Stories We Tell
Stories We Tell ‘Aao Sunayein Kahani’ is an audio/ visual storytelling project of The School of Visual Art and Design (SVAD) at Beaconhouse National University and the Lahore Biennale Foundation (LBF), made possible with the support of the Centre for Culture and Development (CKU).
Aao Sunaiyein Kahaani
The art of conversation and storytelling has played an important part in suturing together the cultural fabric of South Asia. This was how, for the longest time, histories were transferred between generations, survival narratives were created, exchanged and passed down generations, and instructional anecdotes to sustain everyday life were passed on. The act of listening and hearing created collective wisdom and a sense of commonality between classes and across social divides, thereby sustaining intercultural and interclass dialogue.
With public spaces becoming more and more stratified and co-opted by specific classes, the interaction between classes has become minimal - most of it happening in a space where the power and class dynamics dictate how stories will be shared, as well as who will tell and who will listen to them.
Ao Sunnayein Kahaani aims to bring conversational storytelling and sharing back to common public spaces in the hopes of making the act of storytelling and experience-sharing a democratic one.
For several months twelve storytelling booths (shaped like rickshaws) were placed around the city, with the purpose of recording and disseminating stories and conversations. A defining monthly theme that encapsulates a particular aspect of Lahore’s quintessential everyday life dictated not only the locations at which our storytelling booths were placed, but also the narrative theme of the stories being played and recorded.
These themes were also used as trigger narratives for discussion and conversation sessions. The sessions titled artSPEAK, were focused on themes that emerged from the project and invited academics, thinkers and practitioners to contribute to a discussion.
As part of this initiative, educators and undergraduate students from the discipline of Visual Communication Design at SVAD, BNU, collaborated with the Mirasi community (the gatekeepers of the musical storytelling tradition in Punjab) on short narrative videos/animations that aimed to give a voice to the community’s take on storytelling as well as their profession’s interaction with it.