Amader Pathagar (A Library of Our Own), 2021
Two-channel HD video installation, 18 min.
Sadia Sharmin and Benjamin Busch
Interviews conducted in February 2020 at the Shaheed Rumi Memorial Library (Karail Basti in Dhaka, Bangladesh), primarily feature the young members of this grassroots organization while they reflect on the group’s history, activities, and dreams for the future. Presented as a two-channel video installation, this multilayered work combines footage from the interviews led by Sadia Sharmin and 3D scans by Benjamin Busch. Both trained as architects, Busch and Sharmin conceive the use of mapping (2D, 3D, and storytelling) as tools for activism, empowerment, and community building. In this work the artists aim to preserve perhaps the most ephemeral of all things: culture and relationships.