A magnificent meeting of minds

Fernando Palma Rodregues, from Mexico, speaking of how his colleagues and he got together for the Britto Residency, to finally have their exhibit at Bengal Gallery, said, that they had been invited to come together by that international organisation. This project had also been supported by "Triangle", based in UK. Striving for two months, each artists worked in their own medium individually. Fernando said that "Britto" had invited him, via Gas Works Gallery in London.

Speaking of how he had created the moving installations, which fascinated any onlooker, Fernando gave his background. He said that he was pleased to say that he came from Mexico, founded by the Aztecs, where the Aztec language was still spoken with its 50 variations (although the official language remains Spanish). Asked how he had switched over from being an engineer to an artist, Fernando said that although he did not originally plan to be an artist, yet for him engineering had exhausted their terminological meanings and what he presented was with the aid of technology, a type of knowledge that had been with his ancestors for centuries. He said, asked to give his background, "I studied industrial engineering in Mexico and moved into arts at a later stage. I don't have an academic training in art, as such, but I've been working as an artist for about 10 to 15 years."

Asked to speak on two of his two electrically operated nouveau entries, Fernando said, "They are basically two walking machines, constructed while working at Dhaka; for this I had already a model which I'd designed earlier on. It was definitely a challenge as I normally, earlier, concentrated on creating buildings. In these works I related nature to its environment and presented a family and in the centre is a cradle of rocks. I wish to convey the concept of spirits from four corners guarding the amphibian." He had taken the image of the alligators from the Bangladesh delta and their existence elsewhere.

Answering to the query on whether he had faced any difficulties combining his culture with that of Bangladesh Fernando said that Mexicans and Bangladeshis had much in common. He said, "Our problems are the same, such as pollution, poverty, corruption; in many ways we are very similar. In most cases I found it easy to understand the common problems as basically both Mexico and Dhaka are poor cities. In both cases, I feel, there is need for industrial development but at the same time artistic people must take the responsibility of doing sincere and interesting work to make the world a better place to live in. I gave a partial face to the anonymous machines and in that way examined the possibilities of working in a foreign place. Among the admirable qualities that I encountered here was the eagerness of the people to help and their intrinsic friendliness which are qualities found in Mexico too."

Touching on how he interacted with his two colleagues, Fernando said, "Everyone in the residency worked at their own time, own 'space', own materials and means. The interaction was admirable and it culminated in further discussions about how we'd arrange our presentation in the gallery. Apart from that, we exchanged ideas about our different methods of work, and I believe we got along fine."

Frederick Musazzi, from Uganda, talking about his sculptures which were basically realistic, said, "When I work, I want to first and foremost please myself as I express my feelings. When I came to Bangladesh, I saw a problem which is found also in Uganda: hunger. As I stepped out of the airport, I was accosted by starving beggars. I decided to combine the theme of poverty and hunger found both here with that seen back in my own country. I believe that 'no man is an island' and that no man can stand alone by himself. By working with two other artists, I combined my ideas with theirs and learnt from them. I truly enjoyed the exchanging of views that had ensued."

"My impression of Bangladesh", Frederick said, asked to give his opinion of his host country, "has been a very pleasant one. The artists whom I met at the Fine Arts Institute were extremely friendly. They were eager to learn from, not knowing that I myself was gleaning a considerable measure of knowledge from them. I asked them about how they conceived their ideas and how they started their work. I was surprised that they found inspiration even in the confines of a city, which has no forests, flowers or birds in close existence, as far as I could make out. Painting, according to me, ensues from the inspiration of nature around the artist, specially in case of landscapes, which I found in plenty among the Dhaka art students' work."

Frederick added, "While working I got a skin rash because of humidity but eventually it went away. I found the rice and curry quite comestible as it is similar to the food back in Uganda," dwelling on whether he had faced any problems or not. Touching on his qualifications, Frederick said, "I got my bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the Makerere University in Uganda and am an arts teacher by profession."

Mustafa Zaman, a local well-known critique and artist, who was the third person in the group, has his qualifications from the Fine Arts University DU, and spent three years in New Delhi, just brushing up his knowledge of literature and the art of expressing oneself in the printed words. Asked about the footnotes that he put along with each of his installation items, taken from everyday daily life, and how they related to the composite whole of his portion of the exhibit, Mustafa said, "As far as my work is concerned it has presented the hoax that we see in real life. It was about perception of the reality around us. In reality, I believe, the text dealt with both the past and the present. As far as the past is concerned, we tend to transform it into fiction. I tried to find out a way to adjudge the reality around me."

Touching on his perception of reality, Mustafa explained that his vision was a world-wide one, and not confined to Bangladesh alone. After September 11, everything changed. Even through the media you can manipulate reality of the past and present. In order to focus on the fictionalisa-tion I'd come up with my own fiction, which I called 'Parallel fiction'.

The exhibit at the Bengal Gallery was an amazing presentation of Britto's latest venture. One came away fascinated, with futuristic post-modern visions, even though the three artists were not all nouveau in their perceptions. They each did their own thing.