What makes art? Should it be always reactionary or political? What is the difference between conventional and contemporary spaces of art? At an intimate gathering of artists, connoisseurs and enthusiasts in ITC Grand Chola, these questions loomed large. In India: Art Today, an art conference organised by Apparao Galleries, spanning two days, the panelists led by narrating their experience as artists before posing questions for the audience to ponder.
- Mayank Mansingh Kaul spoke about the contribution of architects, interior designers and designers in public spaces.
- Amitesh Grover looked at how new media interventions like videos, films and performances that exist beyond the walls, affect art practices.
- Saloni Doshi focussed on understanding the directions and directors of new trends in visual arts today.
The audience too, stirred a discussion on what could be considered ‘art’ in this day and age.
Non-commercial spaces
The quiet Saturday evening proved to be the perfect setting to initiate the discourse. Delhi-based artist and senior curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Akanksha Rastogi, held the argument that in the last decade, contemporary art has undergone significant change, which she largely credited to the support provided by not-for-profit foundations like FICA (The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art). She virtually took the audience through narrow bylanes, flyovers and landfills in the periphery of the capital city, painting a picture of how the arts have started to “roll out in interesting ways, bringing in unexpected subjects”. An example was her work in collaboration with fellow artists at Sarai Kale Khan, a village near Delhi, where a performance or “an exercise in talking” was created by shouting out words from either sides of an empty street.
The “city as studio” fellowship programme, by Sarai, a branch of Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, also found place. “The idea of a contemporary art museum that I would like to propose is — Museum of the Future is to imitate the audience; where the objects cohabit with the audience and sharing the responsibility with the viewers,” she said.
Akanksha Rastogi
Museum expert Amit Jain carried this conversation forward by commenting on how the “burden of the colonial institution” still reflects on State-run museums, and questioned why one should distance oneself from art. “Museums always have a list of ‘don’t dos’. I took my daughter to a museum recently where she was asked not to touch one of the exhibits. That made me think what her relationship with art will be,” recalled Jain. Taking the examples of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa and The Sculpture Park in Nahargarh, he painted a picture of how art is becoming increasingly interactive. He concluded, “The post-museum phase is what we are in now.”
Amit Jain
Activism tool
“This kind of work has been happening for over 20 years, It is not new at all,” said Delhi-based Sharmila Samant, professor, artist and activist. She thwarted all notions that the shift to unconventional practices of art is new. Speaking about public and community-based practices of art in India, she said, “It’s not just about being part of something, it’s about having a great time because art is something that engages.” Going through her own collaborations with other artists and students of art, she took the example of the Artists Unite movement, which make a measurable impact across the country.
Sharmila Samant
“It spread because it appealed to people who had some kind of a revulsion against what was happening around us, “ she said, adding that the new genre of public art adopts a pluralist approach that functions as a social and cultural activity, in a community. Collaboration then, becomes extremely important.
Ram Rahman
Holding up a red poster, Delhi-based Ram Rahman aided Samant’s argument. On it were pictures of Gauri Lankesh, Safdar Hashmi, M M Kalburgi, and a quote by Pablo Neruda: “You can cut all the flowers, but you can’t keep spring from coming.” Rahman believed that the visual arts is an effective tool to question communalism, because of its semblance to reality as a medium. He went on to speak about his collaboration with SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust) following the murder of popular theatre actor Safdar Hashmi, and their collaboration with other artists to protect the freedom of expression.
