Entertainment Desk :
Bengal Foundation announced its support to the exhibition of the works of two artists from Bangladesh at Documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany that began on June 10. The works of pioneer modernist artist and founding father of Bangladeshi modern art Zainul Abedin (1914-1976) and of contemporary film-maker and writer Naeem Mohaiemen propose different perspectives on the recent history of the country and the region of Bengal.
Contributing to the unprecedented participation of two Bangladeshi artists from different generations to Documenta, Bengal Foundation wishes to reaffirms its support to both the Modernist heritage and the contemporary artistic creation of the country.
Zainul Abedin’s famed Famine Series powerfully captures the tragic and often overlooked episode of the Bengal famine of 1943, during which an estimated 2-million people died while the British colonial government was at war. Two ink drawings of the Famine Series belonging to the private collection of Abul Khair (Chairman, Bengal Foundation) are presented to the international audience for the first time. “Showing Abedin and other Bengal School artists who have dealt with the Famine history will not only raise the attention to their artistic oeuvre, but also provide a deeper understanding of a pivotal moment in Modern history and Europe’s colonial legacy” writes Documenta 14 Artistic Director Adam Szymczyk.
The contextualization of these works from the early 1940’s in the exhibition resonates transversally with the complex history of the World War and the regime of austerity, violence and oppression it reinforced in the various parts of the world then occupied as colonies.
Naeem Mohaiemen’s ‘Two Meetings and a Funeral’ (2017) is a three-channel film about Bangladesh’s historical pivot between the 1973 Non Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Algeria, and its’ ideological opponent, the 1974 Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting in Lahore.
