Once a tannery hub, Hazaribagh is becoming Dhaka's new art neighbourhood
After the last of the tannery factories started to relocate to Savar from Hazaribagh in 2017, it left behind empty large spaces. In the last couple of years, artists and sculptors started to build their studios in those abandoned buildings
When Salahuddin Ahmed stepped onto the third floor of Progoti tannery in 2022, he covered his nose with a handkerchief. The stench made it impossible to breathe. The 6,000-square-foot space was used as the hide drying space before it was relocated to Savar in 2017.
Currently, the first two floors of the three-storey Progoti Tannery are being used as warehouses and godowns for companies like Startech. Meanwhile, on the third floor, architect Salahuddin Ahmed has his studio Atelier Robin Architecture.
"Despite all the filth and stench, I knew that this 15-foot high ceiling and a spacious 6,000 square feet space could be turned into a beautiful space and a studio. And I was not wrong," he recently told TBS.
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Once a tannery, now architecture students and professionals frolic about, meet and participate in workshops and meetings. There is still a remnant of the yesteryears — a mild stench wafts through the studio space originating from the existing small-scale leather workshops nearby.
But Salahuddin Ahmed is not alone. Like him, other artists are also making their way to Hazaribagh to build art studios and galleries.
A new, burgeoning art space
Along the Sher-E-Bangla road, named after the biggest tannery factory of the particular alley inside Hazaribagh, tannery buildings remain empty and pin-drop silence echoes in the alleys.
Brihatta Art Foundation rented space on the first floor of Mukti Tannery-1.
Meanwhile, the ground floor has been occupied by artist Murshed Jahangir and sculptors Rupom Roy and Tareq Rahman. The sculptors built their studio Bhashkormee there where they work on commissioned artwork.
It was around 2020-21, when the trio rented a 6,000-square-foot space in Hazaribagh. Murshed works at his separate 1,200 square feet of space. The trio pays Tk15 per square foot for the space, which is much less than other places in the city.
"However, more than the expense and rent, the main reason we wanted to come here was because Hazaribagh is near Old Dhaka, which is a perfect spot for sourcing raw materials. From art supplies to heavy-duty industrial items, metal can be sourced in Old Dhaka," said Murshed.
There is no stench inside the studio, although the walls still have layers of salt that can be seen. Salt was used to process rawhide and years of those layers still fall from the walls. "But we kind of accepted it, it is a part of the space," Murshed added.
There is another aspect that makes Hazaribagh the most perfect spot for artists. The once noisy place due to the leather industries fell quite after 2017 when the factories moved to Savar.
"During Covid, it was even quieter. The big spaces were left behind – that is when we explored this space. After that, we finally shifted [our workspace] here," Murshed added.
"No matter how much money I pay, where am I ever going to get this calm, silence, this peace", Salahuddin Ahmed reiterated.
Other artists treaded a similar path changing the interior of the age-old factories of Hazaribagh.
Sculptor Tejosh Haldar Josh also rented space nearby for his studio and workshop.
The perfect 'floor' for sculpture workshops
One of the most prominent contemporary sculptors, Tejosh Halder Josh has his studio in the same lane of Progoti tannery. It is a 3,200 square feet space on the ground floor of Mahtab tannery, for which Josh pays Tk35,000 a month.
It was around 2022 when Josh left his previous studio in Lalbagh and shifted to Hazaribagh.
"I was suggested by my fellow artists that we should move here. A few of my friends were already working in Hazaribagh and for many days [by then] I have wanted to come here to be near them," Josh recounted.
Conveniently for Josh, Hazaribagh is near Lalbagh.
"Lalbagh is a residential area while Hazaribagh was built to be an industrial area. And it is perfect for the kinds of work that we do. And not just for money, due to the abundant space, and quiet atmosphere, it is a perfect spot for sculpture studios," Josh added.
According to him, the large spaces or the workshops here have an industrial vibe, and this helps. "[Because] sculpture-making is a lot like an industrial process, we need to use a lot of machinery that can be found in an industrial area," he explained.
"And getting a big space like this on the ground floor is a blessing because the materials we handle can be extremely heavy. Having a studio on the ground floor makes it a bit easier to move in," he added.
Sculptors Rupom Roy and Tareq Rahman reiterated, the ground floor of Mukti tannery-1 proved perfect for building up an art studio, especially for sculptors who require some heavy-duty machine handling.
Into the past
Hazaribagh was an industrial estate of tanners and rawhide processing which started developing in 1965. In 1994, the High Court ordered the relocation of about 150 tanneries from Dhaka's Hazaribagh. In 1998, a total of 249 tanneries were present.
According to some reports, in the 65 acres of Hazaribagh, the total number of establishments is 874 including 587 industrial, 98 commercial and 94 residential.
The tannery industry shifted from the banks of Shitalakshya in Narayanganj to Hazaribagh in Dhaka immediately after the partition of India. There were 195 tannery plots in Hazaribagh under the initiative taken by the government of Pakistan. However, with time there had been 243 tanneries, both big and small, according to Rajuk.
Hazaribagh has Rayerbazar on the north side, Jigatla and Pilkhana on the east, Hazaribagh and Beribandh on the west and Borhanpur on the south.
After the relocation of tanneries to Savar in 2017, the old part of Dhaka awaits rapid socio-economic and environmental changes through redevelopment.
In the Dhaka Structure Plan of 2016-2035 report, Rajuk coined the term 'regenerating brownfield of Hazaribagh tannery area.' Brownfield regeneration (or brownfield redevelopment, brownfield reuse) is a strategy for dealing with land to redevelop it for suitable purposes through measures to overcome barriers to brownfield reuse.
After redevelopment, these areas may be turned into residential neighbourhoods, retail centres, office blocks, light industrial facilities, parks, studios, recreation areas and so on.
We spoke with Major General Md Siddiqur Rahman Sarker (Retd.), the new chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) informed us that they are planning to redesign the 65 acres of land of Hazaribagh with planned establishments.
"There will be parks, mosques and shopping malls to transform this area into a liveable one. For the past few years, we have been trying to convince the landowners and the tannery owners to agree on a plan. Finally, they all agreed to the plans of Rajuk and we will very soon start working on it", he said.
How to revive the garden of a thousand flowers
Hazaribagh literally means a garden of a thousand flowers. And the artists are reviving the original soul of the place. One of them is Bishwajit Goswami, a prominent visual artist who built the Brihatta Art Foundation on the second floor of Mukti tannery-1 in 2020.
"When we first came to visit the space, there was not even a speck of grass here. We were welcomed by bats and lizards and a swarm of darkness," Tirtho Saha, the spokesperson of the foundation said.
Artist Bishwajit Goswami reimagined the space as a garden. Consequently, the space has been transformed with a green angina or courtyard with a gallery space where exhibitions, art adda and discussions, film screenings and plays happen.
"The courtyard is where birds come, and with their chirping in the background, scholars, artists and professors discuss various ideas. And the trees that we have planted, we feel they soak up all the pollution and impurities that once prevailed here," Tirtho said.
Not just scholars, the magical space has guests like mongoose, lizards, butterflies, owls and birds. "It took us four months to transform the space and it is still growing and evolving. And we feel time can heal the scars of this land," Tirtho said.
Architect Salahuddin and other artists have slowly settled in their workspaces, although they are still sceptical about the water. Also, there are no food stores or restaurants on the Sher-E-Bangla road.
"We bring our drinking water from home. But the water we get here can be used for our work. And for food, we have to order from outside or cook ourselves," artist Tejosh Halder shared.
