With research and process based art workshop using various mediums, Bangladeshi and Indian artists come together through a historical occasion at the space of no man’s land, S Pillar No: 1242/3.S on March 27, 2014. The art project titled No Man’s Land was organised by Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh and Shelter Promotion Council, India from March 21 to 27 is based on installation, performance, sound, photography, video and film.
The participating artists from both Bangladesh and India met with each other without any passport in cooperation with the BGB and the BSF. The S pillar is located at the borderlines of Dhonitila of Monipur Para in Sunamgonj, Bangladesh and Kalibari village in Cherapunji, India.
The workshop of the Bangladesh part started on March 21 near the border with the participating artists. Then with the outcome, Britto Arts Trust demonstrated a public exhibition at the no man’s land. Numerous visitors from the nearby locality were the prime spectators of the array. Border based arts and few works based on the surrounding of the location were installed in the exhibition. Although the Indian artists were not able to present at the public exhibition on the no man’s land, they finally met at a nearby location popularly known as zero point, on March 27. Mostly border based art installations and performances were focused in the exhibition at the zero point. A number of community based projects were made by both parts as well and few artworks were exchanged between the correspondents of the two neighbouring countries. A documentary is made on the complication of the assembly and the diverse aspects of the art exhibition.
Mahbubur Rahman, the founding member of Britto Arts Trust shared the challenges of the event with the Dhaka Tribune: “To exhibit arts at the border is a sensitive issue. Firstly, we applied to the home ministry to gain permission for performing there and we didn’t get any written permission from them. Then BGB officials give us opportunity to perform as they were convinced that it was going to be a peaceful demonstration.”
The organisers are planning to showcase the artworks publicly in Bangladesh and in a tour in India in the near future.
