Goethe-Institut Bangladesh hosted an artist talk titled Geographies of Imagination by Olani Ewunnet from the SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin on Thursday evening at its auditorium.
Ewunnet is an urban designer, researcher, and sound artist living in Berlin. Her practice largely examines the inter, and intra border signifiers of African sonics, urbanism, and design typologies. Ewunnet currently works with Kéré Architecture / Kéré Foundation and is the founder of the Selamawi Project, a traditional instrument construction program in Addis Ababa. Ewunnet is the core researcher for Geographies of Imagination in both Berlin, and Dhaka.
In her introductory statement, Ewunnet mentioned that Geographies of Imagination, in its Berlin iteration, was SAVVY Contemporary’s first step towards this idea of “dis-othering,” towards the reimagining, and dismantling of the cartographies of power inherent in the creation of the West, and non-West.
“We are deeply honoured to join this year's Dhaka Art Summit, to reflect with this constellation of perspectives on what dis-othering might mean in this context," she said.
During her talk, Ewunnet discussed her work with the art space SAVVY Contemporary, focusing on the ongoing research project Geographies of Imagination. An essential part of the project is a timeline on cartographic power, which was first rooted in SAVVY Contemporary’s locality in Berlin, the place that hosted the 1884 Congo Conference.
For the Dhaka Art Summit 2020, this cartographic timeline will be further developed and activated, taking this time, Dhaka itself can develop as a starting and dialogical pivot from which to draw new lines, and connections.
Later, Ewunnet took part in a Q&A session moderated by Ruxmini Choudhury, Assistant Curator of the Samdani Art Foundation, and answered various questions from the audience.
Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation, in her concluding remark, said that their assistant curator Ruxmini was able to travel to Berlin, and be inspired by the research and bold thinking of SAVVY contemporary.
“Their team shares our desire to debunk North America, and Europe as the comparative centres of art and culture against which the rest of the world is considered,” she commented.
