International Residency 2001

2001 marked the second pilot International Residency Programme organized by Khoj where artists were invited from Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and India.

Curated as a video and photography residency, the artists were networked with various institutions and professionals who would be of assistance to them. A loose arrangement was made with Jamia Milia Mass communication and Research Center for Mahbano Abidi from Pakistan; Stat Photos a commercial studio run by Ravi Pasricha- friend and professional photographer was used by Hany el- Gowily, Pushpamala and Farhana though Farhana was officially an invitee of SARAI- a public forum for new media.

All the artists come from varying backgrounds: Hany has studied design and his work is deeply reflective of this practice; Pushpmala, though a sculptress has been working in photography for the past few years; Mahbano Abidi has studied video art and uses video as her medium of artistic practice. Her previous work is reflective of Inda- Pak relations as well. Syeda Farhana is a social scientist and is studying at DRIK's Pathshala in Dhaka as a photo journalist. These diverse backgrounds made for an interesting exchange of ideas and practice. In fact the work that was produced by Pushpamala was professionally shot by Hany El Gowily just as Syeda was aided by Hany in the printing of her works. Hany himself produced his first ever video work here in Delhi.

Syeda Farhana was keen on working with the Bangladeshi Refugee community in India.After much research she was able to find one family which was willing to say that they were refugees and had come away from Bangladesh. Several others who she encountered were , understandably so , suspicious of her motives and insisted that they were from Kolkota. She worked with her family spending many hours formally and informally with them , photographing and interviewing them and what resulted was a series of photographs with accompanying text recounting their experiences of their travel to India, their longing for relatives and friends left behind and their acute sense of being outsiders in Delhi.

Mahbano Abidi's earlier work Mangoes, also comments on the warm yet often uneasy relationship that exists between Indians and Paksitanis.During her current visit to Delhi- first in 10 years she was struck by the extreme sanskritisation of Hindi that occurred in official parlance as also the extreme persianisation of urdu in Pakistan. Her project ( two 5 minute videos played in a loop) showed herself as Newscaster- duly dressed in saree and bindi in one and a salwaar with head covered in the other) relating in highly sanskritised Hindi and persianised Urdu the same banal joke- with both Pakistani and Indian protagonists. The English translation ran as a ruuning headline below.

Pushpamala N: is a well known artist based in Banglaore. Her recent work has used photography to create a narrative often in the theatrical style of Bollywood .Her work here ( Dil e- Dard) was located in a decrepit haveli in Jama Masjid where she enacted a love story much in the style of old films: a man and a woman meet- they fall in love instantly while she hands him a cup of tea- the family is against it- they part. She along with friends from Khoj and elsewhere enacted the scenes over a 3 day period framing individual shots.

Hany El Gowily's work revealed his view of the city of Delhi. He took a multitude of photographs as he wandered the streets of Delhi: a qawwali programme and Eid at Nizammuddin, a typical Hindu wedding ceremony at the posh Radisson hotel. He did two video works one a long interview with Ravi Pasrich's father and the other again a scenes of Delhi which he felt were so close to those of Ciaro! He included the tin KHOJ boxes to install his work and called it "Unopen Boxes"!

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Pooja Sood
2001