A solo art exhibition Rooted in Soil by Kamruzzaman Shadhin has begun La Galerie and Galerie Zoom of Alliance Française de Dhaka. The Inauguration of the exhibition was held on October 14, 2016 at 4.00pm.

Minister of Cultural Affairs Asaduzzaman Noor, Ambassador of France to Bangladesh Sophie Aubert, Giant Group Managing Director Faruque Hassan, and artist, critic and editor of Depart Mustafa Zaman were among the guests present during the opening ceremony.

Kamruzzaman Shadhin is a visual artist born and based in Bangladesh working in the mediums of installation, video and performance art. His work mostly focuses on environmental and social issues. His art projects are often created through public participation and are exhibited in public spaces where the main audiences are the general public and surrounding communities.

He is the founder of Gidree Bawlee Foundation of Arts — a non-profit organisation working for creating scopes for cultural and artistic exchange between artists and communities through collaborative approaches. Shadhin is also a founder member of ‘Chhobir Haat’.

Rooted in Soil

‘Where man had been, in every place he left, garbage remained. Even in his pursuit of the ultimate truth and quest for his God, he produced garbage. By his garbage, which lay stratum upon stratum, he could always be known, for more long-lived than man is his refuse. Garbage alone lives after him’ —The Rat, Günter Grass.

The project started earlier this year while working in a Santhal village called Molanipara in Thakurgaon, Bangladesh. The Santhals are an indigenous minority community living around the north-western region of Bangladesh. The artist, Kamruzzaman Shadhin has experienced the gradual changes in their lifestyles, how they gradually shifted their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a modern agrarian one. Their surrounding environment has also changed, hybrid crops and excessive use of insecticides and pesticides have driven away foxes, owls, eagles and many other animals. The rats that the Santhals used to hunt before have increased excessively in numbers and have invaded their earthen houses. As a part of the project Shadhin has created thousands of rats made of clay with the help of the community people. The rats depict humans and their greed, out to destroy everything in nature in the name of development. This presentation will include a series of Shadhin’s work whose main inspiration came from the intricate relationship between nature and human beings on earth, viz. an installation of 15,000 rats made of burnt clay, an installation of 500 arrows accompanied by video, and around 5 paintings employing clay collected from the Santhal village.

The exhibition will be open to all till Saturday, 29 October 2016 from Monday to Thursday (3:00pm to 9:00pm), Friday and Saturday (9:00am to 12:00 noon and 5:00pm to 8:00pm), except for Sundays.