ART DUBAI COMMISSION 2023

For Art Dubai 2023, the programme is looking at bringing artists to the heart of the fair through daily performance and food-based experiences. Further supporting the fair’s mandate to bring art from the Global South to the forefront, the programme focus is on cultural production from South Asia. Artists will be using a mix of food and performances, taking visitors on a journey from Dubai, to South Asia, and back again through activating the six senses.

The commissions use performance, food practices, and design to explore themes of community, celebration, hope, and connection. These encounters will take place in a purpose-built space at the fair, and programmed to allow for plurality in both the artists that partake and the format in which each commission takes place. Ultimately these encounters will come together; unifying aspects of public interactions and communal celebrations as powerful tools to think about the world around us.

1ST MARCH

All Day

Rathin Barman, Experimenter

Rathin has been collecting recipes over the years for an ongoing recipe book project

For this programme, Rathin presents a short booklet with 2-3 dishes from his collection of recipes, tying in sketches, poetry, and storytelling. It will also feature the dishes and performances of the other artists in the commission which creates a limited edition Art Dubai recipe book available in physical and digital version.

Moza Almarooshi, HUNNA Art Gallery

Based on previous works that documented movements performed by bakers and confectioners, the performance will take place on and around a long table, while two performers will bake the entire 35 alphabets throughout the duration of the fair.

The dough will be moved to the venue’s kitchen at the end of each performance to be baked, and then the bread in various shapes will be presented to the visitors.

Mahbubur Rahman, (Britto Arts Trust) Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

The performance reminisces on a ‘Langar-Khana’ – a community kitchen introduced as an aftermath to the Bengal famines of 1943 that served one common meal free of charge, regardless of religion and ethnicity.

Recalling the past history of Bengal and following the British old days costume designs, 5 artists wearing attires created by 5 designers from Bangladesh will accompany the performance in serving Khichuri as part of Langar-Khana.

6:00 – 7:00pm

Lapdiang Syiem, Samdani Art Foundation KNMA

The artist will present a live performance that is an exploration of the Khasi folk narrative of “U Sier Lapalang”, which will include the wild herb ‘U Jangew Jathang’ which is used as a popular ingredient in salads in that region.

In this performance, the artist will use the herb to recreate a chutney served with rice cakes. The work focuses on memory, retelling, landscape and grief as an emotion that drives the narrative of border crossing and how it resonates in the Khasi community in these times, and attempts to capture how memory exists and dances in these landscapes that are also going through a process of change and perhaps erasure.

7:00 – 8:00pm

Anoli Perera, Shrine Empire

There are two rituals from the traditional celebration of Sinhala New Year: one is the exchange of money as gifts, a token of friendship and renewal and the other is the exchange of food as sharing of the celebration and notions of prosperity with neighbours, friends and family in the new year.

The performance gives a nuanced rendition of the way such practices get interpreted in the contemporary times.

8:00 – 9:00pm

Dastaangoi, Faraz Ali

The performance re-imagines a Pak Tea House, which is a historic tea house that was known as a meeting place and was traditionally frequented by the country’s artistic, cultural and literary personalities especially until the 1990s

Kashmiri tea will be served throughout the performance as the space engage in intellectual conversations around the subcontinent and poetry of the country’s finest writers whilst accompanied by soundscape installation of the original Pak Tea House to complete the ambience.

2ND MARCH

All Day

Rathin Barman, Experimenter

Rathin has been collecting recipes over the years for an ongoing recipe book project

Moza Almarooshi, HUNNA Art Gallery

The dough will be moved to the venue’s kitchen at the end of each performance to be baked, and then the bread in various shapes will be presented to the visitors.

Mahbubur Rahman, (Britto Arts Trust) Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

4:00 – 5:00pm

Prajakta Potnis, Project 88

A subtle and abstract sound installation of gurgling empty stomachs will be played in the space as a reminder of hunger, malnutrition, and the general lack of means faced by those living in poverty She will also incorporate the sounds of an empty vessel while a selection for short films surrounding the theme plays on loop throughout the performance.

5:30 – 6:00pm

Tayeba Begum Lipi, Shrine Empire

The artist will engage participants in the story and making of Rasamanjuri, a Bangladeshi dessert from a little sweet-shop run by Ramesh Ghosh which was a must have in every celebration in her village.

The act of serving, making, and storytelling become a performance as visitors roll the Rasamanjuri balls of dough as an act of coming together in the space and forming bonds of community.

7:00 – 8:00pm

Amol Patil, Ishara Art Foundation

In collaboration with Parul Sinha and Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch

In the collaborative performance of ‘After Reaching Boiling Point’ the artist incorporates stories, poems and songs of resistance emerging from anti-caste struggles in 20th and 21st century India and Péz, a dish consisting of water rice that has been a source of nourishment for the Dalit Community in Maharashtra and the Konkan regions.

Amol Patil invites Yalgaar cultural troupe for a performance installation, where poetry of revolution is presented as a ‘Recipe Book of Resistance’

3RD MARCH

All Day

Rathin Barman, Experimenter

Rathin has been collecting recipes over the years for an ongoing recipe book project

Moza Almarooshi, HUNNA Art Gallery

The dough will be moved to the venue’s kitchen at the end of each performance to be baked, and then the bread in various shapes will be presented to the visitors.

Mahbubur Rahman, (Britto Arts Trust) Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

4:00 – 5:00pm

Gunjan Kumar, Exhibit 320

The performance will present a multi-sensory experience as the artist will be making Halwa, a sweet dish in the Indian subcontinent made from semolina and incorporating various flavors associated with spring, inspired by Amir Khusrao’s poem Sakal Ban. Amir Khusrao is a 13th century Indian poet who wrote poetry primarily in Persian and Hindavi.

The month of March is associated with the advent of spring in the east. The color yellow is of special significance during this season as winter recedes and the flowers in full bloom.

5:30 – 6:00pm

Thukral & Tagra, Kochi-Muziris Biennale

The performance “Breadwinner” is an interactive game with logical rules that encourages people to question the forms of sustenance in our everyday lives that are constantly altering. This playful work subverts materiality and highlights daily survival amongst evolving socio-economic-political discourses.

Appropriating this logic to critique the new cultural economy, Thukral & Tagra probe the very authority that curates art in spectacular and repeated regular intervals, reviewing the profundity of the world in a discursive manner and incorporating bread in this context.

7:00 – 8:00pm

Anoli Perera, Shrine Empire

The performance gives a nuanced rendition of the way such practices get interpreted in the contemporary times.

4TH MARCH

All Day

Rathin Barman, Experimenter

Rathin has been collecting recipes over the years for an ongoing recipe book project

Moza Almarooshi, HUNNA Art Gallery

The dough will be moved to the venue’s kitchen at the end of each performance to be baked, and then the bread in various shapes will be presented to the visitors.

Mahbubur Rahman, (Britto Arts Trust) Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

4:00 – 5:00pm

Lapdiang Syiem, Samdani Art Foundation KNMA

7:00 – 8:00pm

Tayeba Begum Lipi, Shrine Empire

The act of serving, making, and storytelling become a performance as visitors roll the Rasamanjuri balls of dough as an act of coming together in the space and forming bonds of community.

5:30 – 6:00pm

Amol Patil, Ishara Art Foundation

In collaboration with Parul Sinha and Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch

Amol Patil invites Yalgaar cultural troupe for a performance installation, where poetry of revolution is presented as a ‘Recipe Book of Resistance’

5TH MARCH

All Day

Rathin Barman, Experimenter

Rathin has been collecting recipes over the years for an ongoing recipe book project

Moza Almarooshi, HUNNA Art Gallery

The dough will be moved to the venue’s kitchen at the end of each performance to be baked, and then the bread in various shapes will be presented to the visitors.

Mahbubur Rahman, (Britto Arts Trust) Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation

2:00 – 3:00pm

Gunjan Kumar, Exhibit 320

The month of March is associated with the advent of spring in the east. The color yellow is of special significance during this season as winter recedes and the flowers in full bloom.

3:30 – 4:00pm

Prajakta Potnis, Project 88

5:00 – 5:30pm

Dastaangoi, Faraz Ali

Participating Artists

AMOL PATIL

Mumbai, India

Amol Patil (b. 1987) is a conceptual and performance artist based in Mumbai. After his education in the visual arts from Rachana Sansad Academy of Fine Arts and Crafts, Mumbai, his work has explored the intersection of performance art, theatre, music, kinetic art and video installation. Patil’s work excavates and investigates family traditions: his grandfather was an interpreter and a poet, and his father was an avant-garde playwright. Patil has considered art as a method of resistance. His projects build counter-memory and contest narratives that describe and disturb the relationship between communities and their environments.

PRAJAKTA POTNIS

Mumbai, India

Prajakta Potnis is an Indian contemporary artist based in Mumbai working in photography, painting, sculpture and installations. Her work explores the connections between intimate and public worlds, and the topographies that influence global politics and economics. Her practice sails through painting, site-specific sculptural installations to public art interventions. She has extensively shown her works since 2001 nationally and internationally.

GUNJAN KUMAR

Punjab, India

Gunjan Kumar is an artist, independent scholar and educator based in Chicago originally from Punjab, India. She has spent the last 15 years traveling through rural parts of India and other countries in southeast Asia, observing age-old practices in art, visiting archaeological sites, prehistoric cave paintings and some of the oldest known schools of art. These experiences form the undertone of her art practice. Her process involves ground earth and organic matter applied as core mediums on natural surfaces with techniques inspired by traditional methods.

RATHIN BARMAN

Kolkata, India

Rathin Barman lives and works in Kolkata, India. He examines the nuances of the modern built environment as a tool for understanding socio-political history. For over a decade, Barman, trained as an engineer and then a sculptor, has been working on understanding urban sprawl and how the built environment and architecture adapts itself to a growing influx of people over extended periods of time.

ANOLI PERERA

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Anoli Perera is an artist and arts writer. Hailed as the pioneering contemporary woman artist in Sri Lanka who ushered in art that is informed by feminism and craft art practices, her work engages critically on themes that range from women’s issues, history, and myth, to identity, colonialism, and post-colonial anxieties. Anoli Perera is a co-founder of the Theertha International Artists Collective, a progressive art initiative, based in Colombo. She maintains studios in New Delhi, India, and Colombo, Sri Lanka

TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Tayeba Begum Lipi (b.1969, Bangladesh) is a visual artist who through a creative range of media explores feminist issues of marginality and representation of the female body, addressing societal contradictions, often questioning the sexual stereotypes that dominate women’s lives around the world. Tayeba Begum Lipi recreates everyday objects, such as bathtubs, baby perambulators, picture frames, and handbags, appearing as if they are encased in their own suit of metallic armor.

LAPDIANG SYIEM

Meghalaya, India

An actor trained in physical theatre, Lapdiang Syiem is based in Meghalaya, India, where her interest lies in revisiting Khasi folktales and adapting these to her performances. She locates her theatrical expression in the oral tradition of her minority matrilineal community. Her practice is deeply physical, drawing on techniques from her diverse training. Lapdiang presents Khasi folktales with a contemporary vision, engaging with questions of gender and identity.

THUKRAL & TAGRA

Delhi, India

Thukral and Tagra are a Delhi-based artist duo comprising Jiten Thukral (b. 1976, Jalandhar, Punjab) and Sumir
Tagra (b. 1979, New Delhi). Driven by the artistic methodologies of painting, gaming, archiving, and publishing,
their multifaceted studio practice reflects the scope of engagement in the cultural and political landscape of India
and the world. While their early career work dealt with the intricacies of consumer culture globally, their recent
interest in ecology and climate change is a revisiting of their family histories of migration and farming in the Indian
state of Punjab.

Foundation Partners

Dastaangoi

Dastaangoi is a global organization that aims to promote the diversity and richness of contemporary South Asian art, design, and culture to the world through curating stories, podcasts and products.

Dastaangoi, Inc. was founded in 2020 by Waleeya Ahmad and Amad Mian on the belief that pride in Pakistani culture and collaborative tradition of storytelling need to be revived.

VISIT WEBSITE

Ishara Art Foundation

The Ishara Art Foundation was founded in 2019 as a non-profit organisation dedicated to presenting contemporary art of South Asia. Located in Dubai, the foundation supports emerging and established artists that champion critical dialogue and explore global interconnections.

Ishara realises its mission through exhibitions, onsite and online programmes, education initiatives and collaborations in the UAE and internationally. The foundation facilitates exchange between South Asian and international artistic networks that include museums, foundations, institutions, galleries and individuals.

The Ishara logo, a synthesis of a square and circle, is based on an ideogram by the celebrated Indian-American artist Zarina to convey the word آسمان (‘Aasman’), sky. It forms one of 36 images from ‘Home is a Foreign Place’ (1999), a work in the collection of Ishara’s Founder and Chairperson, Smita Prabhakar. Ishara signifies a gesture, a signal or a hint, and is a word common to several languages including Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Swahili and Urdu.

Ishara Art Foundation is presented in partnership with Alserkal.

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Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

Established at the initiative of the avid art collector Kiran Nadar, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) opened its doors to the public in January 2010, as the first private museum of art exhibiting Modern and contemporary works from India and the sub-continent. Located in the heart of New Delhi, India’s capital city, KNMA as a non-commercial, not-for-profit organisation intends to exemplify the dynamic relationship between art and culture through its exhibitions, publications, educational, and public programs.

VISIT WEBSITE

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Founded in 2011, Kochi-Muziris Biennale is India’s first ever biennial of international contemporary art and its story is unique to India’s current reality—its political, social and artistic landscape. It began as a government initiative, when the Department of Cultural Affairs of Government of Kerala approached two artists—Riyas Komu and Bose Krishnamachari—to help organise an international platform for art in India. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to invoke the latent cosmopolitan spirit of the modern metropolis of Kochi and its mythical past, Muziris, and create a platform that will introduce contemporary international visual art theory and practice to India, showcase and debate new Indian and international aesthetics and art experiences and enable a dialogue among artists, curators, and the public.

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Samdani Art Foundation

The Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) is a private arts trust based in Dhaka, Bangladesh founded in 2011 by collector couple Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani to support the work of the country’s contemporary artists and architects. Led by Artistic Director and Curator Diana Campbell, SAF seeks to expand the audience engaging with contemporary art across Bangladesh and increase international exposure for the country’s artists and architects. Its programmes support Bangladeshi artists and architects in broadening their creative horizons through production grants, residencies, education programs, and exhibitions. SAF produces the renowned bi-annual Dhaka Art Summit (DAS), which it founded in 2012.

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Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation in collaboration with Britto Arts Trust

Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation (DBF) is a non-profit organisation established in 2018, with a mission to support and promote art from South Asia and beyond in a critical, international art context. Its Projects and Programming cultivate and present rigorous artistic and socially responsible practices through exhibitions, commissions, residencies, community engagement programmes and publications, with the aim of developing new dialogues, narratives and interconnections between home-based and diaspora South Asian artists and the international cultural community. These goals are strengthened by fruitful synergies with cross-platform cultural Partners globally, including educational and governmental institutions, museums, foundations and non-profits, art fairs and art festivals, community platforms and charities.

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Britto Arts Trust is the first artists’ run non- profit collective in Bangladesh with a global reach founded in 2002 by 6 artists and permanently located at Green Road, Dhaka but works extensively in different locations across the country. Britto Arts Trust is an expansive and sustainable non- commercial contemporary art environment and culture that seeds and promotes multiple interdisciplinary practitioners, groups and networks. As a catalyst it provides a platform for the development of professional artists, a place where they can meet, discuss and upgrade their skills on their own terms.

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