An art exhibition featuring a range of multidisciplinary artworks presented by eleven awardees of the ‘Futures Beyond the Self 2020’ project is now open for visitors.
The exhibition started on Wednesday and will continue till April 8, 2021. It will from 4 pm to 8 pm, every day at the Gallery Kalakendra premises. The Kalakendra curatorial team has curated this exhibition.
Initiated by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, 'Futures Beyond the Self' grant was given to eleven winners in 2020 to realize their respective art project ideas into reality and the end results of these are now on display for public viewing.
The initiative seeks to provide a space for new ideas to flourish for continued societal and collective engagement.
In light of the COVID 19 pandemic, the opening event was held on March 9 evening with a limited number of invitees.
Priyanka Chowdhury one of those 11 awardees said, “The project provided a platform to consolidate our thoughts and realizations. Participating artists from various backgrounds offered different ways of seeing and it's fascinating”.
Inaugurating the exhibition as the Special Guest, eminent architect Marina Tabassum said, “Future Beyond the Self, is a time appropriate grant initiative by the Goethe Institute. In order to combat the existential crisis of our species, the first few decades of the 21st century must be dedicated to critical rethinking to re-evaluate the predominant orders running the world that has caused depletion of resources and imbalance in the natural system”.
“Our existence can only be ensured when we develop an attitude that looks beyond self as a collective, inclusive and pluralistic voice that nurtures new ideas, research and creativities that are informed and ensure a balanced living. Art, through history has been in the forefront in this regard. This initiative gives voice to multidisciplinary ideas, a platform to flourish”, she added.
Director of Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, Dr Kirsten Hackenbroch stated, “It is very important to use this multidisciplinary exhibition to further investigate the nexus between digital and physical cultural programming. Almost all projects on exhibition here originally developed for digital spaces – so let’s discuss what makes a unique digital contribution, whether we need to challenge our approaches to established physical formats and discover the potentials of hybridity”.
The awardees are Priyanka Chowdhury (research), Arifur Rahman (short film), Karkhana Collective (music), Murshed Jahangir (visual art), Parsa Sanjana Sajid (research), Emran Sohel (visual art), Samsul Alam Helal (photography), Sumana Akter (visual art), Shahla Islam (short film), Tahia Farhin Haque (visual art) and Tehai Interdisciplinary Art Initiative (performance art).
The jury involved were Visual Artist and Trustee/ Founder of Britto Arts Trust, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Executive Director of Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB) Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta, Chief Curator, Bengal Arts Programme, Bengal Foundation Tanzim Wahab and Artist, Curator, Kalakendra Wakilur Rahman, as well as two representatives from Goethe-Institut Bangladesh Dr. Kirsten Hackenbroch, Director and K. Md. Mahmud Hassan, Programme Coordinator.