Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Art | Mind over matter
BackBack

Art | Mind over matter

The Raqs Media Collective's latest initiative in Delhi seeks to unpack the role of the contemporary artist

Mati Ghar. Photographs by Rituparna Banerjee/MintPremium
Mati Ghar. Photographs by Rituparna Banerjee/Mint

Two weeks ago, as the sixth edition of the India Art Fair (IAF) was unfolding on the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in Okhla, a rather different spectacle was in progress in another part of Delhi. Unlike the wine-and-canapé opening of the IAF, where the glitter of designer Nirav Modi’s jewellery line vied for attention with some of the work on display, this was a self-consciously understated affair, though it involved an array of internationally acclaimed artistes as well. Those who came to see this project had to devote their unqualified attention to the goings-on to even begin to glimpse the message that was being conveyed to them—and in spite of their best effort, many probably left frustrated and confused by what they saw.

INSERT2014, directed by the Raqs Media Collective, is on at Mati Ghar, on the premises of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts on Janpath, till the end of this month. Produced by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation with the support of the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council, it seeks to reveal “The Sharp Edge of the Global Contemporary", as a subtitle puts it cryptically. By bringing together the works of artists and theorists from across the world, INSERT2014 seeks to create a cerebral artistic experience, one that inspires thought rather than aesthetic pleasure. The challenge it thereby poses to the 21st-century viewer is formidable—not just because of the intellectual underpinnings of the works on display but also for the intensity of engagement demanded of modern viewers with diminishing attention span.

View Full Image
Strangers by Poonam Jain/Clark House Initiative

The ideas—edgy, quirky, or quite simply, disturbing—are outlined in a clinically detached, though often amusingly solemn, language in a booklet accompanying INSERT2014. Consider, for example, the proposal by the Layout Collective, which pledges “to create a few mobile, fully functional public toilets" and travel with them to “semi-urban localities and urban villages in Delhi". “We will treat these public toilet spaces or individual WC cabins...as our white cube gallery space," they explain in the concept note, “places of transformative beauty...which inspire, motivate, give meaning and fulfilment, spaces that are spirited and nurturing". If you thought Marcel Duchamp was being avant-garde by putting a urinal inside an art gallery, welcome to the 21st century, where you are not only expected to admire the same Readymade but also invited to use it to your satisfaction and thus allow yourself to become a part of the work of art.

What you get to see at Mati Ghar, a circular structure that was built in 1990 to host another art exhibition, is at times no less visceral—though it may ask of you a kind of seriousness that can be emotionally depleting.

As you walk into the space, you are thrown into a terrain alive with light, sound, objects and visuals, overwhelming the senses. Immediately to the right is an elaborate installation by Basel Abbas + Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Palestinian artists and collaborators who combine video, texts and found objects to create the multimedia work, The Incidental Insurgents: The Part About the Bandits.

A stroll around the sprawling installation—involving a desk, chair, laptop, shelves, vinyl records, papers, posters and books—is insufficient to capture the essence of it. For the multiple histories evoked by the duo pertain not only to the conflict in West Asia but also to universal moments of suffering: a scene in their video, of two young men with their backs turned to the camera, with a subtitle screaming: “ANYWHERE". Fragments of texts nailed to the wall are variations on the theme: “See you soon, I said," reads one, “and then I never saw them again."

Moving along, Chinese artist Lu Xing-Hua’s documentary film, based on French philosopher Jacques Rancière’s controversial visit to China in 2013, is a lengthy and involved account that will not make much sense to those who are not well-versed with the politics of Ai Weiwei, one of the most controversial artists in contemporary China.

View Full Image
Balthazar by Mai-Thu Perret

It may well take you the better part of a day to fully absorb all that INSERT2014 tries to do. If you are invested in art for the excitement it brings to the senses, not just the brain, you may be left cold and unmoved by much of it. But the culmination of the project, which involves climbing up to the dome of Mati Ghar, is spectacular.

Berlin-based artist Ivana Franke’s work, made with wires and light, fills the ceiling with a matrix of illuminated patterns, affording viewers the thrill of star-gazing. In spite of the canned noises and the spooky darkness, there is a strange comfort in losing one’s bearings in reality and becoming part of someone else’s imagination.

INSERT2014 is on till 28 February at Mati Ghar, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Delhi. Timings and venues for parallel events vary. Click here for the complete schedule.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 15 Feb 2014, 12:31 AM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App