Let’s think the German way

In an ode to the German philosopher and thinker Walter Benjamin an exhibition here in Delhi reflects on the concept of ‘constellations’ through the works and projects of the recent grantees of FICA.

Titled “Critical Constellations”, the group show offers an insight into the ongoing enquiries of the artists who have received annual grants, scholarships and awards by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) since 2016.

The exhibition at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) here is open for public till Saturday.

The presentation includes works by Moonis Ahmad Shah on fictionalising the archive to question its constitution, boundaries and representation; and another kind of archive of the proliferating and disorienting image in a post-truth world, by Sohrab Hura, FICA said.

Also on display is a work on the role of art as document and testimony in the graphic storytelling by Malik Sajad, and another on conceptually and materially rooted engagement with traditional practices and techniques by Varunika Saraf and Benitha Perciyal.

“The exhibition contains documentation from the community-based art projects undertaken to revive the St. Inez Creek in Panjim by Vishal Rawlley; and the setting up of a school museum in dialogue with children in the tribal villages of Kumharapara and Balengapara, Chhattisgarh, as in the case of Devashish Sharma; as well as a curatorial project by Meenakshi Thirukode that brings together three case studies  about small-scale art institutions in Bangalore, Hong Kong and Istanbul, as working models of alternate infrastructures,” FICA said in a statement.

The show’s second part comprises three special artists’ projects that imagine FICA’s “Reading Room” — a reading space with a collection dedicated to contemporary art publications — as an artistic proposition.

The participating artists are Renuka Rajiv, Nilanjana Nandy and Vasudha Thozhur.

Titled “Listening Post”, Thozhur’s project creates a discursive platform for dissemination, as opposed to a stage for the artist/author, through an artwork that gathers different kinds of histories and continually morphs by virtue of the fluidity of its function.

It will contain contributions, which include artists’ books, audio and video pieces, as well as art works that engage with intimate and vital acts of reading, listening and communication.