কে বা কাহারা Curatorial Collective

𝔉𝔞𝔶𝔡𝔞𝔟𝔞𝔡 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔖𝔞𝔩𝔢


5 February, 2023
2-2.45 pm at📍Baitur Rauf Jame Masjid, Faydabad, Dakshin Khan, Dhaka
3-4.20 pm at📍Rouf's Villa, Faydabad

New work by Omar Chowdhury (BD/AU) & কে বা কাহারা 

Melding Dhaka metal music and neglected architecture, 𝔉𝔞𝔶𝔡𝔞𝔟𝔞𝔡 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔖𝔞𝔩𝔢 is a performance and installation by the artist Omar Chowdhury and কে বা কাহারা (Ke ba kahara). At the site of a private villa by renowned architect Marina Tabassum, the performance uncovers the tangled history of an imported modernism and its obsolescence by the contemporary aesthetic of Bangladesh’s voracious new rise. Through a choreography of architectural interventions, moving images, guitar score, and performance, a speculative present is enacted that is haunted by doubt, private regret and ruinous anticipation.



About 𝔉𝔞𝔶𝔡𝔞𝔟𝔞𝔡 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔖𝔞𝔩𝔢

Commissioned by Ke ba kahara. Curated by Sadia Rahman and co-produced by Ke ba kahara and Muhammad Anwar Hossain. With special thanks to Marina Tabassum, Khaled Mahmud and Helena Kritis. Research and early development supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia through the 2020 Now On grant. A collateral event of Dhaka Art Summit 2023 বন্যা. Printing supported by nokta

Downloads

𝔉𝔞𝔶𝔡𝔞𝔟𝔞𝔡 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔖𝔞𝔩𝔢 Performers’ script (EN)

About the Faydabad project (2020-23)

Haunted by doubt, regrets and ruinous anticipation. A two-part conceptual performance, architectural intervention and installation by Omar Chowdhury (BD/AU) essaying a charismatic modernist building by the architect Marina Tabassum that is equally desirable and overwhelming to all who pass through it.  Two chapters, separated by a history of rupture and a mnemonic gap of over two years.

Detail: Omar Chowdhury. Faydabad To-Let Documentation 2021, 21m52s, 1080p, H.264 (ProRes), colour, stereo.

Related Programming

2020 Discussion group, “Sensing Spaces”, 9 October-6 November
2020 Performance, “Faydabad To—Let”, 19 December
2021 Design workshop, “Faydabad – For Sale”, 20 April-12 August


Images: Omar Chowdhury

Guided tour: Bait Ur Rouf Jame Mosque


Collateral Event: Dhaka Art Summit 2023 বন্যা Time-based programming


5 February, 2023
2-2.45 pm at📍Bait Ur Rouf Jame Masjid, Faydabad, Dakshin Khan, Dhaka

Guided tour by Nabil Shahidi and Samiul Sabbir Islam.

Designed and constructed by Marina Tabassum Architects (MTA), Bait Ur Rouf Jame Mosque is located in Faydabad, at the north-east periphery of Dhaka.

Documentation: Sadia Rahman

« সংলাপ » for LUMIN x Peak Cymru


LUMIN x Peak Cymru: Darllediad Radio LUMIN Radio Broadcast


3 December 2022

Digital audio recording. 40m 39s. Sadia Rahman and Priyanka Hutschenreiter (AT/BD). 2022.
Thinking in concert: autonomy, friendship and collaboration through the ether.



Broadcast from #Platfform2, Abergavenny Train Station.
Listen from Platfform 2 + Online Gwrandewch o Blatfform 2 + Ar-lein

Across 2022 LUMIN have been imagining and designing a decentralised, itinerant radio station to continue their occasional digital broadcast Local 37. On Saturday 3 December, LUMIN will be making their first broadcast from #Platfform2, Abergavenny Train Station. 

Featuring live, site-specific, dialogic, and recorded sound work from artists including Gyda gwaith sain byw, safle-benodol, deialogol, wedi’i recordio gan artistiaid yn cynnwys: 
Lauren Craig, Mort Drew, কে বা কাহারা / Ke ba kahara, Sadia Rahman, Marva Jackson Lord, Daniel Trivedy, Radha Patel, Umulkhayr Mohamed, Cecelia Graham, Owen Griffiths and Diego Gutierrez Valladares; plus Priyanka Hutschenreiter, Dafydd Jenkins, Grace Jackson, Bog Cottage, Manuela Moser, Kate Murphy, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid (The Storm by Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid. Commissioned by TONSPUR Kunstverein Wien, 2021). 

Drwy 2022 mae LUMIN wedi bod yn dychmygu ac yn dylunio gorsaf radio ddatganoledig a theithiol i barhau â’u darllediad digidol achlysurol Local 37. Ddydd Sadwrn, 3 Rhagfyr, bydd LUMIN yn gwneud eu darllediad cyntaf o Blatfform 2, Gorsaf Drenau’r Fenni.

Listen (1) on-site at Platfform 2, Abergavenny Train Station & (2) online at https://lumin-press.com/


Curated by LUMIN
Supported by Peak Cymru / Casgleb and Arts Council Wales


« স্বাচ্ছন্দে » for LUMIN x Solstice Radio


9am - 9am BST, 20-21 June ☀ at www.twitch.tv/madeinroath @madeinroath
LUMIN x Solstice Radio: a 24 hour radio broadcast across the Solstice

Digital audio recording. 16m 20s. Sadia Rahman. 2022.
In-between moments, meandering conversations and silence at moments of collective rest in Rajshahi, Bangladesh in the summer of 2022 as কে বা কাহারা moves through the city morning, afternoon, evening and after midnight in breaks between workshops and visits. With thanks to Nabil Shahidi, Rasel Chowdhury and Samiul Sabbir Islam.


Songs at the Boalia tea stall:

জানি তোমার প্রেমের যোগ্য আমি তো নই (Jani Tomar Premer Jogyo Ami To Noi), by Manna Dey, যদি কাগজে লেখো নাম  (Jodi Kagoje Lekho Nam), by Manna Dey, মিষ্টি একটা গন্ধ রয়েছে ঘরটা জুড়ে (Mishti Ekta Gondho Royecche Ghorta Jure), by Manna Dey, ক ফোটা চোখের জল ফেলেছো যে তুমি ভালবাসবে (Ko Phota Chokher Jol Pheleccho Je Tumi Bhalobashbe), by Manna Dey.


LUMIN x Solstice Radio


a 24 hour radio broadcast across the Solstice
9am - 9am BST, 20 - 21 June ☀ at www.twitch.tv/madeinroath @madeinroath


Local 37 is a fictional underground radio station transmitting dialogue and strategies for the artist as worker. It inhabits the intersections of creation, transmission, and anti-colonial and working-class collectivisation. Local 37 is a manifesto for the artist, building ‘a world of mutual cooperation, mutual protection, mutual love.’ This 24 hour iteration of Local 37 continuously transmits art, labour, activism, social change, dialogue, union organising, and an everyday ambience from another reality.

Featuring: Agnes Essonti Luque + Mango+Okra, Beau W Beakhouse, blaxTARLINES (Hassan Issah), Diego Gutierrez Valladares, Farah Allibhai, Fern Thomas, Harun Morrison, Khairani Barokka, Lauren Craig, Marlo De Lara, Marva Jackson Lord, Mort Drew, Neufunkaum, Sadia Pineda Hameed, Sadia Rahman, Shenece Oretha, Siegrun Salmanian, TAKEAWAY (Kelly Best, Simon Matthew), Umulkhayr Mohamed, Volery (Tsering Frykman-Glen, Alfred Marasigan)

Curated by LUMIN
Supported by Made in Roath and Arts Council Wales
©2025, Ke ba kahara, Author(s). This website and the works contained herein is/are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.