Abu Naser Robii
Curator, Performance Artist & Founder-Director, Porapara Space for Artists
Creating Spaces for Transformation
My curatorial practice is rooted in the belief that art is not a commodity to be preserved, but a living force for communication, healing, and social transformation. Over the past two decades, I have dedicated myself to creating platforms where performance art, social practice, and community-engaged art can flourish as tools for establishing peace in society and human life.
As the founder-director of Porapara Space for Artists in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I have witnessed firsthand the power of art to transcend boundaries—cultural, spiritual, and social. My curatorial work seeks to facilitate expressions that go beyond traditional modernist norms, creating spaces where artists can explore the intersections of the personal and the universal, the spiritual and the political, the ephemeral and the enduring.
Philosophy and Approach
My curatorial philosophy is shaped by diverse spiritual traditions—Chinese Zen, Indian mythology, Islamic and Christian lore—and by a deep concern for the ecological and social crises of our time. I curate with the understanding that the body, nature, and community are sites of both vulnerability and resilience, destruction and regeneration.
I am drawn to artists who use their practice as a form of inquiry, who challenge the limits of what art can be and do. Performance art, in particular, offers a unique opportunity for artists to occupy space in a fragment of time, to create encounters that are immediate, visceral, and transformative. Through my curatorial projects, I seek to create conditions where such encounters can happen—where audiences are not passive viewers but active participants in a shared experience of meaning-making.
My approach prioritizes:
- Dialogue over monologue: Creating platforms for exchange between artists, communities, and diverse knowledge systems
- Process over product: Valuing the journey of creation and the relationships formed through artistic collaboration
- Context-specificity: Honoring local contexts while fostering transnational conversations
- Ethical engagement: Ensuring that artistic interventions are respectful, reciprocal, and responsive to community needs
Areas of Focus
My curatorial work spans several interconnected areas:
Performance Art: I curate performance art events and festivals that push the boundaries of the medium, exploring the body as a site of political resistance, spiritual transcendence, and cultural memory.
Social Practice Art: I develop long-term projects that engage artists with communities, addressing urgent social issues through collaborative, participatory processes.
Community-Engaged Art: I create programs that empower communities to tell their own stories, to reclaim public space, and to envision alternative futures.
Public Art: I commission works that activate public spaces, making art accessible to diverse audiences and fostering civic dialogue.
Multidisciplinary Visual Art: I bring together artists working across media—painting, sculpture, installation, video, sound—to create immersive, multisensory experiences.
Curatorial Methodology
My curatorial process is collaborative and iterative. I begin by listening—to artists, to communities, to the spaces and contexts in which I work. I ask: What are the urgent questions of our time? What stories need to be told? What forms of expression are needed to address the complexities of contemporary life?
From this listening emerges a curatorial framework that is both conceptually rigorous and responsive to the realities on the ground. I work closely with artists to develop projects that are ambitious yet achievable, experimental yet grounded. I see my role not as an authority imposing a vision, but as a facilitator creating the conditions for artistic risk-taking and discovery.
Documentation is a crucial part of my practice. Performance art and social practice often leave no material trace, yet their impact can be profound and lasting. I work to document these ephemeral experiences through photography, video, and writing, creating archives that honor the work while allowing it to circulate and inspire others.
Vision for the Future
As I look ahead, I am committed to deepening my practice as a curator who bridges the local and the global, the traditional and the contemporary. I envision curatorial projects that:
- Address climate change and environmental justice through artistic interventions
- Foster healing and reconciliation in communities affected by conflict and displacement
- Create networks of solidarity among artists working in the Global South
- Develop new models of institutional practice that are sustainable, inclusive, and artist-centered
Art has the power to make us see differently, to feel more deeply, to imagine more boldly. Through my curatorial work, I strive to harness this power in service of a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world.
Abu Naser Robii
Curator & Performance Artist
Founder-Director, Porapara Space for Artists
Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: robii.art@gmail.com, +8801575638307