Bangladeshi art in the spotlight
Pictured L-R: Rajeeb Samdani, Co-founder and Trustee of Samdani Art Foundation; Vilma Jurkute, Director of Alserkal Avenue; Nadia Samdani, Co-founder and President of Samdani Art Foundation; Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director of Samdani Art Foundation and Chief Curator of Dhaka Art Summit; Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, Founder of Alserkal Avenue, Alserkal Programming and Alserkal Residency. Photo credit Dan Weill.
A curated exhibition of leading contemporary artists from Bangladesh, South and Southeast Asia will form an essential part of the March programming at Alserkal Avenue in 2019. In a collaboration with the Samdani Art Foundation from Dhaka, Fabric(cated) Fractures, will explore sensitive spaces – a term first coined by anthropologist Jason Cons to describe spaces that challenge ideas of nation, state, and territory. Cons’ 2016 book Sensitive Space: Fragmented Territory at the India-Bangladesh Border discusses the removal of spaces at the border with their people forced to succumb to the state, subdue to its needs, and submit to the domination of majority forces. This throws into question the social fabric of these spaces, which often remains intact even if its people are displaced and their dwellings levelled – a testament of human resilience. The artists and works featured in Fabric(ated) Fractures respond to the complexities of these sensitive spaces.
Curated by Samdani Art Foundation Artistic Director Diana Campbell Betancourt, Fabric(ated) Fractures also explores connection to language and the creation of the nation of Bangladesh. This exhibition aims to weave a more complex picture of the vibrant and diverse facets that comprise a yet-to-be crystallised Bangladeshi identity in a country less than fifty years old. Finally, it is an extension of There Once was a Village Here held at Dhaka Art Summit 2018 and it will also introduce new works from artists with a connection to Bangladesh.
Fabric(ated) Fractures. Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. March 9-23, 2019