Harano Sur (Lost Tune, 2016)
Performance Documentation from Asian Art Biennale 2016
1-channel video, HD, 55 minutes, Outdoor performance with 65 musicians, 65 vintage harmonium instruments
Reetu Sattar’s work, Harano Sur (Lost Tune), focuses on the harmonium, a musical instrument that is tightly integrated into the traditional culture of Bangladesh. The film documents a performance that took place in ঠে Asian Art Biennial 2016 and brought together musicians, each playing one note of the seven notes of a harmonium. The artist uses the sustained droning sounds as a way to explore the violence and social upheaval that have recently affected Bangladesh and as a wider metaphor for issues of cultural control, Diasporas and partition. By playing a sustained note, the performers make the powerful statement of collective powerlessness succumbing to complex socio-political and cultural upheavals.