#arts precinct

from 23 may - 14 june, 2015 ONLY CONNECT.EDITION TWO will bring together previously unseen, experimental work in a collaborative exhibition between new artists from dhaka and chittagong. a biannual event, the exhibition programme is presented by the Visual Arts Programme of Bengal Foundation.

participating artists

An invitation to experiment.

Five young artists, from two universities in Dhaka have brought together their previously unseen, experimental work to create a collaborative exhibition. Taking place at Bengal Foundation's newest arts venue, the Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct, Edition One, the first of a series of biannual events, is presented by the Bengal Foundation's Visual Arts programme. In both the presentation and the works on display, the artists explore the boundaries between popular categorisations in the arts.

The participating artists of this exhibition are-

Arfun Ahmed (site-specific installation of photographic prints)

Emran Sohel (prints and paintings)

Manik Bonik (paintings)

Pervaj Hasan (paintings)

Arfun Ahmed Indrawati River Story Exhibited at ONLY CONNECT.EDITION ONE, at Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct, September 2014

It was easy for me to get access to them, but extremely difficult to build a narrative. I was thinking, “how could I tell a story with images of the river Indrawati, a river in northeastern Nepal & an ethnic group of majhi (fishermen)"? There are over 27 mining plants on the bank of the Indrawati that use heavy equipment to extract material such as crushed stones and sand from the riverbed; because of this, fish & other marine life are on the verge of vanishing from the river. Majhis, who once lived by catching & selling fish, are leaving their centuries-old occupation & taking work as day-labourers in the river mining plants.

I went there without knowing where to stay, or eat. The people were very kind to me. They gave me shelter & food, even though some of them were extremely poor. I remember Sujan Majhi, a 22 year old daily labourer in a river-mine & father of 2 kids, saying to me one starry night, “when you go back you can tell the story, that you have stayed in Sujan Majhi’s house, from where you can see the langtang himal through the window”. or the night in Sipaborgaw, when i was woken by the sound of a chorus of young ladies & boys who were singing & dancing with ancient sprits. I wondered how these people were celebrating their lives without fear of uncertainty. I tried to photograph this uncertainty of their lives, to photograph the restlessness of their lives - which dissolves into their blood, like nicotine. & yes! their love of life.