There are structured educational patterns, academic ways that we have been following, but at the same time it is needed to experience the things that we don’t often see, learn how to understand ourselves in a different way, and to explore what we can do with the skills that we have. The key focus of this project was on how someone can explore themselves in an artistic manner to bring out something new.

The project was open for not just the students from fine arts background, rather it focused on participants from various disciplines who were interested and involved in arts. This selection was not solely done on the basis of specific skills or academic qualifications of participants, but on their depth of creativity and their approach on thinking outside the box.

The residential project took place in Lama, Bandarban for three days; an isolated place where there is no electricity and no mobile network. It was an attempt to connect to the nature without any distraction, to get inspired from the surrounding elements of nature, and to explore what their capacity was as individuals to bring out the core ideas rooted inside of themselves. There were discussion sessions based on what the participants thought or imagined in the evenings to share ideas and thoughts, and these practices enabled the project to bring out the best out of the participants attended. These knowledge-sharing sessions enable participants working on different mediums, different artistic styles got the opportunity to understand more about the diversities and different approaches taken by them and how all these different approaches compliments one another.

After the residential project, the participants got to work on the space dedicated for them at Abinta Gallery where they got to work for a full months on the gallery. The gallery space was open for them to work as a studio so that they could think about the things that they have learned from the residential workshop, and to implement those through their artistic approaches at the dedicated space. The works were also complimented by the participation of the experts in the art sector with whom the participants got to share ideas, thoughts, and also get insights and answers to their questions. These open-ended approaches enabled the participant to bring out their best in the given time.