Deux Degrés
Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with Anju Chaudhuri
Cotton saris with woodblock print and painting, paper scrolls with drawing and painting, etchings, combination prints on paper, and video.

Galerie Six Elzevir, 6 rue Elzevir, Paris
October 16, 2017
Exhibition and art action

Click here for link to Press Release in French and English

Deux Degrés is a collective response to climate change, in solidarity with the planet. Bose and Chaudhuri, one based in Washington DC and the other in Paris, collaborate with Paris residents and women from Bangladesh in an art action that blends saris, writing, drawing, and printmaking. When she lived in Paris, Bose learned printmaking from Chaudhuri, a painter and master printmaker. The installation includes Bose’s saris made in collaboration with people in Bangladesh, Hawaii, the US, and France, Chaudhuri’s paper scrolls with drawing and painting, etchings by Chaudhuri, combination prints by Bose, and collaborative prints with watercolor that Bose and Chaudhuri created together in Paris.

During the day, visitors/participants took part in an art action to make a collaborative sari with woodblock printing and handwritten climate pledges. The sari was later sewn together with other saris, constituting an alternative climate agreement of climate pledges in English, Bengali, and French, created by individuals united in cross-border solidarity.

Deux degrés est une réponse collective au changement climatique, en solidarité avec la planète. Bose et Chaudhuri, l’une à Washington et l’autre à Paris, collaborent avec les habitants de Paris et les femmes du Bangladesh dans une action artistique qui mèle saris, écriture, dessin, et gravure. Alors qu’elle vivait à Paris, Bose s’est formée à la gravure auprès de Chaudhuri, artiste peintre et maître de la gravure. Les saris, portant des inscriptions en bengali, français et anglais, constituent un accord alternatif, crée par des individus unis, qui dépasse les frontières.

The four following pieces are collaborative works on paper by Chaudhuri and Bose using woodblock and watercolor on handmade paper from Bangladesh.

Photo credit: Leena Jayaswal, Israt Jahan Tonni, Silvia Meléndez de Briskie.
The saris were made by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with women of Katakhali Village, Bangladesh, and people in the US and France. The sari kanthas on the floor were made by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with Bangladeshi women and children in Kensington, Brooklyn as part of the AddaArt project with Arts & Democracy.
The project was supported in part by a Sister Cities Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.