Cartoon exhibition at Drik Gallery depicts student-people movement

The Cartoon exhibition at Drik Gallery has depicted the student-people movement to the visitors through featuring cartoon pictures and screening videos on the historical phases of the mass upsurge.

Drik Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition where the scenarios and spirit of student-people mass uprising is being showcased.

The exhibition was organized by the Bangladesh Cartoonist Association, Drik, and e-arki at Drik Gallery in city's Panthapath area with the theme "Cartoon Ey Bidroho (Revolution in Cartoons)".

The exhibition, which started on 16 August, will continue till 31 August. It displays a vast collection of cartoons, installations and video art highlighting the mass uprising of 2024.

During the mass uprising of students and general people in Revolution 2024, memes and cartoons became a powerful force, using sharp satire and bold imagery to capture the spirit of confrontation and unite the masses.

Cartoon exhibition Curator ASM Rezaur Rahman said cartoon has a long history in mass movement, especially in the history of Bangladesh such as the reign of autocratic Ershad.

At that time, many cartoonists caricatured and painted various cartoons to criticize Ershad's rule, he added.

However, due to censorship and a culture of fear under the previous government, this art form had become almost extinct. Only a few cartoonists had been able to express their freedom through creations.

He said the government imposed several restrictions on the cartoonists so that no one can create cartoon with any satire.

But, just after the mass uprising all cartoonists including the young ones have come forward to create cartoons criticizing the previous government braving all kinds of fear, he said.

All cartoons showcased in this exhibition are a compilation of last 30 days of the student-people movement, he said.

He said many youths led the recent student-people movement through various means, the young cartoonists contributed to this movement by drawing satirical cartoons against misrule, mismanagement, wrongdoings and previous government's suppression.

He said the main objective of this exhibition is to display all their creations during the recent mass uprising of the country and giving tributes to them.

About the response of this exhibition, Photographer and Drik Founder Shahidul Alam said an extraordinary response was received from people by arranging such cartoon exhibition and the week-long exhibition has to be extended (till 31 August) so that more people can come and see the outstanding cartoons here.

He said cartoon can express one's freedom of speech effortlessly and that is why it has immense power in it.

"We want to publish a book with these cartoons in the United Nations (UN) annual conference for the international delegates," he said.

Professor of Drama and Dramatics at Jahangirnagar University Fahmida Akhter said the theme of the cartoon is made red which is a color of revolution.

She said all these cartoons show the people about the power of youths who changed the present scenario through their anti- discriminatory student movement.

She said such powerful cartoons played a supportive role in the movement and thus created a ray of hope in this newly democratic country.