Exhibition Type: Visual Art and exhibition

📅 Date: May 2 – 7, 2025 

🕕 Opening Ceremony: May 2 at 6:00 PM

📍Venue: La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi

Step into a world where stories leap off the page and into your imagination.

IKRIMIKRI: A World of Picture Books is a vibrant and immersive exhibition that celebrates the wonder of storytelling, picture book illustration, and childhood curiosity.

This visual art showcase invites both children and adults to rediscover the joy of illustrated tales through: 

🎨 Original Artworks from beloved picture books 

📚 Artist-Writer Talks on the creative process 

🎭 Theater & Puppet Shows that animate the characters 

🎨 Interactive Workshops that encourage young minds to explore storytelling and visual expression

From whimsical drawings to theatrical storytelling, IKRIMIKRI brings picture books to life—creating a space where imagination knows no bounds. 

👦👧 Open to all ages — especially children and the young at heart.

Come discover, dream, and dive into the world of IKRIMIKRI!

PROIGRAM SCHEDULE:

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2-7 May 2025 Venue: Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi The illustrations from all the books published by Ikrimikri will be exhibited at the Alliance Française gallery. Alongside these, artworks created by children for the covers and various sections of the Ikrimikri monthly magazine will also be displayed on the gallery walls. Opening Ceremony Friday, May 2 Time: 6:00 PM  Special Feature: Puppet show by Jol Putul at 7 PM  

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Saturday, May 3 Session 1: [Storytelling & Story-listening] Time: 5:00 – 6:00 PM Children will read aloud from Ikrimikri books. Everyone is welcome to share their stories as well Session 2: [Conversation]  6:00 – 7:30 PM Interactive discussion with artists, writers, and publishers

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Sunday, May 4 Session 1: [Storytelling & Story-listening] Time: 4:00 – 5:00 PM Session 2: [Reading Own Stories] Time: 6:00 – 7:00 PM Conducted by Shanu and Farzana Apu Children and teenagers who enjoy writing stories will read their own creations, which will also be displayed in the exhibition. Session 3: [Workshop: From Words to Images] Time: 4:00 – 8:00 PM Room No 12 Conducted by Sabyasachi Mistry (by registration only)

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Monday, May 5 Session 1: [Storytelling & Story-listening] Time: 4:00 – 5:00 PM Facilitated by Aupi Karim Session 2: [Typography Workshop] Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM Facilitated by Dewan Atikur Rahman Participants: Students from Grade 10 to university level

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Tuesday, May 6 Gallery opens at 4:00 PM Session 1: [Storytelling & Story-listening] Time: 4:00 – 5:00 PM Facilitated by Tushar Abdullah Session 2: [Book-Making Workshop] Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM Facilitated by Shamim Ahmed A hands-on workshop where students from Grades 5–10 will learn to create a simple book.

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Wednesday, May 7 Session 1: [Storytelling & Story-listening] Time: 5:00 – 6:00 PM

Session 2: [Drama Performance] Time: 7:00 – 8:00 PM Children from the theater group BotTola will perform Fangsang, a play based on the Ikrimikri book of the same name.

16th Solo Painting Exhibition by Md Abu Salim

     

🗓25 April – 6 May 2025 

     

🕔Opening: 25 April at 5 PM 

     

📍Galerie Zoom, Alliance Française de Dhaka

       

Alliance Française de Dhaka is pleased to present “Save the Environment“, the 16th solo painting exhibition by artist Md Abu Salim. In this exhibition, Selim showcases eighteen recent paintings, each a visual plea for environmental awareness.

     

The works highlight critical issues such as:

     

🌊River and water pollution, 

     

🌫️Air pollution, 

     

🔊Noise pollution 

     

🌱The degradation of life, nature, and soil

       

Through expressive brushwork and thoughtful symbolism, the exhibition challenges viewers to reflect on our shared responsibility to protect the planet. 

       

Join us for the inaugural event on 25 April at 5 PM, open to all art enthusiasts, environmental advocates, and friends of nature. 

     

📍Exhibition Venue: Galerie Zoom, Alliance Française de Dhaka 

     

📅Exhibition Duration: 25 April – 6 May 2025 

     

🆓 Free Entry

       

#SaveTheEnvironment #MdAbuSalim #PaintingExhibition #AFDhaka #EnvironmentalArt #BangladeshiArtists #ArtForNature #GalerieZoom

Bangla Calligraphy on Antique Documents 20th

     

Solo Exhibition by Arham ul Huq Chowdhury

   

🗓 14–26 April 2025

📍La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka

   

🎉 Opening: 14 April at 6 PM | Open to All

     

Decorated Deeds is the 20th solo exhibition by renowned calligrapher Arham ul Huq Chowdhury, where classical Bangla calligraphy meets the texture of time. The artist presents a striking fusion of elegant script and historical surfaces, reviving antique documents—legal papers, manuscripts, and archival records—with contemporary calligraphic interpretations. Each piece is not only a work of art but a dialogue between the past and present, blending heritage, language, and artistic innovation.

     

With a deep respect for history and a passion for the written form, Chowdhury breathes new life into forgotten pages. Join us for the vernissage (opening) on 14 April at 6 PM, open to all lovers of art, language, and culture.

     

🔍 Exhibition Hours: Open daily from 14 to 26 April

   

#DecoratedDeeds #BanglaCalligraphy #ArhamUlHuqChowdhury #LaGalerie #AllianceFrançaiseDeDhaka #CalligraphyArt #DhakaArtScene #BanglaHeritage

“Birth of a Wish Fish” is a performative act—a story written and brought to life through community performance, rooted in local knowledge and cultural expression.

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From June to December 2024, nine artists journeyed through eight communities surrounding the Sundarbans. Among the places they visited, they chose West Dhangmari as a symbol of cultural resilience, where they conducted a street art workshop.

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Each participant engaged in a heartfelt dialogue with the community, using their preferred medium—story writing, documentary, photography, craft making, drawing, and painting.

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Out of these deep exchanges emerged Birth of a Wish Fish, a story written by Afroza Hossain Sara in conversation with Himangshu Bachar, 72, a lifelong resident of West Dhangmari. Together with the community, Afroza, her team, and local participants brought the story to life as a performative act—a shared gesture of storytelling, memory, and care.

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Through this act, the community voiced their concerns and their wishes to protect what they hold most dear. As part of the story, they placed Nojor Photas—protective gazes—on the Sundarban, the Dhangmari canal, drinking water sources, rice fields, the sacred Bonbibi Jahuranama, and many other treasured places and elements.

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The performance reflected a deeper truth:
What researchers uncover through study, the community already knows through lived experience.

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They express this wisdom through cultural traditions and collective imagination.All the Nojor Photas were then gathered into the form of the Wish Fish—a symbolic being whose scales carried every protective charm and every hope.

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The fish was co-created using local knowledge—based on fishermen’s descriptions of the Vetki fish—and built using traditional bamboo and reed craft techniques.

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Once completed, the participants carried the Wish Fish around the village, letting the land, forest, river, animals, and spirits know that the people are watching over them—with care.

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Now, the Wish Fish remains in the community as a symbol of their deep, collective desire to protect the environment, biodiversity, cultural heritage, and the spirit of the land.

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This exhibition at Alliance Française de Dhaka, Gulshan Branch, presents the entire journey through photographs, documentaries, monologues, and recorded conversations—capturing the art, the story, and the community who brought it to life.

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(This initiative was made possible thanks to the Metis Fund, a program by AFD aimed at strengthening development dynamics through an artistic and emotional approach. And it is implemented by Team Platform in partnership with Gol Kanon Echo Cottage and Alliance Française de Dhaka)

Regards sur le Bangladesh, a Franco-Bangladeshi Week in Paris

 

Architecture Documentaires Littérature Musique Débats

 

The idea of a Bangladeshi week in France emerged to highlight this little-known country. The program we are proposing is based on our cooperation activities in the fields of architecture, artistic creation, literature, climate, and cinema, with partners invested in this partnership framework.

     

We are opening a window on a country whose recent events, linked to the spring revolution and ensuing political instability, place it at the center of many challenges. We invite the audience on a new journey—far from the usual pessimistic clichés about Bangladesh (poverty, climate disasters, pollution)—to showcase a positive image of its vibrant energies, cultural richness, and new ambitions.

     

We extend our sincere gratitude to our partners for their commitment to constructing this program: Institut français, the association chaired by Erik Orsenna, Initiative pour le Futur des Grands Fleuves, Cité de l’architecture, INALCO, and the Théâtre National de la Colline.