Blurring borders

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Strap: An upcoming exhibition pieces together works of aesthetic realism from across India and the neighbouring countries

Amit Sengupta

Khoj International Artists’ Association in partnership with the Goethe Institut is holding 13 curated exhibitions on December, 14, 2019 in Delhi with some of the finest experimental artists, painters, filmmakers and photographers in India and its neighbourhood. These exhibitions are the culmination of the Curatorial Intensive South Asia 2019 Programme which assembled fellows from Iran, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

An offbeat effort and unique in its character and context, the curated exhibition “aims to develop a diversity of perspectives on the medium of the exhibition in South Asia and Iran and to provide both a structured and an experimental inquiry into the possibilities of curatorial practice today”.

The artists worked in an independent space with mentors Leonhard Emmerling, Director of Programmes South Asia, Goethe-Institut /Max Mueller Bhavan and curator Latika Gupta.

Alisha Sett (India) will mount a show called Rooee. It addresses the remnants of the ’empire of cotton’ in two of its most prominent sites: the low country in South Carolina (USA) and the textile mills of Bombay. Her angular picture of an apparently abandoned textile factory with a story of thousands of workers rendered jobless, as in Mumbai, is spark reminder of a tragic tale in its solitude and silence.

Ashima Tshering’s show Knock Knock uses humour as a tool for communication because of its ability to break down barriers and form connections. It is an encounter with personal stories addressed through humour.

Ayushma Regmi (Nepal) has showcased a show called inhibitions/inhabitations, which attempts to read into bodies – human bodies, natural bodies, man-made bodies – to decrypt that fundamental question about what it means to be human and whether this sense of being is rooted in the material world.

Maryam Bagheri (Iran) has worked on a show called Timequake. Studies show that a great earthquake might occur in Tehran in the days to come and will happen at night, which might increase casualties up to five million. Through photos, videos and graphical map, this exhibition tries to show how a natural phenomenon like earthquake can turn into a human catastrophe.

Poulomi Paul (India) has worked on a show called Address/Pata. The complexities of urban spaces let nobody experience a place – its structures and its people – in the same way. How then do we represent places? How do we condense the histories and lived realities of urban neighbourhoods into names and images? How do these representations anchor personal and collective identities? These are questions Pata wishes to explore.

Sadia Marium (Bangladesh) has documented a show called Ghar/Home. It is a collection of videos, photographs, photo-book, and paintings to dissect the meaning of ‘Ghar’ as both an idea and perception. A temporary living room of a middle class family in Dhaka is set up to reflect the inbuilt tension between ‘home’ and the ‘world’ along with its parallel existence.

Kirubalini Stephan (Sri Lanka) has done ‘Memoryscapes’: Indeed, is it ever possible to retrace memory? How do our memories define us? Even if we don’t like to remember or forget, is there still a permanent imprint residing in our minds? The show interweaves multiple narratives of past and present with space and experience different kinds of memories which connects with artists and Tamil community.

Zohreh Deldadeh (Iran) has a unique show called ‘Some-Bodies: Bodily Narratives in Iranian Contemporary Art’. This exhibition’s focus is on different perspectives of seeing the body in Iranian contemporary art. The exhibition tries to showcase some different aspects referring to the body, not only as a physical subject but also as a narrative and conceptual notion.

The diversity of the curated shows combines with the originality of the artists in creating unique and contemporary works of aesthetic realism. There is a refreshing quality to the visual content, which is rooted, culturally specific, and not really abstract. In terms of the pluralism of a South Asia perspective, these creative adventures break borders and barriers and unite minds and hearts with deep sensitivity.

The exhibition opens at India International Centre, Delhi, on December 14, 2019.