When Hernando de Soto came up with the term ‘Dead Capital’, it was mainly referring to the economic activity outside the formal structure. A people’s economy that is often bigger, more resilient and embedded in its context but is never fully recognized, as it does not have the pre-requisites of the formal financial institutions. All this creates lost opportunities for those involved in the informal sector, and their innovative energy is excluded from the register of national growth. His theory which grew out of the economic reality of Peru (his homeland) holds true for most developing countries.

I find echoes of the Dead Capital theory in the field of visual arts in Pakistan where the efforts of the art community have proved to be more dynamic and responsive to global changes in the field, as compared to official cultural institutions subservient to political whims. Individuals, trusts and collectives have filled the gap by addressing the needs of the burgeoning art scene. The artists led Vasl founded some two decades ago was an early initiative that created opportunities with residencies in partnership with the UK based Triangle Trust. It brings together local and foreign artists who want to explore new mediums and genres and more recently has developed a strong documentation arm. In 1994, RM Naeem opened his studio to artists from small towns, over time Studio RM has become a facilitator and a space for transition that helps less privileged artists with residencies and networking. The Amin Gulgee Gallery, a non-profit space is an experimental platform that supports nascent genres. In the times of the Corona virus the Gallery hosted the Trojan Donkey, the first intervention to document artists’ response to the pandemic. Another art space that welcomes artists and curators looking to expand their practice with unorthodox trajectories in Gandhara Art. Bringing into focus marginalized histories is the Murree Residency that invites artists to explore the checkered past of Murree, once a colonial summer retreat that is currently an ecologically exploited tourist attraction. Invested in creating art projects that are for the public, by the public is the mandate of Awami Art Collective, their vision is to promote a newer aesthetic that is grounded in its context. The agenda of Karachi Art Anti- University, a research based initiative is to politicize art by radically interrupting imperial modes of knowledge production and circulation. Biennales, in both Karachi and Lahore are run by art trusts who have successfully created an environment of inclusivity giving a much-needed opportunity to showcase a large number of local and overseas artists in accessible public venues. These are only a few of the many interventions that have acted as catalyst in the transition that has opened up art conversations with new ways of seeing and knowing. They have the pulse of the art community and have become a bridge between Pakistan and the international art world.

Speeches throughout the Pakistan Freedom Movement emphasized the building of an independent country that would reclaim culture and history from two hundred years of colonization. Freedom would be the tool to unleash the potential of citizens to build a democratic country. For seventy-five years, initiatives by artists, poets and writers have been at the vanguard of exploring fertile ideas and resisting moribund dogma and yet politics of power and ideology have excluded them as mainstream contributors to decolonization. In the 1940s Pakistani Modernism offered a radical philosophy that departed from established aesthetics of the time, today once again creative thinkers are heralding a change. A multi-disciplinary creativity that harnesses technology and ideation, that can be applied across fields and industries (even corporate and financial institutions), have begun to tap into creative principles to address diverse and complex challenges.

The interventionist art project in Pakistan behind this paradigmatic shift have been tested on home ground and found to be both resilient and efficient. Their strength lies in placing people at its core and the resource-sharing and reciprocal partnerships model creates a lower dependency on large funds. Ideally Pakistan National Council of the Arts and local Arts Council should be treating all these art projects like start-ups, providing support to ensure their growth under the stewardship of the founder teams. There should also be an acknowledgement of their critical influence by investors looking to bet their money on productive innovation that provides jobs and capacity building opportunities.

To stop this informal creative activity from becoming Dead Capital, the provincial and federal governments need to wake up to the new reality which is a departure from centralized control and politicized patronage, to dynamic art networks that empowers and embrace diversity and invent fresh channels of progress. Creativity needs to be viewed as a bank of talent that energizes and transforms lives both socially and economically. A good place to start for the State would be to establish a long overdue Creative Policy which unlike a National Cultural Policy will address the needs of the all creative practitioners. Once Dead Capital of art is activated and gets into circulation, its momentum can freely multiply the currency of innovation and contribute to bankable ideas, like a plausible image of a vibrant nation that has a sustainable force of creatives.

Title image: View of the show The 70s: Pakistan’s Radioactive Decade, curated by Niilofur Farrukh and Amin Gulgee. 2016 at the Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi