Art and Social Action

I grew up in the older part of Dhaka that had socially most interactive neighborhoods from
diverse religion. I was happily resided in Dhaka’s old architectural beauty. I used to hang out
with my friends from one para (certain area with one society) to another para visiting all the
old buildings, among what some were abandoned and some were badly maintained.

People used to call these abandoned houses ‘enemy properties’. I was wondering about
this term ‘enemy properties’ whilst they did not belong to the anti Bangladeshis but Bangali
Hindu communities before 1971 war as well as 1947 partition. It is very interesting to learn
that, yet we are following the same law to make the land abandoned on same term while
someone from same community are living for India sometimes even now.

In 1947 in Indian sub-continent, mainstream political partition happened on mainstream
religious and social context. No one thought about ethnic communities from the borderlines,
who were also enforced to split by the so-called partition.

This search has taken me across the practice and ideas, transcending boundaries that
were created by orthodox academic institutions and fundamentalist political ideologies.

In search of art as activism and movement, I, along with my contemporaries initiated a
platform for like-minded cultural practitioners to align ourselves with similar movements in
the sub-continent that gave birth of the first ever non-profit artists’ collective 'Britto Arts
Trust' in 2002 in Bangladesh.

However, the platform we made was from extreme necessity of the time. Academic practice
in Bangladesh was rather limited with its mainstream artists society as well as gallery practice
during the time.

My curatorial involvement also evoked from the necessity for contemporary art practice in Bangladesh. It was a spontaneous involvement with Britto to execute new art practice in a
relatively conservative periphery. My major role at Britto is to develop the idea for various
workshops, events and the exhibitions since its initiation. If any idea comes from other
organization or individual, I give an effort to develop the idea and find how it can be executed.

The project of 1mile² Dhaka that includes four elements - creativity, community action,
environmental engagement and intercultural dialogue has somehow interrelated to the
thoughts and works of Britto Arts Trust.

Dhaka is the vibrant city from the Mughal Emperor’s pride and many nationalities such as
Portuguese, Armenian, French as well as the British used to come to visit Dhaka for the
reason of healthy environment. Dhaka as a city based on the river Buriganga that has been
lying in the middle of Old Dhaka for years. There were several canals in Dhaka city that
were connected to the water flow through Buriganga, Shitalakkha and Turag Rivers. Water
way was the only way to connect people across the country and the Globe.

The centralization of economy and opportunity of this country made Dhaka the highly
populated city of the world this time. The old architectures are mainly Mughal, French and
British styled buildings. The green trees, empty spaces, gardens, parks, water resources that
were attached to the architectures are disappeared since many years without any plan or without thinking about the future of next generation. Dhaka has become an ugly concrete jungle with
millions of people. The beautiful old Buriganga River looks like a drain of pollution for many
miles around Dhaka.

We proposed 1mile² Dhaka to work on the environmental issues of Dhaka city. Initially the
highly polluted Buriganga River and Architectures of Old Dhaka was the targeted subject matters
of this proposal via different creative mediums such as art, research, talk, interaction, video, film
& still documentation and an outcome presentation etc. The first 1mile² Dhaka was done in
2009 with Visiting Arts, London. It was a three month long workshop that included discussion
and interaction with architects, environmentalists, city planners. The participating artists
developed various projects within the chosen 1mile² area in old Dhaka that dealt with different
issues including bio diversity, community, history, architecture and environment. The entire
outcomes from the workshop were installed at the public places, museum, domestic venues,
schools, auditorium, local bazaar, park and river. A number of performances also took place
during the day at various venues of Old Dhaka.

The second edition of 1mile² Dhaka was again took place in old Dhaka in Dec 2014- Jan 2015
after five years of its inception. This time we felt more comfortable and effective. And the
message reached across the country by the overwhelming news and electronic media.

As organizers we also found more possibilities and potentialities during the second episode.

Prantiker Prakitajan, a series of workshop was aimed to organise in 2009 onward.
A part of the project 1mile² Dhaka 2009 related to bio-diversity was organized in Dokhola
village that has been inhabited by an ethnic group called Mandi (Garo in English) in Modhupur
forest 4 hours away from Dhaka city. After the exciting working and social time with Mandi
community, we developed the idea to a long –term project across the country to work with
various ethnic communities living at the edges of Bangladesh.

The experience of the unique bondage with own heritage and culture guided us amongst the
ethnic communities of the country who have a very strong traditional cultural practice for years.
We travelled to Rakahain village in Southern Coastal area in Galachipa and an Oraon village
in northern part of the country and Hajong village in Durgapur near Indian border.

The Rakhaine community inhabiting in the coastal areas of Patuakhali, Borguna and Cox's
Bazaar migrated to Bangladesh from Myanmar about two hundred years ago.

The Oraon tribe inhabits various states across central and eastern India and Bangladesh.
Oraons, unlike other tribes of Jharkhand and Orissa are speakers of Dravidian languages.
Sushang Durgapur is village for the Hajong. Who have been fighting for the land right is a
very important issue in that area. The neighborhood has a number of hills that contain very
rich white clay, which is usually used for ceramic tiles. Through the invisible middlemen,
the big industries dig the whole area to collect white clay. This is how the locality has been
losing their own earth and environment days after days.

No Man’s Land
The vast Bangladesh/India border is enforced by a giant barbed wire fence installed by the
Indian government. In March 2014, at this 4,096-kilometer (2,545-mile)-long international
border between India and Bangladesh, that we installed the ambitious, long-in-the-planning
‘No Man’s Land,’ a project by Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh, in partnership with Shelter
Promotion Council, India. The aim of this collaborative art installation was to offer people
living in communities on both sides of the border ways to question and engage physically
with the border’s legacy of forced separation and militarization.

To reconnect the history of the Indian Subcontinent, especially Bengal, which is cut in two,
and to view collectively and holistically this area’s shared social, political and economic
conditions, the artists reacted creatively and positioned themselves at the political borders
of the Khashi Hills in Bholaganj in Sylhet, Bangladesh and Meghalaya, India. Placing
themselves near the borderlines for a week, artists from Bangladesh and India planned
to convince the authorities to help them to meet in the physical space of No Man’s Land.
Though Bangladeshi artists had oral permission from the border guards, our Indian
counterparts met with obstacles as they sought permission to cross from their side.
Therefore, throughout the entire week we had to develop our work along the Bangladeshi
side of the border. We were able to communicate by using our cell phones.

Even as we planned our art along the Bangladeshi border, we were aware of how Indians
mined limestones along the Khashi Hills, which they then exported to Bangladesh via small
boats as well as along the trail marked with ropes. Though Bangladesh has some of the
largest cement factories in the region, our limestone hills are almost flattened and even the
rivers have been dug up. Likewise, we saw a number of busy stone crusher outfits at work
crushing stone to be exported from India into Bangladesh.

During our stay at the border, we interacted with the rivers, trees, inhabitants, and the local
market places and industries.

These 3 projects are interrelated. They are conceptually spirited and associated with each
other so much that each project eventually led us to explore from one after another.

Mahbubur Rahman
September 2015

Visual Artist and Curator
Founder Trustee, Britto Arts Trust
Bangladesh