Uronto is an artist led community who does “Story Telling Through Art”. They reconnect with lost memories of forgotten places through inter-disciplinary contemporary artistic interventions. They create opportunities to share the joy of connecting to cultural histories through co-creating and empower current generations with knowledge. The Uronto Residential Art Exchange Programme is one of the major yearly initiatives of Uronto running successfully since 2012.

They host and curate, site-responsive art exchange programmes within disused or abandoned spaces and heritage buildings outside of Dhaka in locations across Bangladesh.  URONTO’s activities not only provide much-needed opportunities for Bangladeshi artists to expand their working practice and collaborate with international artist, but through each residency, they create a body of alternative documentation about the history of the selected site before it is demolished and forgotten. URONTO frames the dimensions and fundamentals of “site-responsive art” in all its forms. One of the purposes of working site-responsively is to “open out” the scope of audience beyond the gallery convention.

The coming 8th and 9th Episode is designed back to back at the Dubolhati Palace where participating artists are: Abid Aslam/Pakistan, Birgitta Volz/Germany, Chandrayee Dey/India, Davide Tagliabue/Italy, Deepak Kumar Yadav/India, Elodie Guignard/France, Fouzia Mahin Choudhury/BD, Helena Uambembe/South Africa, Jewel Chakma /BD, Kazi Toufikul Islam/BD, Manir Mrittik/BD, Minenkulu /South Africa, Mohit Priyadarshi/India, Muhammad Shafayet Hossain/BD, Nabil Wrahman/BD/NYC, Nisha Rachel Philip/India, Rabia Williams/Spain/ NYC, Rangajib Roy/India, Rubi Karmakar/India, Rupaneethan Pakkiyarajah/Sri Lanka, Sarban Chowdhury/India, Saria Saguaro/BD, Shikha Nambiar/India, Simangaliso/South Africa, Sounak Das/BD, Syed Muhammad Zakir/BD, Taiara Farhana Tareque /BD, Tanvir Alim/BD, Viraag Desai/India

Like always all the artists are expected to explore the local founding materials as much as possible to shape up their imaginations. URONTO has been executing this program successfully since the beginning. They have done 7 exclusive episodes in 7 different districts around Bangladesh with more than 100 artists participating till now. This year they are expecting new Art creations like never before to encourage more practicing artists and connect to the community more intensively.

The 8th episode taking place from 15-26 Nov 2019, the 9th episode taking place from 27 Nov to 08 Dec. Two interactive workshops will be arranged during the residency, One of Origami by Asaduzzaman on 28-29 Nov’19 and another on Product design with found materials by Arnab Saha on 04-05 Dec’19.

Each episode will culminate in a final open studio celebration on 28 Nov and 08 Dec 2019. The 8th and 9th Episode is Co-Curated by Sadya Mizan(BD) and Giovanni Morassutti(Germany). After the Exchange program a unique digital Exhibition will be arranged in Dhaka in cooperation with the Samdani Artist Led Initiatives Forum of Samdani Art foundation.