New national gallery shows Pakistan's 'moderate' face

Pakistan is set to open a new national art gallery here this month in a move aimed at promoting a more progressive image of the extremism-hit South Asian nation. The overwhelmingly Muslim country's cultural scene - in the visual arts, music and dance especially - has often been overshadowed by terror attacks and concerns about the rise of Taliban-style Islamic fundamentalists.

"We want to show the world what Pakistan is actually like and that we are modern and forward-thinking," said Musarrat Nahid Imam, visual director at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, which is behind the gallery

 project.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf - who likes to promote his vision of "enlightened moderation" as a way of bringing together Islam and the West - is scheduled to inaugurate the gallery in late March, officials say.

The opening of the ambitious 456 million-rupee (7.6 million-dollar) project is almost a year behind schedule - no surprise in a country where public works invariably exceed their budgets and timetables. But stoic figures in the arts world say Pakistan has already spent the first 60 years of its existence waiting for a national gallery, so there is no hurry.

"We only have to put the furniture in," said Adam Nayyar, the arts council's executive director.

"We are working round the clock. The curators have arrived and artists are setting up. A hanging expert from France is also flying in to help us arrange the various works on display," said Nayyar.

The four-storeyed glass and concrete gallery will feature a 400-seat auditorium, an open-air theatre and a cafeteria.

Promoting Pakistan to the Muslim world and beyond

One of its aims is to "promote linkages between artists of Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah in particular and the rest of the world in general," according to a Culture Ministry statement.

The team behind the gallery are adamant that it will not be dogged by the government censorship that has previously affected national art exhibitions in Pakistan.

"We have given the curators complete freedom," Musarrat said. Most works on display will be by Pakistanis, including "national artist" painter Abdur Rahman Chugtai, who designed the country's first stamps and the logo for state television.

So far there will be works by only one foreigner, Dutch-born installation artist Sophie Ernst. However in future the government says it will also house "collections of art from Islamic and SAARC countries". SAARC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile the gallery will be a boost for Pakistan's leafy but lifeless capital - described by a US diplomat in the 1980s as "half the size of a New York cemetery and twice as dead".

Islamabad has only a handful of privately owned art galleries, which cater for a growing art market among the middle classes who have been enjoying an economic boom in Pakistan since 2001.

And while Pakistan already has a national gallery for contemporary art in a converted house in Islamabad, Nayyar said there was a need for a "state of the art" facility to showcase Pakistani artists.

Moves to create the gallery stalled during Pakistan's politically chaotic 1990s and the project was finally approved in 2005 as part of a government initiative to promote culture and tourism in Pakistan.

"A new national art gallery is important for Pakistan," said the gallery's architect, Naeem Pasha.

"For years our country relied upon overseas Pakistani artists to be recognised abroad. It's about time we had a gallery to display the work of our artists in Pakistan." The local arts community has welcomed the new gallery

"It's long overdue. We need to inject some soul into Islamabad and draw greater attention to art," said Zishan Afzal Khan, the owner of the private Khaas art gallery and restaurant in Islamabad. Nageen Hayat, the owner of the private Nomad gallery in the capital, said she hoped the national gallery "benefits the art community in Pakistan".