Outmoded gatherings such as ‘jatra’ (theatre troupes) and ‘melas’ (gala’s) had been once accessible and eagerly anticipated by everyone. These weren’t the ‘like events’ curated for Instagram but areas of trusty enjoyment, free of hefty notice tags.
Nowadays, all the pieces comes at a notice–be it the value of a venue for a acquire collectively or the value of a canvas displaying rickshaw art. When this realisation hits, that you just might perhaps well also’t help but long for the past again.
This sentiment resonates deeply with the mixed-media art exhibition ‘The Commons’. The exhibition is a reflection on how capitalism has resulted in a loss of “neatly-liked areas” that welcome custom, custom, and of us from all walks of existence. Held at Eksho Ek Art Space in Gulshan 2, the exhibition opened its doors on 14 November and can merely urge till 30 November.
The exhibition has been organised by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh in collaboration with Literra Journal, a monthly online journal that specializes in arts and custom.
The theme of the occasion invitations viewers to mirror on the traditions that they retain dear, and confront the forces that resulted in its displacement or transformation. The exhibition, in flip, turns into a suite to rediscover and reimagine shared histories and cultures.
“All the pieces we once loved in free areas now comes with a notice. There’s no longer a suite for the neatly-liked of us,” talked about Aninda Rahman, the curator of the exhibition.
Rahman continues, “In areas appreciate Gulshan-Banani, rickshaws no longer raise rickshaw art, but of us here aquire rickshaw art artefacts at exorbitant costs. The commodification of of us’s custom and its appropriation as a constructing has change into the prevailing account.”
Rahman furthermore notes that a village identified as Bhola changed into once once a aloof set that welcomed neatly-liked of us. Nonetheless, the set changed into once transformed into the company hub for the upper class identified as Gulshan, mirroring Dhaka’s broader urbanisation.
This rapid constructing has no longer finest distanced the city from its cultural roots but furthermore grew to alter into that very custom into a luxurious commodity to be marketed and consumed.
The exhibition efficiently combines art and historical past with their message by method of mixed media. With most art objects, they visual display unit long descriptions of the historical past at the encourage of their share, offering more context to their work. The addition of photography, such as within the share ‘In and Round’ by Labib Imam Chowdhury, affords viewers a better standpoint of what’s precisely at stake within the trap of rapid urbanisation.
Literra Journal’s fifth field changed into once furthermore launched at the inauguration of the exhibition, and an installation even featured excerpts from the journal displayed on its walls–offering company a gape into the e-newsletter’s thought-frightening reveal material.
The journal is equipped for aquire at Tk500, and it brings reviews from numerous writers collectively by method of their neatly-liked views on the world.
For those attempting to uncover an unfiltered gape into our custom and a possibility to revisit the areas we now hold lost over time, Gulshan’s Eksho Ek Art Space is the set to be.
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