Yasmin Jahan Nupur explores the idea of ‘Home’ through storytelling
Yasmin Jahan Nupur’s ‘Home’ is an interactive and participatory performance art and is part of the exhibit ‘Very Small Feelings at the Dhaka Art Summit ‘23
Co-commissioned by Samdani Art Foundation and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art with the support of Bagri Foundation, Yasmin Jahan Nupur brought her 'Home' to the sixth edition of Dhaka Art Summit as part of the exhibit titled 'Very Small Feelings.'
This interactive and participatory performance enables the audience to unwind, connect, and develop conversations about their childhood and also memories of forgotten people, places, things, tales, and emotions.
In 2014, 1,100 acres of land was acquired in the Chattogram port area and Anwara upazila to build the first-ever tunnel under the Karnaphuli River. Among the people who lost their homes was Bangladeshi visual and performance artist Yasmin Jahan Nupur. Her ancestral home was in Anwara upazila – a place that she frequently visited as a child and its memory has been deeply embedded in her psyche.
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It came as a shock when the land acquisition started and Yasmin began archiving – she began taking photos and videos of the place and started collecting household items.
"I don't know why I collected all these. I just had these intense feelings that I had to hold onto them. I knew that I won't be able to see these things if I don't collect them; I would have to go to the museum to see the things I once had in my home," said Yasmin.
"When an entire belt is lost, you can't understand how much the landscape changes unless you witness it with your own eyes. And it's not just the landscape, all the folktales, mythologies, ceremonies, rituals, superstitions and so on together form the life of the people of a particular place. I wanted to create a performative art based on this. And this is how the idea of 'Home' started generating. The challenge was to share my very personal feelings with the public," explained Yasmin.
A large part of Yasmin's childhood involved storytelling, especially the tales from Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder's 'Thakurmar Jhuli'. An important part of her work is therefore a storytelling session with children to revisit and breathe new life into the folktales for a younger generation.
Artist Surovi Roy played the role of Thakuma in the performance.
Even though the performance was mostly intended for children, it was interesting to see people from all three of our current generations in the crowd. An elderly woman named Anwar came to the show especially for this performance. "I loved listening to the stories of Thakurmar Jhuli growing up. When I had my own children, I bought this book and read these stories to them. I wanted to listen to the stories again and connect to the roots once again," she said.
"The art of storytelling is almost lost nowadays. I hardly have any time to tell stories to my kid. This loss wipes out the memories of an entire generation. I want to hold onto this," said Yasmin.
Yasmin Jahan Nupur's endeavor to recall and share her memories with the audience is to recreate the village home she lost during the land acquisition. Her performance is quite engaging, as are those of her fellow artists. You can take a seat on the mattress or on one of the little benches and take a moment to speak with the performers while evaluating your upbringing via your memories and real-life events.
She wants people to connect to their memories and find a homely space in her art space. "I am only trying to recreate this very personal space of mine in the public sphere," said Yasmin.
You can visit 'Home' and the storytelling session of 'Thakurmar Jhuli' tomorrow and the day after, 10 and 11 February, from 11 AM – 12 PM.
