Kathmandu, Jan. 7 -- "Someone said curation is a generous act, and I said, no it's a selfish act. I took so much from all of you!" Bunu Dhungana tells me over the phone while sipping her coffee at a borrowing bookstore in Delhi.

When Bunu, who I've only known from a distance as an artist, reached out to me in August asking me to write something for her exhibit, I greeted her with surprise. No one had asked me before to be part of a collective. So, there was me who had never written for an exhibit before and there was Bunu who had never curated solo before.

"Curation is an extension of my work," Bunu explains. For her exhibition, she left the word "Mother" with a group of artists she had chosen, to see what they would come up with. Durin...