[SHOBAK] Collectives In Atomised Time || Bodies For Burning || Serpentine Gallery

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

Idensitat (Spain) published my conversation, about collectives &
political action inside museums, with Doug Ashford as part of 08 art
commissions. Exploring trajectory of the long-term art collective
Group Material [Ashford, Julie Ault, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, etc], as
compared to the speedy/unstable Visible Collective [which a group of
us formed for the Disappeared In America project]. Visible is a
stand-in for numerous other temporary coalitions built after 2001.

Some of our conversations about market pressure (recorded in 07,
published in 08) seem quaint after this GlobalMeltdown. The current
brutal correction will clear space for more experimentation.

COLLECTIVES IN ATOMISED TIME
Doug Ashford+Naeem Mohaiemen
Idensitat Press, 2008
Calaf, Spain

Hard copies of the book are with Doug & Idensitat, but you can
download the PDF here:

http://www.shobak.org/text/atomised.shtml

The extras in printed version are the Spanish+Catalan translations.
"Atomised" in title is from Michel Houllebecq.

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AD-MAN BLUES BECOME ARTIST LIBERATION

For the "Indian Highway" show at Serpentine Gallery, Hans Ulrich
Obrist commissioned "country essays" from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka. Instead of an overview of "local art scene" (a fictitiously
cohesive, smoothly collaborative scene I would be cooking up only for
the benefit of a future country show or pavilion), I talked about
advertising agencies-- as a repository of artist ambition, energy and
creativity.

The catalogue is sold out, but the essay is online here:
http://www.shobak.org/text/adman.shtml

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ART AGAINST TERRORISM
ECA Gallery, Kolkata

Just finished showing at this group show: a video (from Visible
Collective, with Quraishi, Metni, Golden) and a set of prints about
the 1975 coup (originally shown at Scope Basel). ECA show was
inaugurated by a Commodore in the Indian Navy who, in my mind, seemed
to alarm the audience a bit with dire warnings.

Photos here:
http://tinyurl.com/eca-kolkata

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BODIES NOT FOR BURNING

After the Bangladesh Rifles mutiny & massacre of senior army officers
in February 2009, investigators shuttle around like a combo of Marple
(quietly knitting), Poirot (mon dieu moments) & Mason (public
theatrics). The conspiracy theories gather into thick soup, the
chattering classes’ favorite suspects are (depending on political
slant) Jamaat e Islami, Government, Opposition, JMB, HuJI, ISI
(Pakistan), RAW (India)….

Everybody’s favorite bogeyman comes out. A minister says there is
“absolute” proof of Islamist involvement. The Islamists say this is
“clearly” the pro-India bloc. Hizbut Tahrir distributes bright
orange-black leaflets against an “Indian Conspiracy to Break
Bangladesh Army”. Never mind that one of the massacre victims
Brigadier General Shakil had written in favor of giving India transit
access to Bangladesh. Facts get in the way of story.

The government presses sedition charges, making Hizbut Tahrir free
speech “heroes”. On email, we debate sedition as a concept. Jyoti
writes: "Our history, going back to the company days, is that sedition
charges are brought when the govt can’t make any other case. I know HT
from very up close. I know these guys are no angels. But these are not
the points here. If these characters were charged with plotting a
violent act, or inciting violence, or something similar, that would be
one thing. They were charged with ’sedition’. A democracy shouldn’t
even have a sedition law!"

Today, there are new orange-black posters from HT. “Target Bangladesh”

It’s a free-for all, hajar holeo amra bangali, pura jinish take
bhoyaboho jilapi’r pyach na kora porjonto bhat hojom hobe na. The
investigation commission asks for another 30 day extension. The truth
fades. The grisly coda are the ten witnesses that have already died
while in custody or hospital. One of them is the mosque imam who had
witnessed the first hour of killings.

A week ago, I read one of many leaked testimonies from suspects in
custody (”remand” for the heavy-duty questioning). Apparently, at the
beginning, while negotiators sat outside thinking (dreaming) they were
making progress, mutineers were dumping bodies into the sewerage
pipes. But after two bodies quickly floated out into the river at
Kamrangirchor, mutineers saw the footage on TV and held an emergency
meeting about what they would do with the rest of the bodies. A
decision was made to burn them to remove all evidence.

Then one mutineer interrupted the meeting: “We can’t burn Muslim bodies.”

So the remaining bodies went into mass graves, which were found two days later.

“We can’t burn Muslim bodies.” Even murderers absurdly remember their
religious alif-be-te. I noted also that one of the mutineers
organizing the body-disposal meeting is named Monoronjon. Now I
started wondering, does that first name (unusual for Muslim Bengalis
in this generation) come with a Hindu surname? Asked a few people, no
one seems to know his last name. Wonder if it is, wonder how that
would fit with the theory that “radical Islamists” infiltrated the
BDR.

Wonder how anything fits. The truth is there, but I think this rupture
will be another of those never-solved mysteries of Bangladesh history.

Coverage of the mutiny+fallout continues here:

http://unheardvoice.net/blog/author/naeem/

http://unheardvoice.net/blog