When Monon Muntaka headed out to discover the cultural diversity of Dinajpur, first in 2021, it was merely for a project for the Goethe Institut. She, along with her project mates, had five days to conjure up a visual story on Dinajpur and its people, for an exhibition.
“I wanted my narration to be different from others. Everybody else was focusing on portraits, I wanted to offer something different, and that’s why I stopped ‘observing’ people and chose to concentrate on textures,” explained Muntaka.
“I brought out Google Maps and straight up drew a line from one point of Dinajpur city to another, and I just started walking.”
“After speaking to the locals, I got to know that most of the buildings and structures were 120-150 years old. I started photographing the textures and realised they were way more vibrant. I felt these ‘mundane,’ ‘decaying’ walls were pieces of art themselves,” said Muntaka.
When she visited the Marwaris, she found the buildings and structures to have yet another individualistic property to them. Over there, she discovered buildings with courtyards, structures involving sophisticated architecture.
