Rising Of the Days
Rising of the days actually are the murmuring sounds or whispers of the lanes in old Dhaka. Walking along those lanes was like connecting to the invisible air that just passes, passed.
The biggest ephemeral is time. Memories are like the thin marks of water. It fleets away while we get busy with the next.
50 alarm clocks were distributed in five venues and all were set to be alarmed for 30 sec every 60 min.
The experiential walk through the house corridors formed relationship with families. There is this orphanage house with ages old mango tree. The opening of the house is so welcoming with ‘bahirmohol’ the exterior whereas the ‘ondormohol’ the interior or zenana is strictly controlled. Then one house with a small courtyard with circular form of three-story building all rented to number of families I couldn’t count.
I offered the residences of these houses if they will like to sit with me to listen to a diary of a woman used to live one of these houses more than 100 years ago. So then, we sat like a geeta-path form. Geeta is the household Hindu religious book used to be read by widows mostly after lunch among the women of ‘ondormohol’ or ‘zenana’. I wanted to share a part of the autobiography of Monoda Debi what is a piece of Old Dhaka history on the lifestyle, wedding, household livings etc. In this small autobiography she includes only four years of her life 1885-1888. But it feels like a total history.
So here is reading of an autobiography of a woman from indoor to the women of indoor. Audiences were not allowed inside the houses so the whole performance was live telecast on the screens outside the houses. The women faces are under cover to reenact a part of the diary.
1square Mile
Forashgonj Road Orphanage, 2/2 Mohinimohon Das Lane and 62 Forashgonj Road,
2 January 2016
Mediums: Alarm clock, White Saree, bamboo mattress, traditional sweetener, vermilion, oil, the autobiography of Monoda Debi Sekaler Grihobodhur Diary (Diary of a langsyne housewife).
Duration: 6 hour
Photo: Munem Wasif
