Britto Arts Trust
October 7, 2022Britto Arts Trust
Britto Arts Trust is a non-profit artists’ collective founded in 2002, working out of Dhaka in various locations around the country. As part of the Triangle Network, an international network of artists and organisations, the collective has a global reach.
Britto’s artistic practice is dedicated to the socio-political upheaval in Bangladesh. In search of lost histories, cultures and communities, the collective explores and collects diverse sources in collaboration with various partners.
RASA
Local Bazaar and Supershop
Ceramics, metal, fabric, cotton and natural spices and seeds.
The Bengali word Rasa stands for food in general. It can be either food that can be eaten, or knowledge and ideas as spiritual food for any form of creativity. The original lifestyle and natural resources are often ignored.
We are part of a global commercial market. In our competitive market, brands attract the attention of customers. Dressing up food, giving each product an ideal shape, size or color, has become a crucial element of our food culture. We belong to a world where hybrid seeds, artificial fertilisers and chemical or pesticide methods are used in growing vegetables, fruits and crops in Bangladesh. Only recently a shift in thinking has begun, and people are turning their attention to organic agriculture.
As part of working within a larger ecosystem, artists from different parts of Bangladesh organised a series of local workshops. The artists created the final products in a ceramic workshop, where they worked for several months with the support of a team of assistants and experts. In addition to ceramic objects, there were also created embroidered objects and items made of metal at various locations.
The small objects appear not only as food, but also contain various statements about the food policy determined by the agricultural giants from powerful nations. The potential damage to our health, the environment and traditional agriculture, as well as many other damages, can be attributed to the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are added to food. The excessive use of DDT and other pesticides poses a huge threat to humans and other species. Genetically modified seeds are displacing organic seeds and we are having difficulty growing plants, vegetables and fruits and identifying which seeds we have in front of us. Whether it is conventionally bred, genetically modified, or left in its original form.