There is a certain charm in the art of tribal communities, where age-old traditions, cultural memories and distinctive visual languages come together. From intricate patterns to indigenous techniques, these art forms offer a glimpse into the histories and identities of communities that have preserved their practices across generations. Bringing these works into the contemporary art space, Art Connect, in collaboration with Gondwana Art Project, has come up with MŪL - The Origin, an exhibition showcasing works by tribal artists at Spirit Connect, Film Nagar. CE speaks to Sundeep Bhandari, founder of Gondwana Art Project and curator of the exhibition, and Miheeka Daggubati, founder of Art Connect, to know more.
Speaking about the artwork and the idea behind bringing tribal art into the spotlight, Sundeep says, “I have not been in the art industry for very long. I was part of the oil and gas industry and, as part of this industry, I was involved in a lot of CSR activities across different parts of the country. I was very inclined towards CSR activities, and then I decided to set up my own foundation.” The mandate of this foundation was to work with arts and crafts. He explains, “We work with different artists through this foundation. In 2019, I decided to work on tribal art because I felt tribal art had so much in terms of fineness, history and culture. It started with cave art, yet it was not getting the same kind of place in the art world. If you compare Indian tribal art with tribal art from other countries, the position of Indian tribal art has been relegated to melas and bazaars. This is what we wanted to change because these artists are very talented. This is really our culture, and that is what we have worked on over the last several years. We started looking at how to bring a change in the colour palette, how we could evolve the artworks, and began conducting workshops and teaching them how to create artworks of a very high quality.”
The number of artists, he shares, has gradually increased. “We initially started with six artists and now have almost 35 artists. This is what the Gondwana Art Project is all about. The name Gondwana Art Project was chosen because many tribal communities live in the central parts of India, where the forests are,” he highlights. These include Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh — all of these are tribal belts. In geographical terms, this region is called Gondwana, and that led them to choose the name.
Meanwhile, talking about the artworks displayed at MŪL, he adds, “We have a total of 12 artworks being shown here. These are from three different tribal communities: Gond, Bhil, and Naga community. There is another one called Sachi from Punjab, which is an embroidery art form.” Explaining how the different art forms can be identified, he points out, “Gond art has all sorts of patterns that they create. It can be semi-circles, dots, lines and dashes. They call some of these motifs Chandra Bindu, circles with bindus, and each artist tries to create a language of their own. Bhil art is pointillism, which came to the world as a contemporary art form, but if you look at Bhil art, it was actually done in caves and was discovered far before pointillism came into the world. These are the two big art forms shown here. In a small way, we are also showing Naga traditional artwork, which is sculpture. The Sachi art is again a languishing craft because this used to be used in Phulkari.”
Miheeka, meanwhile, speaking about the significance of bringing tribal art into the contemporary art space, shares, “The more I see this art, the more I feel that it sort of lost its place during colonisation. It was intentional how the British devalued indigenous art. We have been doing art for a very long time, but it was relegated to the category of crafts. People lost their authentic voice, but they started doing what was taught to them. Gondwana Art Project is different because they don’t uproot their artists from their ecosystem. While keeping them within their ecosystem, they provide them financial support and conduct workshops. The platform that Gondwana Art is giving these artists is incredible.”
She further concludes saying, “The intention of Art Connect is to showcase different forms of art, and we will definitely come up with more tribal artworks in the future.”