Collaborations
AAR-PAAR, (2000-2004) Facilitated by Shilpa Gupta (India) and Huma Mulji (Pakistan) http://www.aarpaar.net/about.htm
AarPaar is an artist initiated public art project between Indian and Pakistan. In AarPaar 1 which took place in year 2000, artists from Karachi & Mumbai, made work which was swapped between the two cities and shown in public spaces: roadside eating places, paan shops etc. The idea of intervening in the city was to encourage an alternative audience, extend viewership of art, to not exclusively an "art" audience, but incidental viewing and sharing of work by
artists, in places where spontaneous interaction between people occurs. In an attempt to extend this dialogue, AarPaar 2 took place simultaneously in Mumbai and Karachi in July 2002 in which ten artists from each city developed single colour works which were exchanged across the two countries via email to be printed locally and inserted into public spaces: by plastering on city walls or distributing these as folded handouts. A short, targeted, intervention: less
‘incidental’, less 'subtle' than before, more obtrusive. AarPaar 3 continues in its sixth year, when this time artists videos are being shown in open air public spaces as well as educational institutes such as schools and colleges.
ODD SPACE, by Faisal Anwar, Lahore/Toronto. This is a real time, site-specific installation that will select a space within exhibitions organized by VASL in Karachi and BRITTO in Dhaka in an attempt to show how human behavior is modified by interactions with others.
MONITOR: Experimental Film & Video Curation from the South Asian Diaspora in collaboration with SAVAC, the South Asian Visual Arts Centre in Toronto, Canada. SAVAC is an artist-run, nonprofit organization committed to the development of contemporary visual art. The organization recognizes the importance of the South Asian Diaspora to the discourse and practice of cultural
development in the region and around the world. Selections from Monitor will run continuously throughout the exhibition.
MONITOR 1: Curated by Jane Kim, 70 minute program, 2005
1. Untitled Displacement Series # 2: Pavitra Wickramsinghe, Canada, 2003, 1min
2. The God: Konstantin Bronzit, Russia, 2003, 5min
3. I Love My India: Tejal Shah, India, 2003, 10 min
4. Flight: Nurjahan Akhlaq, Canada/ Palistan, 2004, 10 min
5. Heart Troubles of Ramchand Yavathamak Tirchinapalli Azamghar: Ramchandra PN, India, 2003, 5min
6. Coolie Gyal: Renata Mohamed, Canada, 2004, 7.20min
7. U.A.I.L. GO BACK: Angad Bhalla, USA/Canada, 2003, 22min
8. Holly Bolly: Dishad Husain, UK, 2004, 12 min
MONITOR 2: Curated by Jane Kim with Riaz Mehmood, Renata Mohamed, Paramjit Rai and Anand Rajaram, 60 minute program, 2006.
1. Happily Never After: Jaishri Abhichandani, USA, 2005, 1min
2. 16 Mimm Journey: Darshana Vora, UK, 2005, 2min
3. Death in the Garden of Paradise: Nurjahan Akhlaq, Canada/Pakistan, 2004, 22min
4. Fracture: Pamila Matharu, Canada, 2003, 4min
5. Solid Objects: Darshana Vora, UK, 1999, 2min
6. THIS or THAT or NIETHER: Kriti Arora, France, 2005, 5min
7. Wound Up: Jaishri Abhichandani, USA, 2005, 1min
8. Kshya Tra Ghya (X, Y, Z): Amit Dutta, India, 2004, 22min
MONITOR 3: Curated by Claire Eckert, 50 minute, 2007
1. Fire, Fences and Flight: Ayesha Hameed, Canada, 2005, 5.06min
2. Ishnan: Tejpal S. Ajji, Canada, 2005, 1min
3. Clifton to Saddar: Faisal Anwar, Canada, 2006, 1min
4. Dead Beat: Smriti Mehra, Canada/ India, 2004, 1.39min
5. Outside the Saying Of It: Vaideshi Chitre, USA/ India, 2005, 18min
6. Patriot Story: Naeem Mohaiemen, Bangladesh, 2005, 7min
MONITOR 4: Curated by Oliver Husain, 74-minnute program, 2008
1. Untitled: Ferwa Ibrahim, Pakistan, 2007, 1.5min
2. Kramasha: Amit Dutta, India, 2007, 22min
3. Tales from the Margin: Kavita Joshi, India, 2006, 23min
4. Majidee: Azharr Rudin, Malaysia, 2005, 16min
5. Paint: Saba Khan, Pakistan, 2006, 4.44min
6. Skin: Debashis Sinha, Canada, 2007, 6.30min
Saturday September 8, 2008: 7pm onwards @ the Anant Art Gallery, Lado Sarai
Release of South Asia Journal for Culture (Vol. 1 2007), established by Sasanka Perera, who teaches Sociology at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is conceived as a regional forum for disseminating and debating ideas on 'culture' broadly defined across geographic and national boundaries of South Asia and beyond. The journal is copublished by the Colombo Institute for the Advanced Study of Society and Culture and THEERTHA International Artists
Collective and supported by KHOJ.
The Colombo Institute for the Advanced Study of Society and Culture (Colombo Institute) was initiated as a group in 2003. At present, Colombo Institute is led by a number of individuals with interests in different academic disciplines
such as social anthropology, sociology, history, visual arts, theatre, languages, archeology, cultural studies and architecture. Given the fact that Sri Lanka has been scarred by multiple forms of political violence, nationalist and
religious conflict dismantled democratic practices and the subversion of knowledge production, Colombo Institute firmly believes that one of the most visible victims has been the society’s collective frame of mind. In that context, Colombo Institute believes that all interventions that need to be undertaken to revive this state of affairs must be initially made in the minds of the people. On the basis of this conviction, the primary objectives of the Colombo Institute are: 1. To create an awareness of ‘knowledge’, 2. To create and promote alternative and creative approaches in thinking and action and 3. To work across geographic, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and national borders in generating and
disseminating knowledge and ideas. In the Sri Lankan context, its primary foci are the Tamil and Sinhala speaking youth and their languages. However, given its larger regional agenda within the framework of South Asia, Colombo
Institute has begun to work in English since 2007, and South Asia Journal for Culture edited by a team of individuals based in South Asia or with an interest in the region co- published with THEERTHA International Artists Collective is its
first South Asian venture.
Visual presentation: The War We Forgot: A Behind the Scenes Look at Archiving and Curating one of the Most Significant Conflicts in the Subcontinent, by the renowned photographer/ activist Shahidul Alam. In 1989, Alam founded Drik, a Dhaka-based journalists’ collective formed to support majority world reporters and photographers. In 1998, he also established Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, and Chobi Mela, the first festival of photography in Asia. Besides serving on the jury of numerous competitions including the World Press Photo Awards, Alam has also taught at the U.K.’s Sunderland University and UCLA in the USA.
Visual presentation: Imaging Dislocations: a talk by artist Nilima Sheikh, will address the rewards and challenges of representing a subject as fraught and complicated as partition. Since completing her MFA at Baroda in 1971, Sheikh has been exhibited around the world for a diverse body of work ranging from miniatures to stage sets. Her recent practice explores ways to examine the pain that rupture and violence have caused to the subcontinent since the events of 1947, and have branded modern South Asian identity and self. Her paintings address issues raised by texts as diverse as Urvashi Butalia's work on the partition and the poetry of Agha Shahid Ali on Kashmir.
About the project: Six Degrees of Separation:
Six Degrees of Separation' refers to the notion that, every person on the planet is separated from everyone else by a chain of about six people. While the idea of a shrinking world and of ever-increasing connectedness seems to be an
idiom of the globalised world, it assumes a somewhat different complexion for artists in South Asia whose socio politico realities and identities are a complex mix of congruence and chaos. This exhibition is a celebration of the dynamic
network of relationships, collaborations and exchanges that KHOJ has developed and facilitated between artists in the region over the past 10 years.
KHOJ is an alternative artist led initiative for experimentation and international exchange based in India. In the decade since its inception, KHOJ has facilitated more than seventy residencies, exhibitions, and community art-based
initiatives across India. While artists were invited to participate from across the globe, KHOJ gave special attention to artists working in South Asia, focusing on Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, in the belief that despite the
strong cultural links in this region, there was little contemporary arts exchange that took place within it. Several of the participating artists were subsequently inspired to initiate similar projects in their own countries. KHOJ, along with
Triangle Arts Trust, helped to facilitate such organizations, and in 2001 VASL in Pakistan organized its first international workshop. Later that year Sri Lanka's THEERTHA foundation got off the ground in Colombo, followed by BRITTO Arts in Dhaka, Bangladesh and SUTRA in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2003. Half a decade later each organization has blossomed into an autonomous platform for experimental artists, working in diverse media and making their mark internationally. Six Degrees of Separation celebrates the artistic exchange that this network facilitates. The exhibition features thirteen artists from five countries working in video, sound, photography, and mixed-media installation. The artists are Salil Subedi from Nepal, Anoli Perera from Sri Lanka, Huma Mulji, Bani Abidi and Masooma Sayed, from Pakistan, Riyas Komu, Aastha Chauhan, , Surekha, Hema Upadhyay and Abhishek Hazra from India, and Mahbubur Rahman and Syeda Farhana from Bangladesh. All the artists featured in the show have either participated in KHOJ workshops or in residencies in neighboring countries. The works therefore bear the imprint of a dialogue between countries in this region, with themes that resonate across national borders. Participating artists have approached the issue of cross cultural dialogue in differing ways. Shilpa Gupta and Huma Mulji, artists from India and Pakistan respectively who met at the KHOJ 1998 workshop, conceived of the Aar Paar project which teamed up artists from both countries to create and curate works that circulated in public spaces, away from the confines of art galleries. In the first phase of the program, artists from both countries made works for
informal public spaces across the border, 'curated' by their fellow artists there. The second stage of the project used the interface of high and low end technology to break down barriers in more ways than one. Artists working in the
metropolises of Mumbai and Karachi exchanged single color works via e-mail. These were then printed using cheap mass- printing technology to be distributed and plastered pervasively across streets in both the cities. In the final phase, video pieces were exchanged to be aired in public and educational contexts in the two cities. Befitting the theme of connectedness, Bani Abidi has taken up the challenge of representing the myriad barriers that define and demarcate the streets of Karachi. Such “Security Barriers” are indeed emblems of isolation and fear, yet they are also common to everyday experience not just in Pakistan, but of citizens across South Asia, hence they unite even as they obstruct. Riyaz Komu’s sculptural installation, “Undertakers” featuring mobile wooden tombstones is a continuation of the metaphor of fear and isolation, while Hema Upadhyay’s match stick chandelier created for the first time during a residency in Karachi epitomizes the delicate balance of hope and volatility that is in inherent in Indo – Pak relations. For Surekha, a residency program at THEERTHA in Sri Lanka led to an exploration of the ironical coexistence of both Buddhism and violence in the day to day existence in Colombo, while Dhaka based artists Mahbubur’s performance is a plea for peace in a war torn region. Both, Delhi based artist Aastha Chauhan and Dhaka based artist Syeda Farhana intervene in local communities in an attempt to understand the notion of migration, borders and politics within the south Asian region. And finally , given the context and rationale of the 6 Degrees exhibition, Abhishekh Hazra in his video Index of Debt questions, albeit tangentially, the circuits of capital and conditions that enable artistic production itself. It attempts a look at contemporary academic scholarship (South Asian Studies) and the conditions of its production along with parallels in the art context. In KHOJ’s decade-long experience, the 'six degrees of separation' dictum has never rung more true. In fact, given the closeness of the South Asian network for the arts, it's likely that where artists from the region are concerned, the six connecting individuals will not be just fellow professionals, but close friends who have sat up late into the night preparing projects and discussing life and politics.
For more details please contact:
Rohini Devasher / Aastha Chauhan @ KHOJ Studios, S- 17 Khirkee Village extension, New Delhi- 17
Tel: 91-11-65655874/3, interact@khojworkshop.org
Natasha @ Anant Art Gallery, F 213 - B, Lado Sarai, Tel : +91-11-41554776, M: +91-9818034940