18 june 14

Sadya Mizan, is a young artist from Bangladesh. She was one of the international artists present at the residency. Belonging to one the neighboring nations the idea of Indian village was initially unfamiliar to her. However after reaching Paradsingha she realized that the warmth of the village across borders and nations does not change.

Sadya joined the Gram project with no definite work proposal in mind however her idea was to experience the village and respond to it spontaneously by creating sites of architecture. Our everyday discussion help each one grew through the course of the residency. Sadya’s work evolved out of regular discussions with other artists. Conceiving her community art concept in the village itself Sadya came up with a project that complimented the other works which were done as the part of the residency.

It was only after coming here and having learnt about the functions of Eco Sani Irri that such a concept evolved. Her basic idea was to play with the psychology of the villagers who defecate in open by informing them about Public and Private Spaces. The idea of the artist was to transform a public space into private space which happened at the main bazaar. The idea was also to play with psychology of the villagers.

The artist created some model ‘eco- sani- irri toilets’ which she wanted to install in the public place at the bazaar. The most interesting, loud and bold part of her installation was a short performance which the artists carried out with the local public. Sadya invited some of the spectators to sit in the mock toilets while she stood their explaining the hazards of defecating in open and merits of Eco- Sani- Irri toilets. Another interesting way to demarcate the public place as private was by using a clothes line right at the middle of the bazaar to hang paper cut outs of male and female under garments.

The work was extremely relevant as the idea of this residency was to inform and educate people about the new Eco Sani Irri Toilets that would be soon introduced in the village school.