Sharmeen Obaid's first immersive installation hopes to transport you back to 1947 Partition era

Take a trip down memory lane with #HOME1947 which will display photography, sound, short documentaries and installations

Images Staff

Updated 21 Oct, 2017

The 1947 Partition of India displaced between 10 to 12 million people, creating an overwhelming refugee crisis in the newly constituted territories.

If you enjoy a trip down memory lane, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's first immersive exhibit is for you. The filmmaker reflects on the largest mass migration ever witnessed which took place exactly 70 years ago; putting a human face on history, asking what it means to find and feel at home.

Sharmeen says the installation is meant to be a deeply personal reflection of the 1947 Partition

Al-Hamra Arts Council in Lahore will be turned into a time machine today and tomorrow, transporting attendees back in time, when countless people left their homes during the partition of the Indian subcontinent.

Called #HOME1947, the exhibit will display these refugee narratives at the Heritage Now festival.

The filmmaker encourages visitors to bring grandparents and families along

The display will include a series of documentary films, a gallery installation, an experiential virtual reality and sound installation, recreating the long-lost sights, sounds and smells of what millions once called home. As the refugee crisis continues to affect millions across the world, #HOME1947 shows the audience, partition not through the words of historians and politicians, but through the eyes of those who lived through it.

The exhibit is a highly immersive experience, showcasing things people chose to carry with them when uprooting their lives

Talking to Images, Sharmeen shares: "I hope to creative more immersive installations, #HOME1947 premiered in Manchester to rave reviews and all day at the Al-Hamra, we've had hundreds of people, who have left too emotional sometimes to even speak! Families have visited with grandparents, it's been a shared experience."

The two-time Academy award winner takes a picture with the first few visitors of the installation

"It has truly been one of the highlights of my film-making career to have created something that has resonated so deeply with people wherever it's shown. Parts of it were shown in Bombay also this year."

She adds: "I am a storyteller and I really wanted to create an experience using different mediums such as virtual reality, films, photography, music, to create an experience centered around what it meant to leave your home in 1947."

Sharmeen's exhibit has been displayed in Bombay and Manchester already and Karachi is next

"This installation is about the loss people felt, the things they remember leaving behind, the things they took. It's also about the friendships they could no longer carry on with, the empty corridors, the homes they had to abandon. We've always looked at partition from a historical context and I wanted to make it personal, to evoke empathy."

The exhibition will also be travelling to Karachi at the Frere Hall on November 17, 2017.

Comments

Imajes Oct 21, 2017 07:54pm

Yeah a human experience and human tragedy, my late grandpa left all properties in 1947 at mercy of close relatives in Delhi ,unfortunately they requisitioned all that he left behind, we had to begin from whatever we have, and alhamdolillah we are much better off then those relatives . Thanks God . And we learn how greedy a human can be, even so close relatives, a big question mark.

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Hasan Oct 22, 2017 12:40am

Obaid-Chinoy is a phenomenal talent, and a tribute to Pakistan. I'm looking forward to seeing this exhibition come to London. Too many times we see all discourse on Partition being offered by hindustanis, which results in the narrative being laced heavily with religious prejudice as well as a submissive deference to the Raj, which was in fact grossly responsible alongside Congress for the brutality of Partition. I hope Obaid-Chinoy will be able to shine a more accurate light on what actually happened; after all, this poignant period is the beginning of the Pakistan we have today. Hasan

Nwar Oct 22, 2017 08:14am

Brilliant attempt Shermeen. Thanks for invoking the memory for the poor souls... for the loss of life, identity and property people suffered and achieve something even greater.

Ashok Sharma Oct 22, 2017 01:26pm

A very courageous and bold step to revive the unforgotten story of partition. This will work like a bond between east and west Punjabi migrants and their comming generations to know more about their missing memories.................thank you Sharmeen....thank you Dawn for this information.

Ehsan Oct 22, 2017 06:26pm

Very imaginative