Khoj International Artists’ Association in partnership with Goethe Institut is showcasing 13 curated exhibitions in New Delhi, the result of the culmination of the Curatorial Intensive South Asia 2019 Program which brought together fellows from Iran, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Unparalleled as one of the only programmes of its kind, it 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.
Following the first phase, fellows were offered the opportunity to independently develop small curatorial projects over a period of four months during which they were mentored by the programme leaders Leonhard Emmerling,Director of programs South Asia, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and curator Latika Gupta.
‘the earth is still going around the sun’
A single earth and yet in it spin multiple worlds. Worlds that bang and collide, clash and clang, worlds that cohabitate, and worlds that lay dormant. In these thirteen exhibitions by curators across South Asia and Iran, you will encounter worlds made of memories, identities, pasts, erasures, and even humor. Effervescent worlds that emanate from technological caverns. Bristly worlds with the scent of the earth. Worlds carved out of personal memories and public histories, worlds tarnished by violence. In these worlds are attempts at finding home and creating home: the body is home, the earth is home, and sometimes, home is defined by its own absence, shrouded by loss and catastrophe. In the midst of all of this, people make the tragic and dignified attempt to live, to survive, to encounter defeat, to be remembered, and to laugh.
The exhibitions will open on December 14, 2019 at 6 PM at the Art Gallery at India International Centre, Delhi and will run through till December 20, 2019. The timings for the gallery are 11am-7pm.
Curatorial Intensive South Asia is supported by Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi, and India International Centre is a venue partner for the exhibition.
CISA 2019 FELLOWS:
Alisha Sett (India) | Exhibition Name : Rooee
Rooee addresses the remnants of the ’empire of cotton’ in two of its most prominent sites: the lowcountry in South Carolina (USA) and the textile mills of Bombay.
Ashima Tshering (India) | Exhibition Name : Knock Knock
Humour is an effective tool for communication because of its ability to break down barriers and form connections. ‘Knock Knock’ is an encounter with personal stories addressed through humour.
Ayushma Regmi (Nepal) | Exhibition Name : inhibitions.inhabitations
Inhibitions.inhabitations 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.
Diwas Raja (Nepal) | Exhibition Name : Furnishing Papers
Displaying the original ID documents of the Manange people, the exhibition will explore how a group of people who historically lived extra-territorially not only in the trans-Himalayan region but also as traders to as far away lands as Southeast Asia – interacted with the bureaucratic needs of the modern state of Nepal.
Maryam Bagheri (Iran) | Exhibition Name : Timequake
Studies show that a great earthquake will definitely occur in Tehran in the near future and will happen at night, which will 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.
Mila Samdub (India) | Exhibition Name : Real Time Tactics
Real Time Tactics combines spontaneous ways of using the platforms that form the basis for our social lives, careful strategies requiring collaboration and technical expertise, and visualisations of the networks of power and capital that form the mediums of our lives.
Poulomi Paul (India) | Exhibition Name : Pata/पता
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.
Pranamita Borgohain (India) | Exhibition Name : Dis-place
Dis-Place is structured around various areas of disagreements, discomforts and dislocation, each framing questions connected to the general line of inquiry while they also open specific discussion points. It touches upon topics which are equally urgent to Assam as they are to the world: migration, marginalisation, economic and/or cultural appropriation.
Rumi Samadhan (India) | Exhibition Name : 1927 : ‘Erasure’ as a form of assertion
The exhibition explores the concept of ‘erasure’ as a form of assertion, and centers on the Mahad Satyagraha as a pivotal moment of rupture within the practice of Untouchability in India.
Sadia Marium (Bangladesh) | Exhibition Name : GHAR
GHAR (Home) is the collection of Video, photographs, photo-book, and paintings to dissect the meaning of ‘Ghar’ both as 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.
Sarker Protick (Bangladesh) | Exhibition Name : This too shall pass
How does our physical world and the socio/political states of affairs affect our mind? How does our state of mental health manifest in our being, in terms of both our private moments or public action and reaction? Is it one way or the other? Or is it caught in its own paradox?
Kirubalini Stephan (Srilanka) | Exhibition Name : Memoryscapes
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? Memoryscapes interweaves with multiple narratives of past and present with space and experience different kinds of memories which connects with artists and Tamil community.
Zohreh Deldadeh (Iran) | Exhibition Name : Some-Bodies: Bodily Narratives in Iranian Contemporary Art
This exhibition’s focus is on different perspectives of seeing 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.
