The art treasures at the Samdani residence

Husains, Tagores, Anish Kapoor and more - Golpo, the home of Rajeeb and Nadia Samdani in Dhaka, is a treasure trove of art

It’s fairly unusual to hear about art collectors allowing people to walk into their house to view their art collection. But then Golpo, the home of art collectors Rajeeb and Nadia Samdani in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is arguably better than a visit to the Dhaka Art Summit that they organise.

So, despite the long day at the fair, which included a tour of the famous Parliament House, and long hours spent in traffic, I couldn’t wait to get to Golpo (Bengali for “fairytale”). This “fairytale” turns out to be a fantastical, gritty and bold one that’s worthy of our age.

From a quiet lane, you walk through the gates onto a video installation set in the path. It shows a baby chick embryo whose wings are being moved by ants so that they look like they’re flying. This famous video installation, ‘Icarus’ by Mithu Sen, was released in 2008 to mixed views on whether it qualified as art.

Above the entrance door is a huge sign picked out in neon lights that reads, ‘Sold Out’. It’s a 2012 piece by Raqs Media Collective that I last saw at the India Art Fair. A large French window to the side has a fountain in front of it that has disembodied hands holding grenades coming out of the ground.

The waiting room and lobby with white walls on the first floor of the six-storey house are disorienting because they are so bland after the interesting exteriors. But when you look around, there’s an unmistakable Anish Kapoor mirror at the far corner. The Samdanis say they spent a year looking for a piece they liked. Next to it is a series of Zarina Hashmi’s works with their clean monochromatic lines interspersed with a similar work from the same genre by Prabhavathi Meppayil called ‘Untitled II’ (2009). Her work had been compared extensively with Hashmi’s by another guest that evening – Shanay Jhaveri, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

A striking audio artwork by Ceal Floyer called ‘Till I get it right’ plays on a loop. It was exhibited at Documenta ’13, the German biennale.

Somnath Hore’s ‘Wounds-43’ is displayed near the lift. Opposite it is an Anna-Eva Bergman piece. Behind that is the most famous 18-inch white gallery in the world: the ‘Wrong Gallery’. The 1,000 edition piece was created by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick in 2002 as a joke. As the ‘wrong dealers’ say, “The ‘Wrong Gallery’ is the back door to contemporary art, and it’s always locked.” A version of it was displayed at the Tate Modern, London.

Opposite the playful white piece is one piece by noted Indian miniaturist Bireswar Sen. And on the wall with its back to the entrance, is a 3D Philippe Parreno artwork that requires special glasses and perspective to understand it. Next to it is ‘Mirror Image II’ by Pakistani artist Lala Rukh. It had been mentioned during her talk with Ayesha Jatoi during the India Art Fair as a piece where she turned calligraphy into the most basic markings.

On the wall opposite is the now famous Ayesha Sultana piece called ‘Untitled’ 2015’ as well as a Naeem Mohaiemen called ‘Rankin Street, 1953 – Topography’.  A version of it is in the Singapore Art Museum. There’s a sofa in the centre. Of course, this too is a piece of art: ‘Moon System’ by Dame Zaha Hadid.

The second, third and fourth floors are private. It’s the fifth one that leaves an art-lover overwhelmed. You walk out of the lift to meet Bharti Kher’s ‘Mimic’.  Diagonally opposite it is a water colour by Shahzia Sikander called ‘Multiple Bearings’.  Opposite it are two chairs by Ai Weiwei. These are two of the antique chairs from the Fairytale 1001 collection made to represent citizens who couldn’t travel abroad, but 1001 Chinese people travelled with the chairs to Documenta 12 in Germany and sat on them.

A gorgeous Pedro Reyes sculpture called ‘Disarm’ hangs next to it showing a violin made from melted guns. Opposite it is a rather pretty Subodh Gupta sculpture called ‘Cascading Water’. A Ravinder Reddy sculpture and a Mark Quinn ‘Meat Painting’ bring you to a room-size installation of golden razor blade bras on hangers. The work, called ‘Bizarre and Beautiful’, by Tayeba Begum Lipi addresses the contradictions between constructed identity and traditional attitudes towards women.

When you manage to finally look past it, you see the famous wall that’s covered with artworks by Rabindranath (four works), Abanindranath and Gaganendranath Tagore. Rajeeb famously bought one of the Tagores in 2011 for his wife. But it’s not the most eye-catching corner of the room any longer. There’s an exquisite Hemendranath Mazumdar on the far wall.

Between the Tagores and the Mazumdar are two Husains: ‘Raisa’ (a portrait of the artist’s daughter) and ‘Untitled (portrait of a Lady)’. And, there is a series of installations: Naiza Khan’s ‘The Robe’; Lynda Benglis’ ‘Wing’; Paul Klee’s ‘Parklandschaft’; Rasheed Araeen’s ‘Burgundy Light’; Alighiero Boetti’s ‘Una Parola Al Vento’; Anwar Jalal Shemza’s ‘Red and Green Relief’; Rana Begum’s ‘No.278’; Adeela Suleman’s ‘After all, it’s always someone else who dies’ and Rashid Chaudhry’s ‘Untitled, 1981’.

Nadia listens to me for a few moments as I gush over the Mazumdar and mentions that she bought it from Christie’s last year. I ask her if I can see her other Mazumdars and she frowns, “They’re in storage. We change our art collection every few months”. At this stage, I’m engaged in my hunt for a Salvador Dali. Nadia shows me a tiny bronze called ‘Nude Ascending a Staircase’ behind a flower vase. Every work in the collection, it seems, has both a provenance and a story behind it.

The final floor awaits and I walk out of the lift to see a transgender Yashoda with Krishna from Tejal Shah Hijra’s ‘Fantasy Series’. Beyond it are the stairs leading outside and the upside-down Shilpa Gupta’s ‘The Sky Flows Under Our Feet’ shows up in neon lights. The party room inside is filled with eye-catching young art, which, to me, after the glories of the fifth floor is less memorable. It includes Tracey Emin’s ‘Trust Yourself’ signage in bright pink and purple neon lights as well as works by Bani Abidi, Pawel Althamer, Lionel Wendt, Jitish Kallat and Prabhakar Pachpute.

As I reel out, lightheaded from everything I’ve seen (I’ve read that they collect silver as well, but I couldn’t look beyond the walls), I wonder. I wonder at the openness in showing this immensely expensive collection to the world. And I wonder at the chutzpah of their little girls who skip over the ‘Icarus’ installation on their way to school.

What will Golpo show us in 2017 to top this?

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