Asian Art Calendar of Events

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Fairs - Asia

12th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2006

Department of Fine Arts, National Academy of Fine & Performing Arts of Bangladesh
Segunbagicha, Ramna,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mar 01, 2006 To Mar 31, 2006

Detail: The 12th Asian Art Biennale is proud to showcase the artistic heritage and contemporary art in Asia and kindred regions. It is the firm belief of the organizers that with each Biennale, a new milestone in the unique art movement in Asia will have been crossed showing progress achieved by established and young artists through their works that reflect continuity and change and embrace modernity with tradition. Bangladesh Biennale, since its inception in 1981, has attempted to display the kaleidoscope of various artistic endeavours extant at present in which continuity and change meld spontaneously. The geographical parameter is important only in a generic sense and also for identification of sponsorship in this pioneering venture. It was inevitable that with time other regions that share, more or less, the same artistic impulses and face the same challenge of forging an identity of their own, would be included in the exhibition as has happened in recent years. It is the substance of artistic creativity at present that binds the regions represented in the exhibition together.

Phone No.: 88-02-9550602 Ext-20
Fax: 88-02-9562801-4
Contact Email: bsa@dhaka.net

Further Details:
The Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh was conceived with the assumptions of continuity and change and the co-existence of modernity and tradition in Asian countries. The give and take between the cultural traditions of the 'East' with the "modernity" in art in the west is subsumed in this assumption. It is emphasized, however, that it is only in non-western societies as in Asia that the cultural landscape is in such a flux and ferment as to be unique. Technologically, Asian countries may be late-comers (though a few have overtaken the west or are at par) but in cultural terms they have rich traditions based on collective ethos and age-old aesthetics. The fact that the activities of quotidian nature were intertwined with cultural creativity and there was no separation between art and craft, make the cultural tradition of less industrialised countries more vibrant and varied. Artists in Asia and kindred regions have been influenced by this symbiosis of art and craft, using many of their elements as motifs even as they exposed themselves to the modern trend in art and culture of the west. It is, therefore, not in a geographical sense that Asian art or art of similar regions becomes meaningful and significant as a category. The ferment and flux in which it exists and the mutual accommodation with the west in which it thrives, give a especial identity to Asian art. Moreover, art and culture in these societies have not been homogenized and standardised to the same extent as in the west. Backed by rich tradition and faced with the modern trends evolved in the west, artists in non-western countries have a more challenging and aesthetically a more stimulating task.