“If you want to know about South Asian Art, this is the place to be”

The third Dhaka Art Summit is in full swing at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, and will continue till 9pm tomorrow. The Daily Star caught up with the mastermind of this massive international event, the founder of the Samdani Art Foundation.

What's the focus of Dhaka Art Summit, in general?
Rajeeb: Dhaka Art Summit is, at its core, a research platform, and it's the single largest research-based event of South Asian art. What we do is we conduct our researches on art of eight South Asian countries, and our curators put all that together into the exhibition.

What's new at the Summit this year?
Rajeeb: Apart from the usual exhibitions, we are adding two new highlights: one is “Architecture in Bangladesh” – curated by the architecture curator of France's Centre Pompidou, with works of 17 Bangladeshi architects. The other is an exhibit of Modern Masters – called “Rewind”. Three Bangladeshi masters are featuring in it: SM Sultan, Rashid Choudhury and Safiuddin Ahmed. Also this year, six curators from world-renowned museums, including the likes of Tate, Ruben, Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum – have been working for two years for this year's summit. It's a rare instance in the world of art to have six such big name curators work on one festival.

What is the demographic of the artists and participants of this year's Summit?
Rajeeb: We have over 300 artists and scholars participating, and 65% of the artists are Bangladeshi. Apart from that, 72 speakers are taking part in various panel talks. The artists are either from the eight South Asian countries, or artists who have a strong connection to this region.

What are your expectations in terms of participation at this year's DAS?
Rajeeb: Last year, 70,000 people turned up in three days, which was beyond expectations. This year, we have extended it by a day, and two hours every day (10am-9pm), so locally we hope double the number of people will visit. Apart from that, over 500 foreign visitors are here for the summit alone, including curators and directors of 71 museums and institutions. I don't know if any other event in Bangladesh draws this much international attention (smiles). Universities like Harvard and Yale have partnered with us; they have recognized that this is a true research platform for South Asian art. If you want to know about South Asian art, this is the place to be.