Seeds Shall Set Us Free is the title of a solo exhibition centered around the work of Munem Wasif, an artist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, whose practice turned from documentary photography and filmmaking to artistic investigations community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems in recent years. This presentation at Fotogalleriet by the artist, the first in the Nordic countries, will depart from Seeds Shall Take Us Free (2017-2021), consisting of a series of documents, photographs, and cyanotypes that refer to classic scientific representation and “alpona,” the Bengali practice of creating ritual floor paintings using rice paste.
The exhibition brings four works by Munem Wasif into a constellation: Each piece is based on extensive research in the Bengal region on the history of rice cultivation, biodiverse relationships to nature as well as the traditions of uncultivated spaces and the rhythms of proverbs, songs, and ecological food tables.
Working across the medium of photography, installation, sound, and textiles, the artist’s practice forms part of larger conversations around localized food production, the displacement of common land, communal knowledge and labouring bodies.
