‘We have failed to tell our story,’ Rajeeb told Forbes. ‘We have failed to tell the story of our genocide. We have failed to tell the story of our long history of art and literature.’ He was speaking about Bangladesh, after the couple coproduced an exhibition of photojournalist Anne de Henning at Paris’s Guimet National Museum of Asian Art. He, wife Nadia and the artistic director of their Samdani Art Foundation, Campbell, are on a mission to change that, not least through the five previous – with the next slated for 2023 – editions of their Dhaka Art Summit. Via this biennial conference of exhibitions, prizes and talks, they have promoted artistic production in the country and wider region, and brought the artworld to Bangladesh. While Srihatta, their planned private art centre, is delayed, they continue to promote local production overseas (this year providing financing for the Britto Arts Trust’s presence at Documenta and artist Munem Wasif at the Lyon Biennale).
Advertisement
Power 100
Most influential people in 2022 in the contemporary artworld
82

Nadia & Rajeeb Samdani, Diana Campbell
Collectors; Curator - The collectors and curator building an art scene in Bangladesh
82 in 2022
- 202282
- 202149
- 202041
- 201947
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2013
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010
- 2009
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005

Advertisement