Karachi Art Summit to begin on March 21

A private bank, in collaboration with the Tourism and Culture Department of Sindh, has announced that the Karachi Art Summit will be held from March 21 to April 8. 

The opening ceremony will be held at National Museum on March 21, featuring artisans and performers across country, according to a press release issued on Monday.

The inaugural brunch for the summit was held on March 5 by the founder of the Karachi Art Summit, Zainab Jafri.

The main aim of the summit is to bring visual art into public spaces to invite, encourage and even impose public engagement on the audience. Projects will be created to interact with viewers to create a stage that is autonomous and reachable.

Talking to the media, Faysal Bank President Nauman Ansari stated: “Karachi Art Summit is one of its kind event, just as the Karachi & Lahore Eat Festival. Faysal Bank takes pride in taking the lead in bringing such events to our people. Showcasing art and being able to express with it in front of a larger audience is something new to the people of Karachi which is why, this event will demonstrate expertise of renowned artists to the general public.”

He added, “This summit is sure to create a lot of opportunities for the young artists who will be able to engage with the arts community as well as a platform for the aesthetes who are truly involved with the arts to connect with the artists.”

In the Karachi Art Summit, besides various site-specific installations and sculptures, there are two curatorial projects, more than 80 artists including 34 international artists, three talks and five performances. Artists from other countries are also participating with their curatorial projects. Few artists are travelling from Lahore as well as Hyderabad in order to install their work on the sites. 

All the sites are outdoors and will encourage public to interact and experience contemporary art. Our sites include National Museum, Arts Council, Kothari Parade, State Bank Museum, Commune Artist Colony, Fomma Art Trust, Goethe Institut, Alliance Francaise de Karachi, Karachi University, Iqra University, Frere Hall, Quaid-e-Azam House, Free Mason’s Lodge and Mohatta Palace Museum. These venues are main historical buildings of Karachi and are open for general public. Site-specific installations and a few monumental pieces of sculpture will engage the public who are not familiar with contemporary art and the role of art in general. These majorly crowded public spaces all over Karachi will create a new trend of visiting art galleries.

The Karachi Art Summit aims to bring together modernism, distinction and criticality through a multiplicity of curatorial strategies in order to showcase artists from Pakistan to the world while also strengthening a regional art exchange that benefits communities on a larger scale. 

“Pakistan has begun to feature prominently on the global map with the many ingenious interests that arise with the international accomplishments of its artists. These achievements reflect the depth and vitality of art production in the country that is garnering the attention of the entire world.”