Britto Art Trust organised an innovative exhibition to create awareness about the decaying heritage of the Old Dhaka City on Friday. A group of 40 artistes selected 16 sites and set up artworks in group and also in solo at the exhibition titled One Square Mile. Starting from Bahadur Shah Park, the artworks were set up deeper inside the old town comprising an area of one square mile and covering localities including Patuatuli, Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts, Ishwar Das Lane, Jublee School Market, Ruplal Das Lane, Shyambazar, Forashgonj Orphanage, Beauty Boarding, Pojog School, Pachbari, Lalkuthi Ghath, Dhaka Kendra, Boro Bari, Malkartola and Ruplal House.
The exhibition was an outcome of a one month-long project aiming to find out how an artist creates an art though studying lifestyles, heritages, traditions, and environment of a specific area.
The artists displayed photographs, video projections, installations, and others in illustrating the spirit and also the changing nature of the Old Dhaka, which is rapidly losing its heritages that date back hundreds of years in continuous encroachment of urbanization. As a result of unplanned urbanisation, Old Dhaka is also losing its charm and beauty due to traffic jam, brittle buildings, pollution and overpopulation.
Noted artist Mahbubur Rahman’s video projection Shower with Oil was set up at the Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts building. Rahman addressed the recent oil spill incident at the Sundarbans and also the impact of throwing wastage and lubricants on river Buriganga by water transports and factories located on the banks.
Artist Ashim Halder Sagor addressed the theme in his installation work at the same venue. The installation titled Appearance of City Memory involves a structure that was created using four hundred water glasses. Sagor has put glorious images of Old Town from yesteryears in each of the glass, and juxtaposed them with a video of current shabby conditions.
Sahobash-1 is an installation work displayed at Panch Bari in Farashgonj by artist Emran Sohel, who has created the text ‘Old Dhaka’ by using bricks and cement.
Installation artwork titled Unprinted Library of Uncommon Sense by Mustafa Zaman was located at Jubilee School Market in the old town. In the powerful work, Zaman put some academic books of national curriculum in a bird cage, perhaps to indicate the recent controversies about the education sector of the country.
-With New Age input
