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Max Mueller Bhavan | India

Diary of a bangaloREsident-Expanded@Zentralwerk

dresden sky © Lawai BemBem

In this series of articles Lawai BemBem talks about her time in Dresden in June 2019, where she began working on her new multimedia project titled Yang-Huk-Un: Confabulations which uses the Meetei Mayek alphabet-to-body writing system to investigate the body languages and movements lost in cultural and political assimilation.
The bangaloREsidency-Expanded, an offshoot of the bangaloREsidency initiative, aims at establishing long-term artistic exchange through a novel practice of collaboration wherein Indian artists get to work in Germany, gain access to the art practice of the other culture and thereby enrich their own creativity.

Meetei Mayek alphabet © Lawai BemBem

Part One
 BACK TO THE SKY

When I land at a new land, the first thing I do is look up at the sky. I measure my distance from home through the sky. I calibrate my sentiment for the new land through the sky. Sky is Atiya. Atiya is the last letter in the 18-letter alphabet system of Meetei Mayek, the script of Meeteilon, my mother tongue.
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