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MA students of Malmö Theatre Academy part of Malmö's Forbidden Culture Week

A projection of Buddha on a wall. Photo.

Large-scale installation with projection on the façade of the public library of two of the largest Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban; a performative celebration of solidarity and remembrance. 

In March 2001, the Taliban blew up two of the largest Buddha statues in Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley. In 2013, cultural practitioners projected the statues onto the empty mountain wall as an act of resistance against the Taliban's attempts to erase popular and cultural memory.

Now, director Monirah Hashemi, who was one of the initiators of the original project in 2013 and is currently a student on the MA Performing Arts as Critical Practice has created A Night with Buddha - Echoes of Silence at the Malmö City Library - with a projection of the Buddha statues and voices raised in solidarity in song to draw attention to the need to protect cultural heritage during war and conflict. She collaborated with, among others, two other artists from in the MA program, Maryam Hashempour and Zsofia Kozma. 

The Taliban's brutal attack on this UNESCO World Heritage Site aimed to erase the link to a time when Afghanistan was a crossroad of many cultures. Hazaras living in the area see the attack as an attempt at cultural annihilation, to further marginalise a long-suffering group. Today, Taliban control has tightened, cultural expression has been banned, women's voices are literally silenced by a ban on women raising their voices, even in their homes - and ‘A Night with Buddha’ has been exiled.

14-20 October City of Malmö hosted the Forbidden Culture Week, which highlighted artistic freedom and censorship through culture that has been banned. A Night with Buddha - Echoes of Silence was displayed at Malmö City Library 20.00 October 16th.

Read more about the Forbidden Culture Week here