh. A flood in Bangladesh does not simply translate into the dominant idea of the word flood carrying a singular connotation of “disaster.” Rather, the DAS concept of Bonna challenges binaries - between necessity and excess, between regeneration and disaster, between adult and child, between male and female. DAS 2023 invokes and interprets Bonna as a complex symbol-system, which is indigenous, personal and at once universal, an embodied non-human reversal of how storms, cyclones, tsunamis, stars, and all environment crises and discoveries are named, allowing Bonna, the young girl, to speak from Bangladesh to the world; she asks why the words for weather are gendered, what the relationship between gender, the built environment, and climate change might be. 

During Bengali New Year, Bangladeshi people sing a song written by Rabindranath Tagore, Esho he Boishakh, which calls upon the first month of summer to bring storms to wash away any residue of ugliness from the previous year: “'Bring forth and sound your conch of storm, Let the foggy mesh of ugly illusion be gone.” Ebb and flow, drought and abundance are phenomena that have shaped the culture and history of Bangladesh (and South Asia) just as a river cuts an ever-changing path as it seeks lower ground. When considering this, and the traditional ways of coping and celebrating polar forces, we must acknowledge that climate change is accelerating and causing even more dramatic events, often beyond the capacity of even the most resilient people’s ability to survive.  During the planning stages of DAS 2023 the north-western part of the country was overwhelmed with severe flooding and we are releasing the thematics of Dhaka Art Summit at a time where devastating floods and the many lives lost and made precarious in South Asia demand our urgent attention. This is a sobering instruction to consider the implications during DAS 2023 for a country that has always managed to co-exist with extremes. 

Storms have eyes and eyes have storms. We can be flooded with emotions, yet reduced to singular drops of tears. We give storms human names; we describe human emotions using terms that are also applied to weather. A tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal was captured in the iconic “Blue Marble'' image of the Earth in 1972, the first full image of the Earth taken from space and one of the most circulated images of all time. The Bangladeshi artist and climate justice activist Nabil Ahmed points out that the cyclone in this image derives “from the same tropical storm system that produced Bhola, which devastated the coast of East Pakistan in November 1970. In its aftermath followed a genocide and war of national liberation for present-day Bangladesh. After Bhola, looking at a cyclone will never be the same; the potential for political violence and an ever-circling wind are united as one.” Extreme weather and the absence of state management was the tipping point for Bangladeshis to declare independence in 1971 and fight for the right to express themselves in their own language. As the Ghanaian-Scottish designer, thinker and educator Lesley Lokko insightfully points out, “When you are in the eye of the storm, this is often the right point to push for maximum change.” 

DAS 2023 proposes to listen to the lands and waters of Bangladesh and its people to tell stories and imagine futures where people regard what the planet and non-human intelligences have to say, as opposed to the clock or the calendar. DAS 2023 is about the power of water and the double paradox of how floods and their impact may be (mis)understood. Bonna also concerns the power of translation– how do Bangladeshi understandings of life challenge those who might have only understood the flood and its manifestations as a mistranslation and for those now experiencing similar climatic challenges. By extension, the Bangladeshi artist and researcher Shawon Akand expands upon mud as a metaphor for the adaptive power of Bengalis; mud can be hard as stone when baked under the summer sun, a fertile bed for crops during the harvest season, and liquid during the monsoon, all without losing its essence. 

DAS is a continually unfolding story imagined by hundreds of contributors, and this edition will include over 120 artists, architects, and writers, over 60% Bangladeshi, and over 50% producing new work for the show. Bonna is the fifth chapter under the Artistic Direction of Chief Curator Diana Campbell and is complemented by a series of intersecting exhibitions including the Samdani Art Award curated by Anne Barlow (Director, Tate St. Ives), To Enter the Sky curated by Sean Anderson (Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at Cornell University’s Department of Architecture), দ্বৈধ(a duality) curated by Bishwajit Goswami (Assistant Professor, Department of Drawing and Painting, University of Dhaka) with research support from Muhammad Nafisur Rahman (Assistant Professor of Communication Design at the School of Design, College of DAAP, University of Cincinnati) in collaboration with Brihatta Art Foundation, and Very Small Feelings, co-curated by Campbell and Akansha Rastogi (Senior Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art) with Ruxmini Choudhury (Assistant Curator Samdani Art Foundation), and a transnational folklore research team with contributions from Kanak Chanpa Chakma and other indigenous thought leaders connecting traditions across Bangladesh and Northeast India.

Very Small Feelings is co-produced by Samdani Art Foundation and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.  More than an exhibition, this institutional exchange experiments with modalities of transgenerational artistic engagement and will travel to KNMA in July 2023 as part of the institution’s Young Artists of our Times initiative.  It is for the first time that two major contemporary art institutions from South Asia are collaborating on this scale and committing to develop this exhibition into a platform to highlight the works of younger artists' voices, under-represented art historical narratives from both Bangladesh and India, and create dialogues with works of select international artists and voices. Such extensive facilitation and exchange between contemporary artists through exhibition-making, book-making, co-commissioning and loaning of artworks between Bangladesh and India is unprecedented, with an intent to continue and multiply this exchange beyond 2023.  Very Small Feelings, as well as the wider Summit, seeks to encounter our “inner child” and bind us strongly to it as we learn how to walk in a new world that emerged after DAS 2020. The Gidree Bawlee Foundation for the Arts wrote this play and produced this video for DAS 2023 as part of its collaboration with KNMA and the World Weather Network, both an artwork in itself, but also a trailer to introduce Bonna to audiences connected to the internet all over the world. 

More details about DAS curatorial and artistic contributions will be released over the coming months. 

DAS is a platform that wishes to channel and flow awareness, agency, and resources into some of the world’s most climatically impacted areas through the forcefield of possibility which is art and culture and through the power of networks. Here we are joined by Friendship, which develops scalable solutions to strengthen marginalized communities, and empowers people to transform their lives and reach their full potential, and Jaago Foundation who have been working towards the development of primary education system in the remote and underprivileged areas as well as creating sustainable infrastructure for children in vulnerable areas. 

Like a cloud which is built up from condensed water, DAS 2023 will also circulate ideas and artworks to places with similar challenges at both ends of climate extremes (drought and flood), and become part of a constellation of world weathers as a Weather Station of the World Weather Network, broadcasting from Bangladesh to the world across the 9 days of the Summit.  While DAS is not a biennale, Bonna wants to become friends with Natasha from Singapore and EVA from Limerick once they are born. Just as clouds gather in the sky to replenish the earth, we encourage our visitors (if possible) to visit Sharjah Biennial (opening February 7) and Kochi Biennale as spaces that further the blooming of new conversations, ideas, and solidarities that allow us to build better futures. 

Reflecting on the upcoming edition, Nadia Samdani MBE, Co-Founder and President of SAF and Director of DAS: “We’re incredibly excited to bring the Dhaka Art Summit back to life after three years. Offering a local and international platform for Bangladeshi artists, the Summit has launched so many artistic careers over the years, with many of its commissions still traveling or acquired by institutions all over the world. 2023 is an opportunity to create new opportunities for artists and watch their journeys continue to grow.”

Chief Curator: Diana Campbell (Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation)

with Curator Ruxmini Reckvana Q Chourhury and Curatorial Assistant Swilin Haque of Samdani Art Foundation

With Guest Curators: Akansha Rastogi (Senior Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, co-curator Very Small Feelings), Sean Anderson (Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at Cornell University’s Department of Architecture, curator To Enter the Sky), Anne Barlow (Director, Tate St. Ives, curator Samdani Art Award), Bishwajit Goswami (Assistant Professor, Department of Drawing and Painting, University of Dhaka, curator দ্বৈধ )

And Assistant Curator Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury

With Curatorial Contributions:

• Aaron Cezar

• Alexie Glass-Kantor

• Chus Martinez

• Daniel Baumann

• Fernanda Brenner

• Helena Kritis

• Iaroslav Volovod

• iLiana Fokianaki

• Michelle Newton

• Muhammad Nafisur Rahman

• Rosa de Graaf

• Sadya Mizan

• Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy

Transcultural Folklore Research Forum:

• Esther Syiem

• Kanak Chanpa Chakma 

• L. Somy Royis

• Michael Lujan Bevacqua

• Mohammed Rezuwan 

Talks Fellow:

Martina Yordanova 

Artists:

Abdul Guffar Babu, Abdus Shakoor Shah, Abir Abdullah, Abul Barq Alvi, Ade Diyanita and Aditya Novali, Afield, Afra Marciel Eisma, Afrah Shafiq, Agnieszka Kurant, Ahmed Rasel, Ahmed Shamsuddoha, Ahmet Ogut, Alok Roy, Alakesh Ghosh, Ali Kazim, Amitav Ghosh with Ali Sethi & Salman Toor , Amit Dutta, Anga Art Collective, Anisuzzaman Anis, Anisuzzaman, Anpu Varkey, Antara Mehrukh Azad, Anthony McCall, Antony Gormley, Arif Baul, ArtPro, Artreach India, Ashfika Rahman, Ashrafia Adib, Ayesha Sultana, Aziza Chaouni, Benodebehari Mukherjee, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Bishwajit Goswami, Blaise Joseph and Atreyee Day with NEGfire, Brihatta, Chittaprosad, Daniel Boyd, Damasush Hacha, David Horvitz, Dhali Al Mamun, Dilara Begum Jolly, Dinar Sultana Putul, Dipa Mahbuba Yasmin, Driant Zeneli, Emran Hossain, FACE, Farida Zaman, Faysal Zaman, Felecia Davis & Delia Dumitrescu, Friendship, Ganesh Pyne, Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts, Gullyboy Rana & Tabib Mahmud, Ha Bik Chuen Archive, Habiba Nowrose, Hamiduzzaman Khan, Hana Miletic, Hashem Khan, Irushi Tennekoon, Jaago Foundation, Jamal Ahmed, Jani Ruscica, Jessy Razafimandimby, Jothashilpa, Joydeb Roaja, Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisty, Kamruzzaman Shadhin, Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Kasper Bosmans, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Lala Rukh, Lapdiang Syiem, Leela Mukherjee, Lokesh Khodke, Lucas Arruda, Mahmuda Siddika, Marina Perez Simao, Marina Tabassum, Marzia Farhana, Marzia Migliora, Matt Copson, Matthew Krishanu, Mauruf Jameel, Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq, Michael John Whelan, Miet Warlop, Mohammad Eunus, Mohammad Shihab Uddin, Mojahid Musa, Mong Mong Sho, Monica Jahan Bose. Monirul Islam, Mostafizul Haque, Mustafa Monwar, Munem Wasif, Murari Jha, Nabil Ahmed, Najmun Nahar Keya, Nazlee Laila Mansur, Neha Choksi and Rachelle Rojany, Nikima Jagudajev, Niloofar Chaman, Nisar Hossain, Olalekan Jeyifous, Pol Taburet, Prasad Shetty & Rupali Gupte, Purnima Aktar, Rafiqun Nabi, Rakib Anwar, Rana Begum, Rasel Rana, Re/Dress, Rezwan Shahriar Sumit, Rithika Merchant, Rizvi Hassan, Rokeya Sultana, Roman Ondak, Rohingya Cultural Memory Center, Safiuddin Ahmed, Sahej Rahal, Sana Shahmuradova-Tanska, Sanjoy Chakraborty, Sarker Protick, Satyajit Ray, Shada Kortaal, Shaheen Dill-Riaz, Shahid Kabir, Shahzia Sikander, Shaunak Sen, Shawon Akand, Shezad Dawood, Sheikh Afzal Hossain, Shen Xin, Shoummo Saha, Simon Fujiwara, SM Sultan, Sohorab Rabbey, Soma Surovi Jannat, Storia Na Lugar (Patti Anahory and Cesar Cardoso), Suchi Reddy, Sumayya Vally, Sumi Anjuman, Susanta Mandal, Tanya Goel, Tarun Ghosh, Thao Nguyen Phan, Transend BD, Veronika Hapchenko, We Are From Here Collective, Yasmin Jahan Nupur.