KATHMANDU, APRIL 06
Nepal is all set to debut at the 59th Venice Biennale scheduled to take place from April 23 to November 27 in Italy. The Nepal Pavilion at the mega art event will feature works of artist Ang Tsherin Sherpa and will be curated by Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gurung.
In a press meet held in the Capital on April 6, KK Karmacharya, Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) shared that Nepal debuting at the event is a matter of pride. Nepal's participation in the exhibition with its pavilion will help introduce Nepali art and culture to the world, and ultimately promote Nepal as a destination for religious and cultural tourism, he said.
The pavilion is being installed by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation with the joint effort of the NAFA and Siddhartha Arts Foundation as commissioners for the Nepali Pavilion, Karmacharya informed.
Rubin Museum of Art, USA also supported Nepal to instal its separate pavilion at the event, as per him.
Sherpa will be collaborating with 16 other Nepali artists for the exhibition at the festival under the theme 'Tales of Muted Spirits - Dispersed Threads -Twisted Shangri-la'.
"International understanding of Nepali art remains plagued by a Western conceptualisation of the Himalayan region - a pervasive, romanticised vision that frames Nepal as static, pure, and untouched by time and modernity," he said and shared, "We need to create a space to reflect and re-evaluate these biases through such international exhibitions."
Rajbhandari said that Nepal has always been linked to the concept of Shangri-La effects under which Nepal is considered a sense of mystique, sacredness, and remoteness.
"However, many things have changed now. Fluidity, mobility, and exchange of knowledge have flourished between communities for centuries," she said and added that any nation being economically backward doesn't mean that its artworks are also poor and this will be proved during the exhibition.
Sangeeta Thapa, Founder of the Siddhartha Arts Foundation, said, "Art is also a medium - artists also create artworks of culture that have existed in the hills and mountains.
So, this is a chance to showcase such culture before the world at the Venice Biennale through our arts."
A version of this article appears in the print on April 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
