International Workshop 2001- Modinagar

This year has not been an easy one for South Asia : As I write, cruise missiles are hurting in neighbouring airspaces killing people. Earlier in the year Nepal reeled under the deadly Palace massacre; suicide bombers destroyed half the Sri Lankan Airlines fleet in Colombo; Bangladesh has been through another violent election and Kashmir continues to burn in the aftermath of the Agra summit between Pakistan and India.

It is at times like this that international workshops like ours assume a deeper significance. As friend and artist Lee Wen perceptively wrote in the aftermath of September 11, “... The situation of globalisation has its dangers that we must now try harder to understand ...across the plains of our endeavours it is cross-cultural activities that have been unfortunately neglected and is the lowest in priority in nearly all nations and societies despite all the increasing glaring signs of disparities everywhere.”

And so we continue - doggedly - with our preparations for another workshop which brings together artists from different parts of the world in an attempt to develop mutual understanding of our differences and similarities.

In November 2001, KHOJ organised a Network meeting. a Public Forum on South Asian/Asian art and an exhibition of art from Pakistan in Delhi. Despite the increased tension within the region post 09/11, over 25 artists and curators from the region attended.

The objective of the Network Meeting was to create a framework for a net based communications network which would offer artists in Asia/South Asia the chance to share and access information, opening up new communication links and leading to an increase of artistic activities within the region. Such a coming together of like-minded and committed persons was in itself a big step forward in the establishing of a communications network and the workshop clearly established the felt need for communication within the region: for the sharing of resources and knowledge and the development of a “voice” in the international scenario.

Our commitment towards working with artists in the region has been extremely successful, as two new workshops have developed in the region. The Vasl workshops held in January 2001 in Gadani in Pakistan and the Teertha workshop at Lunuganga in Colombo in September this year were unprecedented successes. Both these workshops were attended by artists from India. We are now working towards establishing a net-based communications network in the region and a first meeting inviting artists, curators and workshop coordinators from the region is being organized in November this year.

The next steps would be the development of technical expertise to take the ideas expressed at the meeting forward. The day long public forum entitled “Chaos or Congruence”, was possibly the first such forum to be held in South Asia which gave a critical overview of contemporary art practice in the visual arts of South Asia / Asia. Situated within a socio political context, the presentations problematized the differences, similarities and overlaps of cultural practice within the region. The essays reproduced in this catalogue will be, we hope, an important contribution to promoting critical dialogue in South Asia / Asia.

The exhibition, “Manoevering Miniatures” contemporary paintings from Pakistan, which opened at the India International Centre gallery during the network meeting, provoked at several levels. Curated by Virginia Whiles, visiting professor at the National College of Art in Lahore, the exhibition raised several pertinent questions of ‘tradition’ and “authenticity”; of cultural stereotyping vis a vis the international gaze and of indigenous social issues to practices within contemporary art from east and west.

The exhibition was received with great enthusiasm in Delhi, but came under threat in Mumbai after the attack on the Indian Parliament on Dec 13, 2001 and had to be brought down within days of its opening. The artists were on edge given the sharp communal sentiments running rife through the country.

Perhaps the biggest challenge today is to keep dialogue within the region alive.

While complex questions of identity and definition, of perceived positions of hegemony and power; of the very notion of “South Asia” itself need to be addressed, a shift in paradigms can only come about through the exploration of similarities and differences on the ground. We believe that if we focus only on the contradictions of our situation, we will suffer from paralysis - while what we need today, more than ever, is mutual action.

Pooja Sood
Coordinator, KHOJ International Artists’ Workshop
October 2001