Dhaka Memory is hosting ‘Letter to the City’ exhibition at the library Space of Justice Shahbuddin Ahmed Park (Gulshan-2) in collaboration with German Embassy Bangladesh and Rotary Club of Dhaka Pathfinders on July 1 and 2.
Time Schedule of the exhibition is on July 1 (Friday) from 3pm to 8pm and on July 2 (Saturday) from 10am to 8pm, said the German Embassy on Thursday (June 23).
In ‘Letter to the City’ exhibition, the open letters and the ChithiChitro (artworks based on the letters) will be shared.
The exhibition is open for all to read/write letters, play a memory game and draw/ think together over a cup of tea. There will be participatory storytelling session with children following reading and discussion. Jolputul Puppets group will be there with engaging storytelling show.
Students and youth group will participate in mapping, drawing and critical discussion sessions. With a music adda with Kaaktaal, the exhibition will end on July 2 at 8pm.
Letter to the City exhibition is part of a long-term interdisciplinary project – ‘Women and the city’, that sheds light on the challenges faced by girls and women living/working in the cities of Bangladesh.
The project is initiated by Dhaka Memory in collaboration with ZK/U Berlin(Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik) in 2021 to explore art-engaged activation and generate critical dialogues on gender-equal city planning.
In August 2021, the Dhaka Memory team announced an open invitation called ‘An Open Letter to My City’ for women and girls to share thoughts and aspirations about their cities. In response, more than 100 letters were received from girls and women of diverse backgrounds.
The letters collectively resonate with an intricate narrative of emotions, struggles, nostalgia, wishes, insights, despair, hope and love. Besides, these letters raise questions about the unequal gender relations in our society and how the everyday experience of the citizens varies significantly in terms of gender.
To make the conversations more engaging, a group of 30 artists, architects and illustrators gathered together in October 2021 to portray the stories, dreams and challenges expressed in the letters.
To develop a participatory journey and collective insight, Dhaka Memory team will be organizing a series of public event, exhibition, open studios and workshops on this issue in different places and communities of the city.
The first event of ‘Women and the city’ project was hosted by Dhaka Memory at ‘Batighar – SmrititaySharanay Aly Zaker’ from 18 to 26 March 2022 in collaboration with Mongol Deep Foundation.
Dhaka Memory: It is an experimental collective of architects and artists. As an interdisciplinary platform, Dhaka Memory develops community-engaged projects and explores alternative approaches to generate critical discourses about architecture, public space and the city.
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