MUNEM WASIF

In Taipei Biennial 2020, Wasif is presenting Seeds Shall Set Us Free II (2019), which considers the fraught history of rice cultivation and distribution in Bengal through cyanotypes of rice grains and plants. The images were juxtaposed with archive documents and photographs from one of the largest community grain banks in Bangladesh. In Bengal, rice production was curtailed by indigo and jute cultivation imposed for the world market by the British colonial system. The 1944 famine under the British regime resulted in countless deaths as food grains were hoarded by the rulers.

For this work the artist collaborated with the research-based organisation UBINIG, founded by a group of activists in 1984 to support the new Naya Krishi Andolan agricultural movement, which currently includes more than 100,000 farming families. This movement promotes local, non-chemical agriculture and indigenous agricultural knowledge to protect biodiversity and workers’ well-being. The work invites us to think about these spaces that feed us while we don’t live in them.

Ocula 2020