What started in the living room of artists Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman in 2002 as a place for gathering has become a stable organization, which, with the support of the Triangle Network, has filled gaps in the Bangladeshi art scene for over two decades. Britto Arts Trust is now a longstanding artists’ collective that operates a permanent space in Dhaka but is active in many places throughout Bangladesh. Fostering artistic practice and community engagement, it offers alternative education programs, where formal structures are absent, and hosts artists’ residencies in Dhaka that have facilitated connections between local and international practitioners. During the COVID pandemic, Britto Arts Trust initiated the project ZERO WASTE—FoodArt (2020), which involved national and international participants in growing and distributing locally grown foods.

In Diriyah, Britto Arts Trust welcomes visitors into an ecological, social, and diasporic space defined by the structures of the Bengali palan and pakghor. The palan is a traditional kitchen garden usually looked after by women and children, which supplies the pakghor, a living-room-like family kitchen. The palan grows vegetables and culinary herbs supplied by Alzahrani Farm in Diriyah, while the pakghor is activated by volunteers from different parts of Riyadh, who sign up to cook for Biennale visitors. A further iteration of the project developed for documenta fifteen in 2022, this social space for cooking and gathering has been built in collaboration with Bengali bamboo craftsmen. This renewable material with the strength of steel is integral to the livelihoods of Indigenous communities in the Indian subcontinent. Bamboo stilts, woven panels, dome-shaped rooftops, and other substructures were produced with artisans from the Manikganj district in central Bangladesh, shipped to Saudi Arabia, and assembled on site in Diriyah. The displacement of material evokes other forms of migration and cross-cultural encounters that are integral to this work. Situated outside on one of the terraces of the JAX District, the garden and kitchen of Britto Art Trust provide a space for communal activities and conversation centered around cooking traditions. Welcoming visitors and participants, the project offers food and hospitality to create shared, participatory experiences and informal opportunities for reflecting on cultural identity and difference in a rapidly changing urban environment.