22 Aug URONTO Residential Art Exchange Program- 5th Episode

URONTO team has been placing their effort in creative fields and heritage histories since 2012. They stood up to its fifth season successfully completed in July 2016. The Fifth Episode was designed in magnificent Old heritage building in Chottogram near Sadarghat Area. The building is Locally known as the P K Sen building after its owners name. But the locals also call this building “The Sat-tala bhaban”(the seven stories building) as the building had a height of a seven storied though there were only four stories in the building, the extra hight was from the Dome above. For the distinctive architecture, the building is a very important structure in the area though the preservation of it is in no good hands.  

Chottogram Is a major coastal seaport city and financial center in southeastern Bangladesh. P K Sen Building in Sadarghat thana of Chottogram was constructed approximately in 1920, it took around three years to complete the building. It is one of the traditional and the ancient buildings in Chottogram. It was one of the biggest Bhabans in Chottogram during the British era. Zemindar Prasanna Kumar Sen, a kind-hearted business man in Raozan, built the traditional building on the bank of the river Karnaphuli.

P K Sen was a Rice and oil Trader in Noa Para, had his own mills in Chittagong. He also established many tolls and school in the area during that period. He owned a huge land area starting from the sadarghat thana port corner till the famous Hotel  Raj which is nearby to the building. After getting bankrupt during 1946 P K Sen had to sell the entire land ownership. During that period many trader tried to buy the building and Shushil Ghosh finally got the chance to own this building. The building is mainly four storied but with the Minar on top, adds more three stories of height to the building. The building is deigned in hexagon shapes which is very unique and very much interesting. There are many big beautiful ventilators with geometric shapes. Wide windows are main characteristics of the building. It has more than 40 rooms and two decorative stair system for getting in and out of the building.  

This was the first time, where the chosen building had tenants still living in the structure. Even the new owner with families were living there too. This was a very new experience for UORNTO and the participants to work in a building which is very old but not abandoned yet.

In this episode, national and international artists have gathered under one roof to interpret, re-construct, re-imagine, and re-create the spirit of P K Sen building. The participating artists include Aditi Bhattad (India), Julia Brandao (Brazil), Sze Ka Yan (Hongkong), Reetu Sattar (Dhaka), Shohrab Jahan (CTG), Yuvraj Das (CTG), Anik Dhor (CTG), Shariar Khan Shihab (Dhaka), Chandra Shukhen (Bangladesh), Shams Xaman (BD) and Students of Chottogram Fine Art institute.

The project took place between 22-29 July 2016. 

The artworks placed on the architectural surrounding of P K Sen Building were embellished with faded memories formulated with the combination of two fundamental sources; one is the Family record book from Family members of P K Sen and second, personal interview with Present owners, local historians, photographers and writers.

At the open studio day many local people, local artists, photographers, initiators, friends and local tenants came to visit and had a great time. Though we had to keep in mind about limiting people in certain areas because the structure is very old and fragile.

The 5^th season passed with all the amazing works and groups singing when ever we get time with family members, with some small celebrations, mid night presentations with sleepy audiences, good and sometime bad group discussions, and lot more experiences. And that’s what we call exchange program, because we have exchanged experiences, love, culture, art, thoughts, skills and what not. Its like having a new family with alike thoughts. Few of the international participants came to Dhaka and explored few small cultures of Bangladesh, like wearing sari, having mehendi design in hand, having fuchka(local snacks) on the road side etc.

Detail of all the works done in the Programme will be soon uploaded in the archive section.

URONTO is hosting site responsive residential art exchange programmes since 2012, within disused or abandoned spaces and heritage buildings to document cultural memories and brand Bangladesh globally through multidisciplinary artists’ collaborations. URONTO’s activities not only provide much-needed opportunities for emerging artists to expand their working practice and collaborate with international artists, but through each residency, they create an alternative documentation about the history of the selected site before it’s demolished and forgotten. The Project invite artists and practitioners through open call and selects then through a curatorial board created newly for every Episode. It is an international program open for all kind of discipline.