“Bonna” – বন্যা

Bangladesh is a place where girls named Bonna live, play, and grow with living and nonliving beings of every gender orientation. Bonna literally translates to flood, but not all floods are bad. Many storms are named after people, but here, a person is named after a weather pattern. Bonna is a free spirit and she brings chaos to the world. Sometimes chaos enables new possibilities to emerge as it breaks apart rigid structures. 

Violent destructive flooding in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, due to climate change and man-made structures, is now a pressing concern and we can learn from stories that have been floating around for thousands of years in the land of the rivers.  

The Bonna character encountered in this video was imagined by a group of children in Bangladesh whose community elders are climate migrants, many of whom have never left Bangladesh, but who acutely feel the impact of the world's carbon emissions while contributing very little to them in their own lives. 

The children’s lives are intertwined with community elders and their journeys of environmental migration to Thakurgaon, Bangladesh. They wrote a script for a video work that interprets the theme of the 2023 Dhaka Art Summit, re-contextualizing what it means to live with extreme weather.

Artists, storytellers and puppeteers:

Shumi Rani, Tithi Rani, Champa Rani, Asha Rani, Ruposhi Rani, Shantona Rani, Tithi Rani, Shahnaj Parvin, Shunil Barman, Noyon Barman, Apon Barman, Omol Barman, Puja Rani, Srabanti Rani, Sruti Rani, Shuvo Barman, Ovi Barman, Apurba Barman, Akalu Barman, Rajkumar Barman, Amal Tudu, Shudhir Das, Krishno Das, Noyon Kishore Ray

Commissioned by Samdani Art Foundation and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art for Dhaka Art Summit 2023 and World Weather Network, produced in partnership with the Gidree Bawlee Foundation of the Arts.

Part of Bangladesh weather station - find out more here.