‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’ by Laisul Hoque

Grand Union is delighted to present ‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’, a new film installation by Laisul Hoque. The project is developed in partnership with Bow Arts and has been supported in conjunction with the East London Art Prize. 

It’s been a while. I don’t know where to start. How have you been?

For starters, I’m in Birmingham.

There’s construction everywhere, and I’m finding it difficult to navigate the city using public transport.

I’m always running late. I’m still figuring out how to get around.

Most people drive here, I think. At least, the people whose stories I’m interested in do.

Last year, I was called back to Bangladesh to care for my ailing father. Everything else was happening at the same time. The most useful thing I could have done was drive him to the hospital every day.

Then again, I’ve never been a useful son.

I guess it’s time for me to learn how to drive.

I found a book in the Birmingham Library.

Inside it, I found a photograph of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Digbeth Civic Hall in 1969.

That was before the independence of Bangladesh.

There was also a letter.

People here have told me that we should be grateful to the Bangladeshi community in Birmingham. They did so much for our liberation movement.

Revolutionary figures. World leaders. Oppressive rulers. And the people here, and their proximity to them.

I also wanted to know what it was like to grow up away from all the mess of our politics. What would that childhood have been like?

I wish I could show you the city, Mehrul.

I wish I could show you everything I’ve learned from being here.

– A phone call between Laisul and his good friend Mehrul

The exhibition comprises a new 30 minute film projection installed into Grand Union’s gallery space. Transforming and coating the window frames with tinted car window film, the space presents an altered view of the Birmingham landscape.

In ‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’ Laisul, a Bangladeshi immigrant now living in the UK, attempts to navigate Birmingham through driving lessons, conversations in cars, and phone calls from home.

Filmed inside vehicles and among construction sites, blocked roads, and sprawling South Asian neighbourhoods on the city’s outskirts, the work reflects on mobility, belonging, and displacement, while offering a glimpse into the lives of Bangladeshi communities who have made Birmingham their home. ‘Learning to Drive in Birmingham’ captures the stories, histories and experiences of the Birmingham Bengali community and the significant part they played in the Bangladesh liberation movement during the 1970s.  

Laisul’s process of engagement unfolds through intimate exchanges of services, labour and time, revealing his particular experiences of the complexity and proximity of growing up through political tensions in Bangladesh – and how that differs to those of different generations of migrants in Birmingham.  

The film offers sensitive and intimate understandings of the migrant experience in navigating a new city: how cultural exchange, labour and identity are interwoven into the fabrics of a place merging histories and cultures.

By learning to navigate Birmingham, Laisul journeys through city road systems, personal memories and local archives, thoughtfully interweaving captured moments into a film that carefully collects and holds these stories in shared and collective narratives.  

This work is supported by Arts Council England, Bow Arts East London Art Prize and Grand Union. With thanks to MJM Bespoke for fabrication and installation.