Drawing on images and experiences from an exhibition in 2023, this photo-essay will remind us why and how Rana Plaza happened; remember those who suffered and witness how they live now; and raise questions about the legacies of Rana Plaza: who wants to remember, how, and why?
Paper long abstract:
In 2023, an exhibition of photographs by the photo-journalist Ismail Ferdous marked the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, the worst in the garments industry’s disaster-studded history. The exhibition was immersive, an effort to render unforgettable the horrors of the collapse of the factory complex and the workers who suffered and died. Survivors and families of victims of the disaster visited; some found it painful to remember, even though they lived with the disaster all the time. Several said they valued the exhibition because public authorities had forgotten and neglected them in the years since. As multinational corporations, domestic manufacturers, and the Bangladeshi government work hard to erase and ignore Rana Plaza, this visual essay prompts us to remember why it happened and to whom, and why disasters of this nature continue to happen in the industry. It will raise questions about the legacies of Rana Plaza, in particular the infrastructural and legal responses it has engendered without empowering workers to protect themselves collectively. It will ask questions about the role of memorials in accountability, and about the prospects for artistic and cultural interventions when politics and policy have so singularly failed to advance workers’ rights and power.