JBS Vol 26. Num 2. 2024. Article 2 - Institutional Intervention as Collaboration_ Rongbaaz (2020)

This research primarily focuses on the internalization of the practice of rickshaw art in the institutionalized project Rongbaaz (2020). This project was formulated by Britto Arts Trust in collaboration with rickshaw and cinema banner painters, venturing a decolonial approach to institutional art by incorporating the visual vocabulary of non-institutional practices. Despite previous exclusionary attitudes, a continuing growth of interest in rickshaw art is now noticeable through collaborations in the institutional art domain. Taking Rongbaaz as a case study, the paper intends to understand the function and outcome of such collaborations. It illustrates how artistic collaborations between mainstream and ‘traditional’ artists disintegrate rickshaw art and artists from their original contexts, eventually offering an unintentional critique of existing institutional art practices in Bangladesh. The exhibition Rongbaaz is examined with reference to the production and exhibition systems of the practice of rickshaw art. The study discusses how the collaboration in this exhibition results in differentiation, despite its intention to seek an association between two different art practices, revalidating the power dynamic between the two entities.