Fabric(Ated) Fractures Is a Collaboration Between the Samdani Art Foundation and Alserkal at Concrete, Dubai
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Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live. Rabindranath Tagore Curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai Fabric(ated) Fractures is a collaboration between the Samdani Art Foundation and Alserkal at Concrete, Dubai. foreword | Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal 8 foreword | Nadia Samdani 10 contents An Interwoven Culture Holding Tight at the Seams | Diana Campbell Betancourt 12 The Changing Paradigms of Bangladeshi Art | Ruxmini Reckvana Q Choudhury 18 art(ists) 23 Pablo Bartholomew, Untitled 26 Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Soul Piercing 30 Rashid Choudhury, Untitled (Calligraphy - Allahu) 34 Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad, Birth to Death 38 Shilpa Gupta, Untitled 42 Hitman Gurung, This is My Home, My Land and My Country 46 Ayesha Jatoi, Residue 50 Ashfika Rahman,Rape is Political 54 Joydeb Roaja, Generation Wish Yielding Trees and Atomic Tree 03 58 Reetu Sattar, Harano Sur (Lost Tune) 62 Kamruzzaman Shadhin, Haven Is Elsewhere 66 Debasish Shom, In the Rivers Dark 70 Jakkai Siributr, The Outlaw’s Flag 74 Munem Wasif, Land of Undefined Territory 78 bio(graphies) 83 acknowledgements 96 (Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal) Founder, Alserkal At the core of Alserkal’s ethos is the endeavour to cultural practitioners as they explore their and discursively—to amplify artistic dialogues, and bring the richness and diversity of contemporary practices; and creating a platform for artistic write chapters of cultural history through regional art from the region to the global stage. Dubai’s and discursive exchange. and international collaborations and initiatives. historical relevance as a trading outpost mid- way between East and West has placed it at the This collaboration further champions the Together with Alserkal Director, Vilma Jurkute, confluence of cultures and global narratives. The intrinsic values we share with the Samdani Art and the Alserkal team, I’d like to thank the artists, Dubai of today embodies that essence of plurality Foundation, by fostering a growing South to Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, along with the team foreword and multiculturalism; reflecting the city’s evolution, South dialogue which draws in the practices of at Samdani Art Foundation, and the curator Alserkal has grown to become a platform where cultural practitioners beyond our own borders, Diana Campbell Betancourt for a seminal show, these conversations thrive. Through each of our and broadening the context of contemporary and for their contributions to the growing, and partnerships, we serve as a conduit for building global art conversations. Fabric(ated) Fractures tells longstanding, cultural exchange between the cultural bridges. the story of a multi-faceted country through the Middle East and South Asia. voices of 15 artists who draw on the rich history Our relationship with the Samdani Art Foundation of Bangladesh to reflect on the current moment, began long before Fabric(ated) Fractures. From highlighting the invaluable nature of historical our very first encounter, the Foundation’s values context in cultural dialogue. echoed strongly with our own. As we discovered the various commonalities in our mandates, we What better place to continue a conversation explored ways to further bring our shared vision to that started at the Dhaka Art Summit 2016 than life: making interdisciplinary dialogue part of the Concrete, a space that highlights the importance fabric of our contemporary societies; supporting of preservation and that allows us—both physically 8 9 (Nadia Samdani) Co-Founder and President, Samdani Art Foundation, Director, Dhaka Art Summit South and Southeast Asia. We work to challenge and Singapore Biennale; Kamruzzaman Shadhin’s shallow definitions of Bangladesh and South immersive fabric monument to human resilience Asia that turn to lowest-common-denominator across borders was commissioned for DAS 2018, and foreword methodologies to group people together–such as travelled to the Garage Museum of Art in Moscow; focusing on religion. Much of the violence our Pablo Bartholomew’s exploration of shared cultural region has seen over the past century has stemmed DNA between indigenous communities in India, from manufactured religious divides created by Bangladesh, and Myanmar was commissioned for colonial powers as a tool to control our people DAS 2018, and has been exhibited in Hong Kong, The Samdani Art Foundation is delighted to and our resources. This exhibition points to the New Delhi, and Yangon; and Reetu Sattar’s haunting partner with Alserkal and Concrete to present our plurality of religious and ethnic identities that make performance and filmLost Tune travelled to the first exhibition in the UAE,Fabric(ated) Fractures, up the rich culture we experience in and around Liverpool Biennial and the Rotterdam International curated by our Artistic Director Diana Campbell Bangladesh today. It also sheds light on the plight Film Festival. My husband Rajeeb and I could not Betancourt. Featuring 15 artists from Bangladesh, that these people endure to try to maintain these be more delighted to add Dubai to the list of places India, Nepal, Thailand, and Pakistan, this identities in the 21st century, as the borders between where these works will come to life when seen and exhibition speaks to the ongoing evolution of our countries and people grow increasingly tighter. discussed by new audiences. foundation and our Dhaka Art Summit initiative, which seeks to connect people across national Many of the works in this exhibition have been divides by emphasising our shared cultural history, commissioned and produced by the Samdani while simultaneously celebrating the importance Art Foundation as part of our ongoing initiatives of our differences and the history of plurality supporting artists to experiment, travel, and embedded in our region. We consistently try to explore new horizons without the pressure found challenge regional definitions; people do not tend in commercial platforms. Shilpa Gupta’s series to define themselves in geopolitically defined terms. exploring border enclaves between India and Bangladesh was first unveiled at DAS as one of The fourth Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), held in 2018, our first foundation commissions in 2014, and it turned its gaze east to draw in Southeast Asian has since travelled to Venice, Delhi, and Berlin, and Pacific Island practices into the fold of our and showed the world the complexities of border traditionally South Asian exhibition and research politics in our young country; Munem Wasif’s platform. This was responding to the bottleneck we haunting photographs of the border between India were experiencing between these two regions in the and Bangladesh near Sylhet was commissioned for midst of the Rohingya crisis; Bangladesh straddles DAS 2016 and travelled to the Gwangju Biennale 10 11 An Interwoven Culture of the vibrant and diverse threads that comprise a When I was first invited to envision an exhibition in Holding yet-to-be crystalised identity in the wounded border Concrete, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture’s areas related to Bangladesh; areas that cannot (OMA) first building in the UAE, I wondered how I be defined with a single overarching regional could possibly do curatorial justice to the fragility of framing device. the contexts and gestures that these artists and the Tight Dhaka Art Summit create through our work in such While this exhibition was born within the borders a precise and imposing building. The answer came of what is now considered Bangladesh, the lines when stepping outside its confines and into the at the demarcating this young country are constantly 1,370-square-metre courtyard linking Concrete to shifting. The waters that move across its edges are the rest of Alserkal Avenue and its diverse creative shared with India and Myanmar, flowing into wider community.[4] Although on a much grander scale, Seams border issues that extend into Thailand, Pakistan, The Yard reminded me of the heart and soul of and Nepal—the countries that the 15 artists in this the traditional Bengali household—the courtyard exhibition come from. These artists bear witness known as uthan, around which single-storied hut (Diana Campbell Betancourt) to violence unfolding in their locales and on their dwellings are arranged in villages across East and communities, and their work often acts as a register West Bengal. The inner-houses and outer-houses Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation, for this trauma, grounding the constricting present reflect patterns of pastoral heritage that evolved Chief Curator, Dhaka Art Summit in a more porous past. Despite carrying the weight across generations and alongside changing belief of enormous pain, the deeply poetic practices of systems, and accommodate family functions such these artists create spaces of empathy through as sleeping, cooking, and dining as well as formal which new modes of solidarity might be imagined. functions that involve engaging and socialising with They break down reductive national and regional the wider community.[5] narratives and reformulate them from a more local and human perspective. Fabric(ated) Fractures considers contexts that anthropologist Jason Cons describes as ‘sensitive spaces’–spaces that challenge ideas of nation, state, and territory where cultures exist that do not fit the image that the state has for itself.[1,2]Sensitive [1] Jason Cons, Sensitive Space: Fragmented Territory at the India Bangladesh Border (Seattle: University of spaces are often razed, with their people forced to Washington Press, 2016), 154. succumb to the state and submit to the domination [2] This concept takes inspiration from Sonal Khullar, “Everyday Partitions”, Third Text 31.2 or 31.3 (April 2017), of majority forces.[3] However, the social fabric of 359–386, doi: 10.1080/09528822.2017.1386946. these spaces often remains intact, a testament to [3] For a more expanded discussion of these ideas, see Diana Campbell Betancourt, “Bearing Point 4” in Dhaka Art human fortitude, even if its people are dislocated Summit: 2-10 February 2018, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy: Exhibition Guide.