|
The
Guild
is delighted to announce
The Chaos Trilogy II: Aliens in a
Foreign Land, an upcoming
exhibition curated by Premjish
Achari and featuring the works
of Achia Anzi, Navjot Altaf,
Rakhi Peswani, Ram Rahman, Kumari Ranjeeta, Sumedh Rajendran, T.V.
Santhosh, Vivan Sundaram and Zakkir Hussain.
The
exhibition will preview at our Alibaug location on Saturday, the 18th
of March, at noon.
The
Chaos Trilogy
This
three-part exhibition locates itself in the intersections of the matrix
of chaos, change, desire, and crisis that exploded after the 90s in
postcolonial India, or the period now widely identified as the
post-liberal India. Diverse literature and artistic endeavours have
mapped the social, political, economic and cultural shifts of this
period. The period has been associated as an important catalyst in the
development of contemporary art in India due to the rapid economic
shifts, compounded by access to new technological developments, access
to a globalised network of art, and the turbulent political climate that
foregrounded sectarianism and fundamentalism.
These
three exhibitions open the conversations on the chaotic situation we are
embroiled in to examine the majoritarian politics, identity formations,
issues of home/homeland, citizenship, the refugee crisis and climate
change. Through these exhibitions and various activities we bring in
artists, writers and academics to make sense of these dramatic
developments to ask how should we respond to these urgent questions: Are
we witnessing a worldwide rejection of liberal democracy and its
replacement by some kind of populist authoritarianism? How have we ended
up in this situation? Where will we be in five, ten or twenty years’
time? Is it possible to contain the global chaos and achieve a
turnaround? How could contemporary art configure the symptoms of this
chaos and would it be possible for it to forecast what lies ahead? How
will artistic identities be reconfigured in this situation where
concepts such as citizenship and nationality are under great threat than
never before?
Part 2:
Aliens in a Foreign Land
One of the important consequences of the political chaos since the ’90s
was the consolidation of Hindutva populist politics and along with it
various political formations that foregrounded identity as an important
trope. Questions of belonging, home, homeland, and who does not belong
became an important part of the everyday political discourse. The
concept of citizenship became fragile and in their own country, many
citizens became aliens. Even though recent protests have exposed the
fragility in constitutionally guaranteed citizenship and equal rights
for all, they have not been able to successfully propose possibilities
to reimagine the idea of citizenship, politics of asylum and creative
intervention that cuts across geographical borders.
The trope of home and homelessness is an important subject in the art
exhibitions of the last few decades. This exhibition will create an
important dialogue on alienation and belonging to reconfigure the role
of artists in reimagining inclusive politics.
About The Guild
The Guild was established in 1997 with an
aim to function as a semi-institutional space within the bustling
art-hub of Mumbai, India. Since its inception, it has been providing a
platform for discursive practices, innovation and experimentation in
contemporary art. The Guild represents artists of diverse generations
who have brought in robust dialogue within and across their disciplines.
The Gallery has held major retrospectives of K. P. Reji, Sudhir
Patwardhan, Navjot Altaf and G. R. Iranna in collaboration with premier
national art centres.
The gallery has published a number of
books with essays by preeminent critics and curators on contemporary
Indian artists, such as Sudhir Patwardhan, Navjot Altaf, Jyoti Bhatt,
K.G. Subramanyan, A. Ramachandran and T. V. Santhosh, amongst others.
For more
details, please contact us at:
theguildart@gmail.com, teamattheguild2@gmail.com
|
