Mango Fever

Halar Soomro received a grant for the development of new work. Mango Fever is a personal journey in the form of an audiovisual project that explores the story of the Sindhri mango: a symbol of shared heritage between the Vietnamese and Pakistani diasporas in the Netherlands. Born from sincere conversations with close friends, the project combines documentary filmmaking and ethnographic research to capture how climate change and global consumer trends have transformed a beloved summer tradition. With honesty at its core, Mango Fever challenges climate ignorance and celebrates the resilient ties that bind us, while inviting a reconsideration of our responsibility toward food. By weaving together personal memories and traditions, the project offers a layered perspective on food, opening up dialogue within Dutch society through field recordings and conversations that reflect on the sensory, historical, and social significance of the mango.

Halar is an artist, cultural researcher, and archivist currently based in Maastricht. His practice spans installation, text, video, performance, and archival work, exploring the intersections of memory, displacement, and postcolonial identities. Rooted in his family’s migration history following the 1947 Partition of India, his work critically questions the notion of postcolonial Pakistan and what it means to inherit a fractured homeland. Halar works with interdisciplinary methods, including multimedia installations, digitisation of familial artefacts, field research, oral history documentation, ethnographic study, and textile. Driven by a deep desire to question fabricated socio-political divisions within South Asia, his work encourages a nuanced understanding of liberation, with a focus on cultural reclamation and collective healing amidst fragmented histories.