This international creative residency program, established in 2021, provides a self-curated and directed
program that honors the creative process and trusts individual to know what they need to cultivate
their talent, whether it’s to work and produce, to think, to experiment, to rejuvenate or to explores the
connection between space and the creativity. Resident’s time is his/her own; there is no workshops,
critiques, nor required activities.
The Creative Residency program is one of the cornerstones of our mission. We recognize that creative
and innovative thinkers are vital contributors to our collective well-being. They delight, inspire,
challenge, and enrich our lives.
Each resident creative come from different walks of life and work in different creative disciplines; from
musician, architect, composer and writer, to visual artist, curator, designer and beyond.
Resident is given their own private studio. The studio is designed to protect the time, space and
solitude that allows residents to focus on their work. The Creative Residency program provides creative
and innovative thinkers with a two - three-weeks stay in any other country than Bangladesh.
Conceptualized By | Niharika Momtaz, Founder of Bangladesh Art Week
‘’Like a floating studio space of thought voyage, anticipating a certain uniqueness” - Javed Jalil, Art Critic.
ZIHAN KARIM
Resident Artist , 2021
The Room, Foundry Downtown
PARALLEL EXPANSION
Creating dialogues with the environmental space and the virtual interface of thought and projection.
Where mechanics and the living contemplates an understanding of an existential fusion.
He initiates interaction of shapes, an adaptation of time, movement, and moment into installation,
projection, and architectural nuance, to explore his concepts.
In this exhibition artist, Zihan Karim initiates a video projection installation titled Parallel Expansion.
Where he creates an environment with, visual references, varied shapes, reflected surfaces to project
light and create visual interfaces of interactions. He assimilates the character of shapes and also
materials to convey a rhetorical disposition of thought, perception, and questioning.
He uses the motif of planet mars as a metaphor to convey imaginative placement of space, creating the
various perception of the perspectives and existential essences. He uses 5 different types of elements as
symbolic suggestions and episodes to convey his projections as the approximate macrocosm, aqua,
planet, UMO {unidentified moving object} and eclipse.
Creating a hypothetical ecosystem in space, concerning utopian thought. Where he proposes question
and curiosity of creating an innovative awareness of existing and seeing in a new or unknown
environment. Going beyond the known paradigms of knowing and data accumulation. Asking questions
like ....can we go beyond the periphery of inherited and premeditated data to create something new or if
so what would be the understanding of it. These monologues and dialectics of conversation are explored
by the artist.
FIVE PHASES Of PROJECTION
Approximate Macrocosm
A triangle as a representation of surface reflection to create the holographic projection initiates an
essence of seen and unseen paradoxes of motion and circulation of human senses extending to the
vast illusion of cosmic flow. The circle denotes the eye as the mechanics of seeing and also relating to
the spherical Essence of the globe. Where the projection is like reading images conceived from
inherited data manifestos anticipating the human mind and imagination probing into the mystery of
the cosmos.
Artist used references of different visual motifs and concepts, He renders information and movement
into a holographic video projection as the projection mimics the holographic illusion of 3 dimentiality
with different interfaces, as three-dimensional variations, creating a suggestive visual stream.
“Approximate Macrocosm”
Holographic Video
VIDEO FRAMES SUGGESTS
Delving into the analogy of cosmic mind and soul or the divine, energy of the universe is alive and
animated. Where the cosmic smaller version as humans referring to microcosm, and the cosmic whole
as the macrocosm integrates and creates an approximate ratio of holistic vibrations.
The visual reference of lotus contemplates radiance of regeneration and enlightenment.
The sacred tree of the sefirot from the speculations of esoteric Jewish mysticism, relating to the 10
attributes of the divine. Where the ten forces of the divine relate to higher consciousness referring to
cosmos. The symbol of the tree represents the journey, human mapping towards a cosmic
transcendences.
DAT ROSA MEL APIBUS meaning the roses gives the bees honey Symbol of inclusion, universal
oneness, rose petal-like a maze, pathway of yearning, and folding the sacred core of totality.
Utriusque Cosmi historian or the history of two cosmos an image of a human figure in a circle refers to
vibration of the human form into the macrocosm of the cosmic energy. The world within the world, the
internal world of a man as the smaller cosmos referring to the cosmological, the universe. Relations of
mind and soul of the cosmos and also the planetary influences on human organs are visible in this
inferring.
Aqua
A necessary element of life, which the artist envisions through projection on glass. As reflecting light
and creating the depth of moving water as a living force of nature.
“Aqua”
Video projection on the glass
Planet
Projection on a curve wall. Where artist gives us a certain distortion of perception, giving a hint to a
view from the outer space ....looking at planet earth. He suggested the longing view from space as the
astronauts long for their homes.
“Planet”
Video projection on curved wall
U.M.O {unidentified moving object}
A projection in the wall where the artist used a location scheme from Google earth to express an
essence of unknown territory, where human footprints are obscured Uninhabitable by people. The
gesture of the hand could suggest a moving object as an Unknown phenomenon in space.
“U.M.O”
Video projection on the wall
Eclipse
Giving a sense of mystery of the moon our planet and the sun. The solar eclipse which we experience
here on earth. Where the mystery of the moon the absence of light gives us an awareness of the
cosmic experience and its supernatural appearance.Artist uses all this information and more to create stimulation to the viewer to derive connection and curiosity and to imagine to question the unknown space of possibility
“Eclipse”
Video on 40” flat monitor
Zihan Karim (b.1984, Bangladesh)
Zihan Karim is an audio-visual artist who works with a range of media including moving images,
installation, sound, and painting. He explores the subtleties of time, space, and societal issues through
the syntax of video, space, monitor and object. Zihan’s work intends to create a new dialogue between
the virtual and reality.
His works have been featured at various art shows and exhibitions, at home and abroad. He is working
as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Chittagong.
Karim himself, known for his large-scale video installation in the Asian region, has been trying his hand
at curation over the last couple of years. He studied painting at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of
Chittagong., and is currently an Associate / Assistant professor there at the Department of Applied Art.
Concept | Niharika Momtaz, Curator & Founder of Bangladesh Art Week
Writer | Javed Jalil, Art Critic
Photographer |
Courtesy | Artist Zihan Karim
Venue Courtesy | Foundry Downtown