Pawel Althamer's monumental sculpture Rokeya unveiled in Bangladesh's Samdani Sculpture Park

Polish artist Pawel Althamer (b. 1967, Warsaw) has completed a large-scale commissioned work for the new Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park in Sylhet, Bangladesh. The sculpture, titled Rokeya, honors Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), a pioneering Bangladeshi feminist writer and activist. Constructed from bamboo and colorful fabrics sewn by local women, the reclining female figure rests on the ground with her head on her hand, gazing at the horizon. Althamer created the piece during a 7-day workshop involving four fellow Poles, 100 villagers, children, and patients from a local drug rehabilitation center. The open-air museum is an initiative of the Samdani Art Foundation, which also engaged Sebastian Cichocki, Chief Curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and curator of the Bródno Sculpture Park (founded in 2009 by Althamer). The sculpture park is set to open in 2018, with additional site-specific works by artists including Asim Waqif, Ayesha Sultana, Rana Begum, and Mithu Sen. The project also includes residency programs for national and international artists and curators.