During our initial days in Dhaka, we felt disoriented – everything was different: the weather, the city, the people… The capital of Bangladesh welcomed us with all its chaos, dust, and charm. Settling in with our friends from Britto Arts Trust, we discussed our Residency Project intensely: What did we want to do in this one month? 

A month is not much. But also not nothing. Especially with the help of Britto. 

So we quickly decided to finish the second phase of CONNECTING ECOSYSTEMS by practically working on a community garden in the area of Hasnabad. It felt good to tackle a concrete and bigger project bringing together all the topics of the trip. 

It was very important to us to work with the neighborhood – to get to know this specific part of Dhaka and its people throughout our work. So we started carefully looking for a space, passing the mustard fields outside of the city and the brick factories on the shore of the rivers. We found our spot on the riverside Buriganga on a strip of state-owned land covered with a dusty football ground and some banana plants. When we first walked through the narrow alley between a cabin and a house to enter the field, already a crowd of kids followed us curiously. It was the perfect spot: already engaged by the local youth and visible for all people living around. 

So we started to plan the beds, bought the bamboo and soil. We came to the place nearly every day of the month to work: First we picked up the plastic waste and freed the soil from the layer of clutter. Secondly, the beds were constructed from bamboo with the help of workers. Since we first really engaged with this material we were amazed by its variability: mats, heavy sticks to frame the construction, flexible sticks, weaving material… everything was possible with all the different kinds of bamboo. Next, all the soil had to be collected in baskets and carried to the bed. One by one. At this point the kids already were so engaged with the project that they carried all the soil back and forth like ants. Always passing us, directing each other and carrying the soil repeatedly from the pit to the soon to be garden. Slowly everything came together as we built some additional structures for the climbing plants and the idea became visible. Also the adults of the community became engaged, giving advice and telling stories about the place. It used to be so many things before and would now become a garden shared by everyone. They started to discuss responsibilities and organized watering and maintenance.

After weeks of work everything was set to plant. So we bought vegetables and flowers, enough for all the kids to plant at least one and prepared a joyful event to celebrate all the work and the opening of the garden together.