This curatorial research project is inspired by Naeem Mohaiemen’s book Midnight’s Third Child (Nokta, Dhaka; 2023), a vital contribution to Bangladeshi art history that highlights the continued absence of Bangladesh’s cultural narratives within wider postcolonial discourses of South Asia. Co-developed and led by Benjamin Cook (Curator, Producer, and Founder and Former Director of LUX and LUX Scotland, UK) and Kehkasha Sabah (Independent Curator and Researcher, Bangladesh), the project emerged through their shared curatorial interest formed during the Art Exchange Moving Image Programme. It responds to Mohaiemen’s proposition of Bangladesh as occupying a “third space”—neither fully absorbed into dominant regional frameworks nor confined within fixed national boundaries.

Building on this foundation, the project examines how contemporary Bangladeshi moving image artists navigate intersections of the local and global, the traditional and modern, and the personal and political. Using book’s title as a curatorial prompt, the research explores three thematic strands: cultural caregiving and memory, shifting landscapes and ecological change, and overlooked narratives that challenge dominant histories.

Through collaborative research in Bangladesh, the project aims to strengthen moving image ecologies, build networks, and develop long-term resources and international exchange and is supported by the British Council Bangladesh Connections Through Culture Grant 2025, and partly partnered by Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation.