Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, in partnership with Kalakendra, will organize an art exhibition featuring a range of multidisciplinary artworks presented by eleven awardees of the ‘Futures Beyond the Self 2020” project, initiated by Goethe-Institute Bangladesh.
The Kalakendra curatorial team has curated this exhibition, said a press release.
The Kalakendra gallery space to host the exhibition and to be open for visitors from March 10 to April 8, 2021, starting from 4 pm to 8 pm, every day. Gallery address is Kalakendra, (2nd floor), 1/11, Iqbal road, Dhaka-1207.
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.
The initiative seeks to provide a space for new ideas to flourish and for continued societal and collective engagement. It seeks to support both individuals and collectives in their endeavour to reflect, critique, and suggest alternative futures and pathways of “being in the world”.
The context for the “Future Beyond the Self” initiative:
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the environment of cultural engagements in the blink of an eye. The every day of the cultural scene has moved online, and this move has both disconnected some initiatives and activities, while, at the same time connected others.
Furthermore, the pandemic has triggered us to look beyond our immediate human condition to contextualize our being in the world.
How does what we do impact others? How do we consider the non-human and material worlds in our everyday actions? Which futures do we imagine beyond being self-centred on “surviving online”?
Keeping these questions in mind, the Goethe-Institute Bangladesh invited all Bangladeshi artists, art collectives, cultural activists, and cultural organizations in late September to apply for funding under the initiative “Futures beyond the Self”. The results came November 27 after an in-depth evaluation process led by a panel of juries.
Selected eleven awardees’ projects to be exhibit at Kalakendra from 10th March 2021 to 8th April 2021, every day from 4 pm to 8 pm. Goethe-Institut Bangladesh collaborates with the Kalakendra for this presentation.
