For last two months or so the strains of protests have reverberated through Venkatappa Art Gallery. Artists in the city have united under the banner of Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum (VAG Forum) to express their stance against the Karnataka Government’s MoUs with corporate companies for adoption of tourism destinations, including VAG. Black umbrellas, performances, exhibitions have, since then, become their tools of protest.
Recently a unique three-day event, Art Marathon, was organised, where each day was distributed among curators, artists and performers, who would get 45 minutes to showcase their work.
As part of it, a performative installation “Processing” was staged by Bösediva from Berlin. The artists duo, Elisa Duca and Robin Detje are currently undergoing bangaloREsidency with the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan. They are preparing for their final show at the end of this month.
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Bösediva’s art is a blend of performance, sculpture, video and sound-installation. The act provides each spectator huge autonomy for interpretation. They present a mix of theatrical devices and visual arts in a unique way.
Robin Detje describes the project saying, “We manipulate objects, create an order of things from the objects and change the order. When we do this over a long period of time, it creates sculptures, voluntarily or involuntarily. It might create paintings on the floor when we work with fluids. “All these things we create, we also destroy and cover with new stuff. So there will be layers and we work with lots of layers. Sometimes we just take everything off and start afresh. Here in India, we work with stuff we found in the markets. It is performance and visual arts in which we use our body.”
When asked about what message they would want their audience to derive, Robin replied, “We don’t create a message. Our spaces are always open. You can walk anywhere, even on the art. We hope that people find their own perspective and everybody takes away something different. We’ve had amazing reactions, some people walk out, some felt near religious experiences. We’ve had people who like to sit in our landscapes and fall asleep.”
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Talking about their experience in Bengaluru, he adds, “The artist community we are experiencing here is just incredible. We received a lot of energy and support. The residents at the Goethe Institute are so different. They have a wide spectrum of talent there ranging from a puppeteer to fine art photographers and a visual artist who works with electronic music and images.”
(Bosediva will present their final work at a three-day exhibition from May 27 at 1 Shanthi Road)