Ruxmini Choudhury
Conference Report. November 2023
I am a Dhaka-based curator working at the Samdani Art Foundation, which promotes artists and Bangladeshi architects on the global art scene as well as work connecting Bengal to the rest of the world. My focus in the Foundation is to work with young artists, researching the historical and cultural practices of Bangladesh and the Bengal Delta, and creating a space for the general public to engage in contemporary art practice.
The 55th Annual Conference of CIMAM has given me a unique opportunity to learn about different museums and foundations that share the theme of The Co-Creative Museum: Social Agency, Ethics, and Heritage.
I have been working with the Samdani Art Foundation for the last nine years on creating a platform for artists, awarding traditional craftsmen and contemporary artists similar acknowledgment and respect. The conference allowed museums and institutions to share their practices on this very topic and how they are developing their projects, which to me was fascinating and I hope to see how these ideas can become part of my practice as a curator.
Due to issues with my flight, I was only able to attend the last day of the Conference. However, I was really intrigued by the speakers on that last day. As an ally of LGBTQIA+ and working closely with the Bangladeshi artists of the community, I really appreciated María Belén Correa, Director and Founder of the Trans Argentina Memory Archive, and Sidhi Vhisatya, Curator of the Queer Indonesia Archive (QIA) in Jimbaran, especially the way they shared their practice and the archives they are creating. It was really an eye-opener for me and with the long history of cultural practices of transgender community of Bangladesh, who are now fighting for their rights, this kind of archive is really important to create. I am really inspired by them and have engaged in conversation with my LGBTQIA+ community friends to think about creating such an archive. I am hoping something amazing may happen soon.
As Director of Darat al Funun – Khalid Shoman Foundation, Luma Hamdan’s presentation was really thought-provoking and gave me an in-depth idea of how to develop a space involving communities. The Samdani Art Foundation will soon open an art center in the countryside of Sylhet surrounded by villages and we are really thinking about how to create a space where the villagers feel welcomed and can engage with artists and researchers: that is, how we can create a space to which local people can connect. Her presentation inspired many ways of creating agencies for these people. The other speakers were also amazing, really bringing in changes in the cultural practices in their own countries. They all were very inspiring and I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions.
The afternoon visits to Las Deudas and Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito were a treat! Both these artists' initiatives are quite different, but both are trying to build spaces to create while surviving through art. Working with artists initiatives in Bangladesh for last five or six years, I have found similarities with Argentina’s art scene, but in my country there is still a lack of experience in creating community markets for the local people from which artists may benefit. I think there is a lot to learn from the initiatives of Argentina regarding how to open up spaces and create social engagement, and through that also create a small art market.
Since I missed the first two days, I stayed for a longer period, affording the opportunity to meet artists, collectives, and spaces. I found similarities in our histories and economic situation and I have to admit, the art scene is one of the most vibrant I have witnessed, all the more amazing because they keep working without any funds and support.
Meeting some wonderful minds has been another highlight of the Conference. Although I was not present in the first two days, I felt very welcome and immediately made a good connection with many of the delegates. I have met new people and reunited with old ones. The CIMAM Board Members as well as the museum were really helpful and made me feel comfortable. Special appreciation to Suhanya Raffel, President of CIMAM and Director of M+ Hong Kong; Kamini Sawhney, Director of the Bangalore Museum of Art and Photography; and Victoria Noorthoorn, Director of the Museo Moderno de Buenos Aires, who gave their time and engaged in an in-depth conversation with me. I have also found curators and artists with similar interests, and we are planning on developing programs together.
The CIMAM Annual Conference has been a wonderful experience for me, and I am really grateful to the whole team of CIMAM for guiding and supporting me from the beginning to the end.
Bio
I am a Bangladesh-based curator and art researcher. As a Curator, I aim to always create connections with young and emerging artists and nurture and promote them. Although my practice includes working with all sorts of artists, my interest lies in practices that are hybrid, both conceptually and material based. I search for artists who provide new perspectives to old ideas and new ideas in old practices. My research interest expands on the subaltern and decolonial practices through community engagement, queer narrative as well as individual exploration of the land. I have been working for the Samdani Art Foundation for the last 8.5 years where I work as a core curatorial member of the foundation and Dhaka Art Summit under Diana Campbel to research and develop programmings. I have also done extensive research on the artists-led initiatives in Bangladesh which then led to inviting 11 Bangladeshi artist-led initiatives to join the Samdani Artist-Led Initiatives Forum for a three years long programming where we promoted and supported each of the initiatives. This led to the collective exhibitions and programmings for the DAS 2020 where I was an Assistant Curator. During the pandemic I developed a programme ‘Footnotes to the Future’, a series of discussion sessions as a learning tool for Bangladeshi artists and art enthusiasts, held every Thursday for 8 months under Art Around the Table initiated by Diana Campbell. I have had the opportunity to work with amazing curators such as Nada Raza, Devika Singh, Daniel Baumann, Philippe Pirotte, Sean Anderson, Anne Barlow, Simon Castets, Tarun Nagesh and Akansha Rastogi who have profound knowledge in their own field. Some of my co-curated and assisted exhibitions are: Very Small Feelings (DAS 2023, traveling to Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in July 2023), Bonna (DAS 2023), Colonial Movements (DAS 2023), Surfacing Intension: On Muzharul Islam (DAS 2020), From Fukuoka to Back: Asian Art Biennale in Context (2018), Bearing Points (2018), to name a few. My curatorial practice also aims for making art accessible to the audience and bringing art to the people and thus started the Art Mediation Programme for the first time in Bangladesh which successfully completed its third edition at the Dhaka Art Summit 2023 with 123 art mediators.