It is Sunday afternoon, and the sun squints upon the glass windows of an empty room in one of the tallest buildings on Banani road-11. The place is empty and the walls are white. Just till the evening before, though, there were colours and creativity brewing here – for four months.
This is the space where Longitude Latitude 6 (LL6) hosted their art exhibitions, workshops, shows and performances since July of this year. LL6 is part of the Longitude Latitude (LL) series, which began in 2003, as a means of creating a common space for different genres of art. It has since been held six times, each being in a different location – and each time, for a limited period.
But it’s not like any other exhibition. In this space, the LL6 team, led by curator Shehzad Chowdhury, has showcased art of different genres, artists from various backgrounds including visual art, poetry, writing, sculpting, music, cartoon, and puppetry.
“I have a very broad definition of art,” Shehzad Chowdhury, founder of Longitude Latitude, and the curator, said in an interview. “The process of art doesn’t happen at the artist’s end – it happens at the viewers' or consumers' end. That particular transformation and interaction where the viewer comprehends the work is where the art is.”
“By that logic,” says Shehzad, “there is art in everything – from our daily clothes, to our food, to graffiti. And we promote the idea that there is art everywhere – you just have to engage with it.”
Accommodating differences
And with their wide range of showcasing anything that had a story to tell, LL6 became a haven for both young, new artists as well as art-lovers.
“When I first heard about this space, I didn’t think I could do something here,” says Alia Kamal, an artist who focuses on bottle art. “I just thought it was an exhibition space.”
Alia, who began her art career only recently, ended up having an exhibition of her work, and holding various workshops in the space in just a matter of weeks.
“When Shehzad started talking about involving young and new artists, and of so many different aspects of art – it was very nice to see that,” says Alia, adding that this encouraged her to display her work in public.
This energy was realised even by the audience, who were often well aware of the newness in many of the artists’ work.
“What I enjoyed most about LL6 is that it's a platform where individuals get an opportunity to realise their passion in the form of art,” says Tahsin Chowdhury, who has attended two LL6 events – one on spoken word poetry, one on music.
“The kind of art being taught in schools in Bangladesh is very controlled and guided,” adds Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy, a cartoon artist who held cartoon workshops with children, as well as organised an exhibition of his work in the LL6 space.
In order to break out of that, we need to teach children in a new way and have to encourage parents to become aware of the freedom required in art.”
Ripple effects
One of the best things about LL6, says Shehzad, is that “everyone was respectful to each other and their work. This comes from the culture of valuing the person next to you – whatever genres that person may bring.”
The respect was shared both ways – between audience, the artists themselves, and those around.
Not only did the art space bring together artists from different genre, but also participants and audience across different classes of people.
“I got to know my driver well. He helped me make my work,” says Alia, who had to visit the place for two weeks after the installment of her bottle-art work “Uki.” “He’s my chief engineer. He has such good sense of everything, he got me to understand the balance and many other technicalities.”
Similarly, Shehzad shares the story of one of the guards who were ecstatic to see cartoonist Tanmoy in the LL6 space as he follows his work through Facebook.
“The hierarchy of what people consume is really crumbling,” says Shehzad, “and because of social media, people from all backgrounds have similar access to art, music, and work.”
And this is precisely why art needs to be made accessible to all – both as a creative activity as well as something to interact with as audience, the way LL6 has done it.
The way forward?
Shehzad laughs, as I ask him about the way forward. It has been a long journey, especially with a team of just four volunteers – himself, Ayreen Khan, Mahzabin Haque Rothy, and Ahmadadul Huq Shamim.
They’ve all worked outside of their own work schedule. This is also the first time the LL space has gone on longer than seven days, which was the previous record.
For now, he says, they have plans to keep a virtual space to document all the different kinds of workshops, exhibitions and other activities they have hosted.
Although LL6 was temporary, it was the kind of space Dhaka has been starved of, says Alia.
“It’s a place where everybody can express and connect to each other through that,” she adds.
“Culture is a basic need. When you establish that, everyone can bring in their bit of culture to the table,” says Shehzad. “And if you value that, your value increases. It’s a chain reaction of valuing each others’ crafts, valuing each others’ art. And those small value systems create an identity.”
By that definition, in this small space in a corner of Banani, a lot of values have exchanged, a lot of identities created in the past four months. And the ripple effects of that are to be seen in the collaborations to come, through the connections built in here.
Today, LL6 is over, the space is empty. But the art remains. Through the values exchanged and identities created. And therein lies the craving and curiosity of what to expect in the next LL season.
Until next time.
