Staff Reporter, Dhaka : Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary visual art, in partnership with the British Council, will be hosting a week of events, discourse and networking from 1-6 August, coinciding with Liverpool Biennial 2023 ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’. The event aims to enhance learning and collaboration between UK and international curators. The selected delegates from Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Uganda will attend the event. Liverpool Biennial is running its 12th edition from 10 June to 17 September 2023.

Sadia Sartaj Rahman, an independent editor and curator based in Dhaka, has been nominated as the curators’ week delegate from Bangladesh. Working in Bengali and English, Sadia has designed and delivered public programmes, exhibitions, and publications in significant not-for-profit arts initiatives in Bangladesh and the UK. As an active participant in the ‘Ke Ba Kahara’ curatorial collective, creating accessible public works through open, supportive, egalitarian, and attentive practices is her key focus.

Sadia mentioned, “I look forward to a concentrated period of exchange and learning with a community of like-minded practitioners from diverse backgrounds and contexts committed to examining and creating care practices through exhibition-making and programming. I hope the programme will provide opportunities for spontaneous questions, unpredictable connections, and unusual inspiration by bringing practitioners together to think about care and caring in focussed but open-ended ways”.

David Knox, Director Programmes Bangladesh, British Council, said, ‘We are excited that our art and cultural engagement work continues building vibrant material connections between the UK and Bangladesh. We hope that more artists from Bangladesh, like Sadia Sartaj Rahman, participate in the Liverpool Biennial, which is such an important part of the UK’s visual art scene. It provides a unique for artists to amplify and exhibit their talents and explore knowledge-sharing opportunities in the UK.’

Apart from the all-embracing workshop itself, Sadia and other delegates will attend performances by Liverpool Biennial 2023 artists and hospitality events with local and national organisations, artists and curators, studio visits with local artists and present their practice or interests to the group. There will also be an opportunity to discover the broader cultural scene in the region with day trips to Manchester and Leeds to experience Sonia Boyce’s Golden Lion-winning Venice Biennale exhibition, ‘Feeling Her Way’, at the Leeds Art Gallery.