Working through the dyad of presence-absence : 7th CRACK International Art Camp 2013

The Open Day of 7th CRACK International Art Camp on December 30, 2013 saw a confluence of artists and community members at Smaran fish farm at Rahimpur, Kushtia, a south-western district of Bangladesh, with the latter enthusiastically responding to mostly interactive art dispersed across the site of the camp and its surrounding areas.
In 2007, this rural setting provided the backdrop to the formation of CRACK Bangladesh, an organization that came into being at the behest of artist and researcher Shawon Akand working in close association with artist Delowar Hossain.


 

Kushtia being the hub of ascetics of varied dispositions, both artists were searching for a local framework to establish an umbrella under which artists, photographers, litterateurs and musicians are to congregate once a year emulating the spirit of the bauls at a shadhushango or spiritual conference.

 

 

 

The bucolic site served as the stage for subsequent CRACK events – where interactive zeal stamped the artistic creations. With the idea of relationality as their guiding light, CRACK artists, at the 7th edition, have taken to nature as context to problematize established norms of art praxis.
Curated by artist and musician Rahul Anand of Bangladesh, the 7th edition was themed under the rubric Life, Fulfillment and Emptiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twenty six artists from five countries have taken to the theme to forge their own interpretations, and, in turn, locate their respective point of engagement. Utilizing local materials for their multifarious and multidimensional site-specific works, performance art, shadow art (a form developed in the vein of shadow theatre), the participants found their respective voice in the miscellany of a repertoire that sought to test the boundaries of art and the site of creation. Around 27 artists, with nine from India, two from Nepal, and one each from the Philippines and the USA, and the rest from Bangladesh, partook in this current edition that ran from 25 to 30 December 2013.

- DEPART DESK

Photo courtesy: CRACK