LAHORE - Two-time Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is set to premiere her first immersive exhibition HOME1947 for the first time in Pakistan at the Heritage Now festival in Lahore. This unique and deeply beautiful exhibition collects stories from people who left their homes and crossed borders during the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent. HOME1947will display these refugee narratives in the form of photography, sound design short documentaries and installations to be displayed at the Heritage Now festival on the 21st and 22nd of October 2017 at Al-Hamra Arts Council.The exhibition will also be travelling to Karachi at the Frere Hall on November 17th2017.
This exhibition is a deeply personal exploration of the lives and stories of the millions that were displaced in 1947 during the creation of two new independent states, India and Pakistan. The display will include a series of documentary films, a gallery installation, an experiential virtual reality and sound installation, recreating the long-lost sights, sounds and smells of what millions once called home.As the refugee crisis continues to affect millions across the world, HOME1947shows the audience, partition not through the words of historians and politicians, but through the eyes of those who lived through it. HOME1947 was first showcased at the Manchester International Festival earlier this year with the support of the British Council as part of its programming to celebrate 70 years in Pakistan and its effort to support artistic expression in UK and South Asia to strengthen cultural ties. This project is co-commissioned by Manchester International Festival, British Council and Superslow Way.
“Home1947 is an ode to my grandparents’ generation whose stories I grew up listening to. As you walk through the installation, imagine the journeys people made, the conversations that were interrupted, the broken friendships and promises, the playgrounds children left behind, the empty corridors of their homes and those suitcases of memories locked away forever. Home1947 is a deeply personal reflection of partition... from one generation to another...”said Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s award winning documentary ‘Song of Lahore’, which narrates the creative journey of some of Lahore’s oldest musicians, now part of the Sachal Orchestra, will be making its Lahore premiere during the Heritage Now festival on October 21st.This will be followed by a live performance by the Sachal Orchestra the same evening.
Heritage Now aims to bring together heritage and museum professionals from around the world as an initiative to promote dialogue and discourse on preservation of heritage in Pakistan. It is also an endeavour to contemporise heritage, both tangible and intangible, through the lens of culture and arts.
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