Somewhere Else Than Here (2019-ongoing)
In densely populated, patriarchal and religious Bangladesh, the LGBTQ community – some 10 million people according to UN estimates – is severely oppressed. Article 377 of the Bangladeshi Penal Code still criminalises ‘sexual acts against the order of nature’. Homosexuals are regularly threatened via phone, text and social media, especially now that radical Islamist groups are also on the rise in Bangladesh. In 2016, gay activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were murdered with machetes by attackers allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda.
In ‘Somewhere Else Than Here’, Bangladeshi artist Sumi Anjuman visualises a community of individuals exploring their love, hope and imagination, but also their fear, isolation and struggle to be seen for who they are: human beings. Her images deliberately exude an air of fiction, raising the question of what we are actually seeing: the abstraction reflects the transformation of the LGBTQ community in Bangladesh.
