Faydabad To—Let
19 December 2020
📍Rouf’s Villa, Faydabad, Dakshin Khan, Dhaka
New work by Omar Chowdhury (BD/AU)
Four actors. Variable dimensions. 22 minutes, in multiple repetitions.
- Commissioned and produced by Ke ba kahara.
- Curator, Sadia Rahman. Associate Curator, Rasel Chowdhury.
A conceptual performance and installation essaying an abandoned modernist building by the architect Marina Tabassum and its ties to the history of regional modernism in Bangladesh. First part of a two-part performance of 22 minutes, separated by a mnemonic gap of two years. Includes architectural interventions to the site to generate narrative.
“There is a strain of melancholia that has coursed through the history of modernist architecture and art in Bangladesh that has always intrigued me. The political and cultural implications of importing these processes and aesthetics has been ... fraught, to say the least. Yet there is a heart-breaking nostalgia and desire there too. We, Ke ba kahara as a group, along with the actors, wondered how these narratives could appear and embed themselves into Marina Tabassum’s complex building and its past. The first performance and installation has been a reflexive, meta-fictional attempt at solving this problem.” — Omar Chowdhury
- Performance: Kazi Roksana Ruma, Tuku Mozniul, Rasel Chowdhury, Taniya.
- Documentation: (Moving) Russel Parvez, (Still) Rasel Chowdhury.
- Supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia through the 2020 Now On grant.
- With thanks to Marina Tabassum and Khaled Mahmud.
Selected Press
• Exhibition Review: “Ke ba kahara's conceptual performance ‘Fayedabad To-Let’ impresses” by Rasheek Tabassum Mondira, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 20 December 2020
• Exhibition Review: “Faydabad To-Let: An architectural performance evoking modernist nostalgia” by Zahangir Alom, The Business Standard, Dhaka, 24 December 2020
• Newspaper Feature: “‘ফায়েদাবাদ টু-লেট’ প্রদর্শনীর দ্বিতীয় পর্ব চলতি বছর" ফিচার প্রতিবেদক, বণিক বার্তা, ঢাকা, জানুয়ারি ২১, ২০২১