The exhibition at the Bengal Gallery in Dhaka was jointly-opened by Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit, New Age editor Noor Kabir and festival director Shahidul Alam. The same evening, Dixit also spoke on how ‘A People War’ had traveled to reach over 3,50,000 in Nepal to promote peace and help build a collective memory of the 10-year insurgency.
Nepali photographer Sailendra Kharel also exhibited his ‘Long, Rugged Road to Republic’ as a part of the Chobi Mela V festival. Other visiting Nepali photographers include Bijay Gajmer, Shruti Shrestha, Rishi Amatya, Ashesh Dangol and Narendra Mainali.
Chobi Mela is an international photography festival which takes place every two years. The festival opened on January 30th with ´A Long Walk to Freedom´ The Life and History of Nelson Mandela, and a video conference between Mahasweta Devi, Noam Chomsky and Stuart Hall. It features over sixty exhibitions, thirty-five participating nations, over a dozen workshops, well over a thousand images, and over fifty visiting artists from Asia alone.
Conceived in a nation far removed from the established capitals of photography, Chobi Mela has been successful in bridging the gap between the East and the West, and encouraging and promoting majority world photographers. The Mela closes on February 20th 2009.
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