At first, the art showcased at Possible Futures may seem like renditions of colourful rainbows. But Swiss artist Marie Velardi has actually translated her representation of the timeline between the past, present and future onto a tangible surface. The art is her perception of time as a non-linear structure, one that can move through different dimensions.
This is Velardi’s second visit to India; she was earlier in the country to present her works ‘Atlas of Lost Islands’ and ‘Future Perfect 21st Century’ at the previous edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014. The latter features a timeline of the 21st century inspired by sc-fi pop culture, especially books and movies. After the biennale, Velardi’s deeper exploration into the space of future and its possibilities brought about the inception of Possible Futures .
When working on ‘Future Perfect’, Velardi noticed that the timeline was written entirely by male voices that were mostly Western. Currently in India through the Pro-Helvetia artist residency programme, Velardi intended to reveal the Indian woman’s take on the future. A two-week-long stay in Delhi brought about conversations and discussions with woman that centered on their views for the future. In her subsequent stay in Mumbai, Velardi visited the Sound and Pictures Archive for Research on Women (SPARROW). Here, Velardi was exposed to a lot of material on Indian women, and their role in shaping our society.
The archive eventually inspired the artist to create Possible Futures . “SPARROW is a place which questions the way we write history; what we keep and memorise,” she says adding that the exhibition is shaped to resemble the pages of a hypothetical book named The Book of Possible Futures . Each artwork is accompanied by a quote, written in English and Marathi, derived from the numerous conversations Velardi had with women in Mumbai and Delhi. The quotes use the future tense, using the noun ‘we’ to denote the collective dreams and hopes of the women.
The bilingual literature in Possible Futures has been deliberate. “The project couldn’t be presented in just English, because my research is about the multiplicity of the ways of looking at the future,” says Velardi explaining the addition of Marathi.
For long now, Velardi has been fascinated with the future and time; her website says ‘her aim is to construct a memory of the future’. Possible Futures is a step in that direction. “My objective here with this work is to open the way we look at the future,” she says. “When the future becomes futures in plural, it is to open different possibilities.” This endeavour to represent time in non-linear and non-circular patterns led to the creation of ‘temporal maps’ – which was Velardi has dubbed her art. “I cannot explain it, but it is a way to orient and disorient the viewer with time,” she smiles.
As Velardi delves deeper into her passion, she hopes to separate the past from the future. “I have a problem with the linear way of representing time, because it’s a question of power as to who writes this linear fashion of presenting time,” she says. “I think it’s a privilege I have as an artist to try to experiment and open possibilities.”
Simultaneously, Velardi also has the ongoing experiment on display. Titled, ‘Terre-Mer’ or ‘Sea-Land’, the work explores shifting coastlines over time. The feature is a showcase of cartographical drawings that represent the zone between land and sea. “[It] looks at where the sea has been in the past, and where it could come back in the future,” says the artist.
Much like ‘Sea-Land’, Velardi’s previous work ‘Atlas of Lost Islands’ also examined the disappearance of inhabited islands due to rising water levels. Deeply interested in living conditions and environmental concerns, Velardi believes that every person houses the environment within themselves. “I don’t see a distinct division between people and the environment,” she elaborates. “I think this is what you see in my work also,” she concludes finally adding that she hopes her work can travel more in India.
Possible Futuresis ongoing till February 28 at the Special Project Space, Bhau Daji Lad Mueseum, Byculla.
