Journey to the Roots: Planting the seeds of forgotten handcrafted heritage

In Alliance Française de Dhaka's La Galerie, a girl walks into the exhibition's space with her mother, clinging onto her backpack. Her mother points to an overhead lamp made out of bamboo, with paper cranes hanging from them as if mid-flight. 

The mother draws on her memories of bamboo crafts from her childhood, recalling that they were once staple household items. With time, these handmade baskets, decorations, and kitchen utensils faded, becoming only a memory for many city dwellers.

However, due to an art exhibition, the mother is now able to share that memory and heritage with her daughter.

The exhibition in question is Gunoboti's solo exhibition, 'Journey to the Roots', which is an exploration of traditional Bangladeshi handmade crafts through installations. The exhibition kicked off on 11 April at Dhanmondi's Alliance Française de Dhaka and came to a close yesterday, 13 April.

Gunoboti is a lifestyle brand that started its journey in 2021 and focuses on preserving traditional handicraft practices rooted in Bengali culture. Their process starts at the grassroots level as they gather knowledge about the craft, and use it to employ local artisans across Khulna, Barishal, and Faridpur. 

The gallery consisted of both art installations and informative posters displayed on the walls and folding panels. The interesting part of the exhibition was that visitors were free to touch and interact with the displayed art pieces, albeit with care. 

In traditional exhibitions, visitors are generally wary of accidentally brushing against a painting, for fear that one misstep could result in hefty consequences. But as visitors leisurely browsed through the pieces, occasionally touching the paper cranes, it felt as if the space welcomed them with open arms. 

The folding panels spread throughout the room displayed useful information on one side, while the other side invited visitors to write and draw.

On one panel, visitors were urged to share praises of their mothers while other panels invited people to share where they came from.

"Many local handcrafted tools have a lot of misconceptions attached to them. People think that using bamboo tools is unsanitary, whereas it is actually antibacterial and antifungal," shared Malobika Dipanwita Roy, founder of Gunoboti.

She continued, "We wanted to find a way to clear these misconceptions and the answer was communication. That is why we emphasise creating a space for visitors to interact with the exhibition as much as possible."

The interactive aspect connected visitors to the exhibition, reminding them that the crafts displayed are part of our roots–not something to simply observe as an outsider. 

Perhaps another reason why the exhibition felt so personal and human was because the pieces were rooted in human stories. Roy grew up watching her mother constantly experiment with scrap material, prolonging the life of polythene bags and ice cream boxes for as long as possible. 

Furthermore, they also tell the story of the pure talent of local craftsmen. Roy emphasises that though the exhibition is Gunoboti's solo exhibition, it came together due to the hard work of the 10 craftsmen from Faridpur and Khulna who made the pieces for the installations. 

The exhibition focused on displaying our local heritage as much as it did on sharing that knowledge. Aside from the informative displays in the gallery, the exhibition also hosted multiple workshops to share knowledge and new skills with people. 

Gunoboti also hosted a workshop on 13 April on upcycling and natural dyes, featuring a special guest and Roy's inspiration—her mother, Rita Roy—who hosted part of the session.

The exhibition was a mixture of culture and art, offering something for everyone to learn and take away.