The British Council in Bangladesh has been serving as a place for people to creatively engage and voice their views for the last 70 years. On this occasion, Britto Arts Trust (Bangladesh), Tara Theatre (UK) and the British Council have jointly organised ‘Artists Make Space’. This project was commissioned by the British Council to nurture the collaboration and co-creation between young Bangladeshi and UK artists and to commemorate British Council’s 70 years in Bangladesh.
In collaboration with Chittagong University, the inaugural exhibition of this project was launched at the Rashid Chowdhury Art Gallery of the Fine Arts Institute of the university on 6 November 2022. This exhibition will continue till November 12. The exhibition will remain open for those interested from 3 pm to 7 pm every day.
Chittagong University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Shireen Akhtar was present at the event as the chief guest with Prof. Benu Kumar Dey as a special guest. In addition, Professor Dr. Mahbubul Haque, artist Dhali Al Mamun and artist Nazlee Laila Mansur were also present as special guests.
This exhibition is curated by artists Mahbubur Rahman and Natasha Kathi Chandra. It will be exhibited in 3 venues of two major cities (Sylhet and Dhaka). The venues are – Kobi Nazrul Auditorium (Sylhet), British Council (Fuller Road, Dhaka) and Britto Arts Trust (Dhaka). This whole project has already been exhibited in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Using the power and our dependence on virtual worlds created during the pandemic, Britto Arts Trust (Bangladesh) and Tara Theatre (UK) brought together 7 Bangladeshi artists and 7 UK artists. These 14 artists combined their long-held collective thoughts through virtual communication, overcoming the limitations of direct communication, and created their artworks. Artists Dhali Al Mamun, Salauddin Ahmed and Mahmudul Hossain from Bangladesh and Jennifer Tang, Clive Lyttle, Uzma Hameed and Jaspreet Kaur from the UK were engaged as mentors in this project.
