As I make my way through the courtyard of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) and past the balustrade towards Zarmeene Shah’s office, I’m a little unsure of what to expect. I recall first reading her name in the newspaper in 2017, when she was the curator-at-large for the first iteration of the Karachi Biennale (KB17) — which I would contend still remains unsurpassed by the subsequent biennales in the city, primarily due to the sheer novelty of that original experience.

When I’m ushered into her work space, Zarmeene is busy whipping up a mug of coffee for herself and offers to make one for me too. I decline since I’m not much of a caffeine drinker, but I suspect that Zarmeene’s caffeine intake might skyrocket this month given the sheer magnitude of the undertaking she has mounted on her slight shoulders.

Zarmeene is one of three curators behind the landmark exhibition ‘Manzar: Art and Architecture from Pakistan — 1940s to Today’ that will open its doors at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) in Doha this November. Organised by the future Art Mill Museum and presented in collaboration with the NMoQ, this exhibition will showcase over 200 works across a range of mediums, highlighting Pakistan’s artistic and architectural evolution.

Whichever pioneering artist and architect you can think of, odds are their work will be on display at ‘Manzar’: from Abdur Rahman Chughtai, to Anna Molka Ahmed, Shakir Ali, Zubeida Agha, Sadequain, Zahoorul Akhlaq, Habib Fida Ali, Salima Hashmi, Arif Hasan, Amin Gulgee, Shazia Sikander, Rashid Rana, Imran Qureshi, Salman Toor, and many more. Far from a traditional art ‘retrospective’, ‘Manzar’ aims to dig into the heart of Pakistan’s history, identity and its dialogue with global movements.

As the National Museum of Qatar gears up to host an ambitious exhibit chronicling art and architecture from Pakistan, Eos meets with the curators to understand their vision behind ‘Manzar’

But the enormity of encapsulating decades worth of art from the region in a single exhibition is an audacious undertaking, I tell Zarmeene. “Well, this is not in any way a definitive exhibition,” Zarmeene responds. “We’re not saying this is how it is. We’re trying to open up conversations. So, it’s not everything, it’s not every conversation, it’s not every artist, it’s not every architect — it can’t be.  It’s an opening — a way to engage people and to get them to ask questions.”

In that case, I wager, choosing the word manzar as the name of the exhibition makes perfect sense. Zarmeene nods, saying that the title was chosen due to its multiple interpretations and cross-cultural resonance. “We talked about this quite early on,” she ruminates, “that it should be a title potentially in Urdu.  The word manzar is in the singular, not in the plural, which is to say that this is a perspective, a view, one of many possibilities. So, in the title itself, there is a cue. Also, manzar is an Arabic, Farsi and Urdu word, so it works on multiple levels.”

Now one of the things that had intrigued me since I first heard of the exhibition was the decision to choose Pakistan as the subject of this exhibit. I pose this question to Zarmeene’s co-curators — Caroline Hancock, Art Mill Museum’s Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Aurélien Lemonier, Art Mill Museum’s Curator of Architecture, Design and Gardens — who join us in Zarmeene’s office via the belated cooperation of Microsoft Teams.

Caroline takes the lead on this, saying, “It just seemed extremely fitting to begin our journey with Pakistan. It felt really important to prepare an exhibition that would be surprising to our audiences at present and to the world. This is mainly because Pakistan hasn’t had as much limelight as other global art scenes, and that is very interesting to us as curators.”

But this, in turn, begs the question: how familiar were Caroline and Aurélien with Pakistan’s artistic landscape prior to their involvement in this exhibition? Aurélien readily admits, “I started from scratch! I know India and Bangladesh quite well, but the issue is that documentation and access to archives is not easy to get in Pakistan, especially in the field of architecture.” It seems that even the French are not spared Pakistan’s incessant red-tapism.

Caroline, on the other hand, became fascinated by the country following her first trip to Pakistan in early 2020, for the closing event of the Lahore Biennale. “We’ve made two or three other trips to Pakistan,” she reveals, “mainly visiting Karachi and Lahore, but also Islamabad and Makli, which of course is only the tip of the iceberg. But I think these trips have been extraordinarily intense and rich.”

While ‘Manzar’ features 12 sections, its structure is “loosely chronological, but not really,” Zarmeene explains. The exhibition’s layout reflects the curators’ belief that history, especially artistic history, is not always a straightforward progression. “We certainly do have representation from across Pakistan,” Zarmeene continues, “but this is not a nationalistic show, and one of the things that we really want to do is to talk about the movements of people and the relationships between people.

“People like Zainul Abiden and Murtaza Bashir were once East Pakistani artists. Someone like Zarina, who grew up in pre-Partition India, talks about really relevant conversations to the Partition movement, migration and home. We also have a huge diaspora, so it’s really about not confining ourselves to borders.”

As one can imagine, the curators faced a monumental task in assembling all these works. Caroline recalls, “Huge amounts of research, visits to artists, discussions with architects, time spent in their archives, and visits to incredible private collections in Pakistan have been essential for us. We have managed get some loans from public institutions such as the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) in Islamabad and the Alhamra Art Museum in Lahore. But that has been extraordinarily complicated to negotiate.”

Nonetheless, Zarmeene is confident that their efforts will be well worth it. As she points out, “This is a really important exhibition, because we never see this kind of work come together.”

She’s right. Much of these artworks reside in private collections, inaccessible to the public, which is why ‘Manzar’ offers an unprecedented opportunity for audiences to engage with these treasures, and to explore how art and architecture have responded to, and reshaped, the nation’s social and political narratives.

Right before I slip out the door, Zarmeene is already gearing up to launch herself into another meeting, as she juggles her curatorial work with her job as the director of graduate studies at IVS. She’s certainly got stamina. Maybe I should start drinking coffee too.

‘Manzar’ will be on display at the National Museum of Qatar in Doha from November 1, 2024-January 31, 2025

The writer is a member of staff. He can be reached at hasnain.nawab1@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 6th, 2024