Pritika Chowdhry’s exhibition “Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories” investigates the Partition of India in 1947, which created East and West Pakistan, and the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 in which East Pakistan became Bangladesh. Chowdhry’s experiential art installations are temporary anti-memorials to these two violent Partitions. 

The exhibition’s title, alludes to the painful and silenced narratives that have been elided from mainstream discourses of the Partition.

“Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories,” was exhibited at the South Asia Institute in Chicago from August 6 to December 10, 2022, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Partition of India and Pakistan, and the 51st anniversary of the Bangladesh Liberation War. The exhibition was scanned in high-resolution 3-D and is now presented as a virtual exhibition in the Online Partition Museum.