CHOBI MELA BEGINS TODAY

Chobi Mela, Asia's first and largest photography festival, opens doors to its ninth edition today. The two-week festival is jam-packed with exhibitions and various activities, all connected to this year's theme: “Transition”. Finance Minister AMA Muhith will inaugurate the exhibit at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), along with Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, festival director Shahidul Alam and other distinguished guests. 

Like every edition, there is a lot to take in at Chobi Mela IX, even just in terms of the exhibits: there are 31 print exhibitions by 27 artists from 16 countries, but thankfully, the majority of them are at one spot – the National Art Gallery of BSA. Three venues in Old Dhaka – Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA), Northbrook Hall and Beauty Boarding will also host exhibitions like its last edition. There will be a curated slideshow presentation at Ahsan Manzil, titled “Bengal Divided” by Sarker Protick and Munem Wasif, at 6pm on February 4.

Exhibitions such as “Kanu's Gandhi” by Kanu Gandhi, Donald Weber's “Interrogations”, Bruno Boudjelal's “Algeria, Scrapbooks”, Boris Eldagsen's “How to Disappear Completely: THE POEMS”, Nasir Ali Maun's “The Poet With The Camera”, “United Red Army” by Naeem Mohaiemen and “Open Wound” by Stanley Greene are some of the top exhibits to check out at the BSA space.

“Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs” by Pushpamala N, another major exhibit, will be up at BAFA, along with Gohar Dashti's “Iran, Untitled”. The exhibitions at Beauty Boarding are “Dear Chris (2010-2013)” by Katrin Koenning, and Nasir Ali Mamun's “The Poet with the Camera”. At Northbrook Hall auditorium, visitors can experience Debashish Chakrabarty's “Stardust” and Igor Pisuk's “Deceitful Reverence”.

Like the past editions, this festival is also seeing a number of workshops, artist talks, panel discussions and presentations taking place. The workshops include Swiss photographer Anders Petersen's workshop “Instincts” (Feb 5-8), Boris Elgadson's “Hijacking Reality” (Feb 8-11), “Do Make Say Think” by Donald Weber (Feb 4-7) and “Exploring Space” by Rishi Singhal (Feb 8-11), all at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute.

Among talks and panel discussions, Liz Wells' Talk “Manufactured Landscapes” is at 3pm on February 5 at BSA and “The Archive as Conversation” by Gwen Lee at 4pm; Panel Discussion “Overlaps and Confluences: South Asian Photography” at 3pm on February 6 at BSA and Pushpamala N's Artist Talk on the same day and venue at 7pm. “Exhibition as political work: interplay, overlap, friction” is a panel discussion at 3pm on February 8, also at BSA, where later in the day, Paola Paleari will present a Talk on “The blended age”. Other Artist Talks will also be held every day from Feb 5-8 at 6pm and 7pm at BSA.

A mobile exhibition of selected photographs on rickshaw vans – another signature aspect of Chobi Mela – will also take the festival to various areas of Dhaka, particularly those which does not draw a lot of audience to the galleries.

This year, 10 Bangladeshi artists working in various media have been selected as fellows, to whom Chobi Mela has commissioned to produce site-specific artworks for the festival. Artists from different backgrounds of painting, drawing, animation, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installations will expand the possibilities of the medium and test the language of manifestations. Their works are -- Abir Shome's “Capital – Equal”; “Memories” by Najmun Nahar Keya; “Origin” by Srker Protick; “A Bird of Stone” by Reetu Sattar; “Translucence” by Salma abedin Prithi; “Titas – The River” by Molla Sagar; “To Write A Letter” by Arfun Ahmed; “Obsolete” by Minhaz Marzu; “Loop of Crave” by Golam Moshiur Rahman Choudhury and “Ubiquity” by Suvra Kanti Das. All the exhibits/performances will be at the BSA Art Gallery.