25 Facts About Sunara Begum

Sunara Begum is an English visual and performance artist, filmmaker, photographer and writer of Bangladeshi descent.

Sunara Begum uses installation, film, photography, live performance, sonics and text.

Sunara Begum is the co-founder of Living Legacies, a traditional music archive in Gambia and New Horizons Africa, a music and arts festival in Lagos, Nigeria.

Sunara Begum was encouraged to pursue the visual arts by her mother, who from an early age would recite stories of growing up in the villages of Bangladesh.

Sunara Begum is of Bangladeshi descent and was brought up with the traditions of her native Bangladesh in a Sufi-Muslim household.

Sunara Begum began her studies at Camberwell College of Arts.

Sunara Begum had her first exhibition at the National Annexe Gallery as part of a group show in Cape Town, South Africa while still at St Martins.

Sunara Begum has been involved in theatre productions, film and television.

Sunara Begum has worked as a producer and cinematographer on several films including The Idea and the award-winning feature film 500 Years Later.

Sunara Begum directed her own debut short film Ara's Sojourn to critical acclaim.

Sunara Begum has continued to develop her own visual narrative-led language on many large-scale projects for productions including, Ancient Futures which has toured internationally, African Messiah at the Royal Opera House, London, Visions of a Traveller at Lyon Opera House and The Planetarium for La Musee des Confluence in Lyon.

In 2006, Sunara Begum founded Chand Aftara, an audio-visual production company which was initially set up to document untold stories through films and documentaries.

Sunara Begum has been involved in stage productions for Talawa Theatre Company both as an actress and in stage management.

In 2008, Sunara Begum worked as producer on a new interpretation of Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding which was performed at Departure Arts Centre.

In 2014 Sunara Begum worked closely with Tunde Jegede on a new conception entitled, Emidy: He Who Dared To Dream, the life and story of an African Slave who became a composer and virtuoso violinist in C19 England.

In 2011, Sunara Begum founded the Chand Aftara Village Teaching Project, where she combines her art forms to share her growing expertise with young people around the world.

Sunara Begum offers multi-sensory workshops across continents in UK, Bangladesh, India, Gambia and Morocco with the primary aim of exploring a variety of stimuli and approaches to creating movement, written text, music and visuals individually and in groups.

In 2020 Sunara Begum founded Sister's Circle, a monthly moon meet for women to come together to share creativity through storytelling, movement, music and herbs.

Sunara Begum uses installation, film, photography and text, and has created her own distinct visual language and aesthetic.

Sunara Begum's work is influenced by East and West, and predominantly explores the relationship between people and their environment with themes of migration, exile, memory, identity, gender and femininity as seen in myth, divinity, both historical and contemporary.

Sunara Begum spends much of her time in West Africa working on New Horizons Africa, an international music and arts initiative based in Lagos, Nigeria and Living Legacies, a traditional music archive in the Gambia.

Sunara Begum is the founder of Studio Chand Aftara, an artist's collective dedicated to the exhibition and production of experimental cinema and a space of cultivation, archive for radical, anti-colonial wellness.

Sunara Begum's work has been widely exhibited in film festivals, museums, galleries and cinematheques worldwide.

Sunara Begum is a regular practitioner of yoga, meditation and the healing arts and often visits solitary retreats in UK, India and West Africa.

Sunara Begum is a pescatarian and fasts twice a week, a practice that has been passed down from her mother.