To project barbarism of 1971

For Mintu Dey artistic recreation of our country's birth history is a passionate dream.

A freelance artist, he, along with his team, is now in the final stage of completing the onerous task of projecting the barbarism during the Liberation War through no less than a total of 1,071 pieces of sculptures.

There are 25 odd artists in his team. Using cork sheets, Mintu and his team have already made some 800 cut-outs sculpting different characters.

"We'll make 1,071 sculptures in total. These will include general people, freedom fighters, members of Pakistani occupation forces, rajakars (collaborators of Pak Army in '71), a few vultures, crows and dogs," says the 37-year-old artist.

The plan is to recreate an ambience of the dark night of March 25 (in 1971), the night the Pakistani military launched its heinous genocide of unarmed Bangalees, he explains.

Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

This epic recreation of the darkest moment in our history is entitled "The Barbarism of '71".

Talking to The Daily Star, Mintu says, "We'll create about 100 sequences using each of these 1,071 sculptures and arrange an open-space projection for them, a unique art event that has never happened before in Bangladesh."

He expressed his gratitude to Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique who has allowed him to use the grassy premises of his residence.

He, however, has the National Parade Ground in mind for the final display of the artworks on March 25, 2016.

"We've had initial talks with the authorities concerned and they assured us that they would consider allowing the parade ground to be the venue of the display," says Mintu.

Ferdous Ara Rasul, Abanish Mondol, Jagodish Biswas, Buddha Dev, Sujan Kumar, Romit Chakma and a host of other young artists and sculptors, most of them students from Dhaka Art College and Dhaka University's Fine Art Institute, have been working with Mintu in this project.

But why did Mintu Dey, who has a special craving for watercolour and miniature art, take up this huge self-financed project? Anyone might want to know.

"Unfortunately, some political changeovers in the past 45 years of our independence did not even spare our Liberation War history from being distorted. This art mission of projecting the 1971 atrocities is just an effort to instil the spirit of Muktijuddho in our new generation," he explains.

Born in Khulna, Mintu is an art graduate from Khulna University's Fine Art Institute. He completed his masters in drawing and painting from the University of Development Alternative.