Where: Jambo Cinema, The Mailbox Level 2 (Next to Tommy Hilfiger), Royal Mail Street, Birmingham
B1 1RS.
When: 28 July - 26 August 2022. Opening times: 12pm - 7pm.
Note: Please note, the exhibition is closed on Sundays and Mondays)
Cost: FREE
Ticketing: This is a drop in event, however spaces are limited and therefore audiences may be expected to wait a short time during busy periods.
I am absolutely thrilled to share my news that Jambo Cinema will feature centre stage at the Mailbox during the commonwealth games this year. The exhibition is presented by Birmingham Festival 2022 and supported by Mailbox, Birmingham. As an artist, this is a very special moment and I am looking forward to welcoming audiences into my Kenyan-Indian living room, our electrical corner shop 'Bansal Electrical' which rented Bollywood film on VHS to established and newly arrived South Asian families in Wolverhampton. In the Birmingham 2022 festival version, I will also create a brand new space which is my bedroom, telling the story of my youth through a collection of posters, images, photography and objects from growing up in Wolverhampton.
I began making the exhibition in 2016, as a pop up project with no funding but a lot of passion and the need to tell the story of the South Asian lived experience in 1980s Britain. As a former theatre producer, I saw so many theatre organisations trying to tell this story but their productions/exhibitions were often factually incorrect and was not told by Asian people - ultimately it lacked authenticity. So, I decided to start a project which told the story as someone who is South Asian and lived through this period.
I also have the unique background as someone who grew up inside my parents electrical shop, which also rented Bollywood film on VHS tapes and I still have most of the original tapes and art work in my collection. Below is an image of the re-creation of my late father's shop in Wolverhampton Mander Centre, where is was commissioned as part of the British Art Show offsite programme in January 2022. It includes some of the original artefacts and items from our shop which closed down in 1989.
For those who saw my appearance on BBC Back in Time for Birmingham television programme with Noreen Khan this year - I have a special treat for you all!
It is an honour and a privilege to be one of the commissioned artists for Birmingham 2022. A once in a lifetime opportunity for artists in the Midlands.
Jambo Cinema tells the story of my family, my pioneering parents who arrived in the UK with little money and worked extremely hard to give future generations a better life in Britain. This is the story of not just my family, but about all immigrant families who are ultimately trying to make it here in the UK. A celebration of family, friendship, business enterprise and being British Asian.
Here is the BBC Breakfast Feature when it was shown in Nottingham New Art Exchange in 2020.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Dawinder Bansal
Artist and Creator of Jambo Cinema.
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