[shahidulnews] Freedom: Chobi Mela V call for entries

[Shahidul Alam]

Drifting in cage and out again
Hark unknown bird does fly
Shackles of my mind
If my arms could entwine
With them I would thee bind

Rooms it had eight
And doors it had nine
Windows betwixt you find
Up above the glittering hall
Mirrors might make you blind

What fate alas makes bird do thus
Caged bird breaks free to fly
Of bamboo raw the cage I saw
This mind of mine still longs oh so
Lalon Fakir cries as he sees with his eyes
The cage wither and go*

The body, the soul, the self, the universe, Lalon saw freedom not as  
an entity outside oneself, but as a lived experience. Within yet  
afar. Ephemeral but tactile. With wings but encaged.

New forms of slavery form new forms of chains. Violence suffered in  
silence. Ancestral land commandeered. Resistance made illegal.

What mask does freedom now wear? Freedom to profit is the new elixir.  
Freedom to reach distant markets, to exploit cheap labour. The word  
that takes us to such dizzying heights leaves the deepest of wounds  
with its loss. 'Foreign' sounding names, 'wrong' coloured skin,  
'different' passports, circumscribe our new freedoms.

Going beyond walls built to occupy territory. Beyond bombs dropped to  
coerce the unarmed. Beyond cells built to hold the other. Artists  
paint with colours that don't exist. Write with words as yet un- 
invented. Photograph where light is yet to reach. The cage. The door.  
The wing. The soul. Freedom.

Shahidul Alam
Festival Director
Chobi Mela V

We invite photographers working in the fields of photojournalism,  
fine art, conceptual or any other field of photography, to interpret  
the theme "Freedom" in the widest sense possible. Submissions may be  
made online (www.chobimela.org) from 1st March 2008 through to 31st  
May 2008. Selections will be made by 15th June 2008. Final work must  
be submitted by 31st July 2008. Festival opens 6th November 2008.  
Submission guidelines will be available online.

*Translation by Shahidul Alam from "khachar bhitor ochin pakhi" by  
Lalon Shah.

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http://shahidul.wordpress.com/current-news/

Bangladeshi Photographers Kazi Golam Quddus Helal, Shoeb Faruquee and  
J. A. Akash collectively win four awards at the  33º SALÃO  
INTERNACIONAL DE ARTE FOTOGRÁFICA DO ALGARVE PHOTO SALON / 2007 held  
in Portugal, including the FIAP GOLD MEDAL.




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