The role of an art curator is central to cultural mediation. They carefully sift through stories narrated by artists and let such work reach the viewer. To offer a space for curatorial intervention, Khirkee-based Khoj International Artists' Association (KHOJ) and Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Marg unveiled ‘this will keep you warm’ on March 15, a culmination of 12 curated exhibitions created by curators who participated in the fourth edition of the Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA) fellowship, a flagship programme by KHOJ. Their work is currently on display at Kamaladevi Art Gallery, India International Centre, Lodhi Estate.
Talking about the idea behind CISA, Manjiri Dube, curator and programme manager at KHOJ shared, This is the fourth edition of the Curatorial Intensive South Asia. Through this two-week intensive fellowship programme, our aim is to support young curators with some prior experience in the field by giving them access to a diverse set of speakers. Through CISA we support creative thinking by giving the fellows an opportunity to independently develop curatorial projects with the help of their tutors. Being a small group gives them a chance to discuss their ideas with their peers and tutors. The other aim is to build networks across South Asia through this programme.”
Creating striking tales
The 12 exhibitions on display here explore a variety of topics, many arising from a personal space. Through 'Place a Mirror on my Heart', Bangladeshi artist and journalist Akramul Momen's (32) explores key questions of identity and gender. Momen attempts to "showcase the tales of commonness and clashes between mass and unruly bodies” through the curatorial works of six artists, one of them being Asha who belongs to the Hijra community of Bangladesh.
On the other hand, Tenzing Sedonla Ukyab Lama (27) from Nepal has curated ‘An Ode to the Anonymous’ that features a collection of artefacts sourced from The Himalayan Art Gallery, Nepal. The background of these displayed objects is brought to the viewer through a series of transcriptions of conversations that Lama has had with her father who also runs the Gallery. She examines anonymity, oral histories, and generation gap, through her work.
Realities of the pandemic
A series of works showcased at this exhibition are in response to the pandemic, and the personal and political displacement caused due to the same. Aakriti Chandervanshi’s (27) ‘Late Echo’ is an exhibition that features the works of three artists—Anupam Diwan, Vinita Barretto, and Rohit Saha. Subdued yet evocative, Chandervanshi explores how the entity of time and space can offer multiple perspectives into the past and the present. "When I had reached out to these three artists, they were just photographing their daily surroundings or the spaces they had occupied during the lockdown. These are snippets of how they were using art as a medium to channelise their emotions and their realities,” shares the Mumbai-based artist.
Ishita Shah’s (35) ‘Kitchen to Kacheri’ looks into the process of archiving local histories beyond the ‘personal’. She urges the viewer to engage with a range of archival boxes thus immersing themselves into a series of narratives. Shedding light on how the project came into being, Shah says, “In the beginning of the pandemic, I started taking workshops on personal and family archiving, and I realised there was a lot that people wanted to do. My initial thoughts on lack of representation in history and narratives of the nation sort of started getting self answered. These workshops soon turned into an incubation programme. I received a lot of proposals and I started working on 20 of them.”
A few works to explore here include 'On a walk' by Sayali Mundye (28) that addresses the politics of walking through the works of Ashima Raizada, Pallavi Paul, and Salik Ansari; Abeer Gupta’s ‘Is there a contemporary in Ladakhi art?’, which is an inquiry into the developing contemporary art practice in Ladakh and how it balances the weight of tradition, offering a space for critical exchange; ‘Disoriented Bodies’ by Shirin Fathi makes use of mixed media to focus on the conception of ‘beauty’; Oorja Garg’s ‘Copy-right’ questions the idea of ownership in a capitalist society by exploring the popular Hindi proverb ‘Rai ka Pahad Banana’, among others.
CHECK IT OUT
WHAT: this will keep you warm
WHEN: Till March 25
WHERE: IIC Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, India International Centre