Ravi Agarwal, Camilla Boemio and Khoj Artists Workshops present a collaborative event to contribute to the Maldives Pavilion
Ecology has been presented as an homogeneous term with the image of our fragile planet portrayed as a uniform sphere of action and activity. However the current ecological crises, which encompasses forests, biodiversity, climate change, toxicity, land use, GM foods etc., have roots in the histories of colonization, progress and development. Local knowledges, cultures, and relationships have often been submerged in dominant ideas which have shaped community relationships and geographies.
Eco aesthetics, a response to this, has linkages in social political landscapes, anthropogenic and animistic concerns, and could even challenge the category of ‘nature’ itself.
Engaging with these ideas through artistic practices can help recover multiple ecologies, and possibly rethink ideas of ‘progress’ and even reshape them.
An evening of art and discussion with
Navjot Altaf
Amar Kanwar
Ravi Agarwal
Prof. Vikram Soni
Ravi Sundaram (moderator)
From Roma via Skype – Camilla Boemio
Date and Venue
May 8th, 6-9 pm
Khoj Rooftop, Khirkee Village, New Delhi
Contributory event for the Maldives Pavilion Venice 2013
Ravi Agarwal in association with Khoj (www.khojworkshop.org)
New Delhi, India
PANEL DETAILS
NAVJOT ALTAF
Navjot Altaf has been engaged with interactive / cooperative / collaborative
installation art practice with Indian and international artists, classical
vocalists, documentary filmmakers, activists, students and technicians since
1992. Simultaneously, she has been engaged with projects in public spaces
(inclusive of people’s participation) in metro cities and ongoing site
oriented projects with Adivasi artists in Bastar, Central India. The process
deals with the questions related to collaborative processes as a negotiated
strategy, representation, identity, gender, and discourse regarding what is
contemporary in contemporary art.
AMAR KANWAR
Amar Kanwar lives and works from New Delhi. His films and installations
are multi-layered, contemporary experiences connecting intimate personal
histories with the wider politics of power, violence, sexuality, and justice.
Kanwar’s meditative film essays do not aim to represent trauma or political
situations as much as to find ways through them to a more contemplative
space. Characterized by a distinctly poetic approach to the social and
political, Kanwar’s work has been presented in several film festivals and
museums. Recent solo exhibitions have been at the Marian Goodman
Gallery, New York, Stediljk Museum, Amsterdam and the Haus der Kunst,
Munich. He has participated in Documenta 11, Documenta 12, and
Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany and is also the recipient of the 1st Edvard
Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway.
RAVI AGARWAL
Ravi Agarwal is a photographer, artist, writer, curator and environmentalist.
He explores issues of urban space, ecology, capital in an interrelated way,
working with photographs, video, on-site installations, and public art..
Agarwal has participated in several international curated shows including
Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013), Document XI (Kassel 2002), Horn Please (Berne
2007), Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery, London and various venues
(2009-2013), Indian Critical Mass (Tel Aviv, 2012), Newtopia (Brussels,
2012), as well as several solo shows. He co-curated the twin city Yamuna
Elbe public art project (2012), and has authored/edited books and writes
extensively on ecological issues. He is also the founder director of the
leading Indian environmental NGO, Toxics Link.
PROF. VIKRAM SONI
Professor Vikram Soni is an astrophysicist by profession. Simultaneously he
has been deeply engaged in issues concerning environmental degradation
and the irreversible harm being caused to the planet. He has authored
many papers on environmental issues – many of them have been published
in reputed journals – and has also supported and led campaigns for
environmental protection.
RAVI SUNDARAM (MODERATOR)
Ravi Sundaram is a Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Developing
Societies, Delhi, and one of the initiators of Sarai. He coordinates the The
Social and Material Life of Media Piracy project at Sarai in collaboration
with the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore. He is the author of
PirateModernity: Media Urbanism in Delhi (Routledge, 2009, London).
ABOUT KHOJ
Khoj began as a proposition: a space for artists, run by artists. From its
modest beginnings in 1997 as an annual workshop, it has built an
international reputation for outstanding alternative arts incubation. It plays
a central role in the development of experimental, interdisciplinary and
critical contemporary art practice in India, constantly challenging the
established thinking about art.
With a focus on building networks, developing alternative pedagogies and
learning through collaboration and exchange, Khoj programmes have
nurtured vibrant imaginations and created unconventional synapses
between art and disciplines such as science, architecture and fashion.
Moreover, Khoj facilitates change by encouraging artists and audiences to
engage with vital concerns such as ecology, sustainability and
community participation.
CAMILLA BOEMIO
Boemio is an Italian writer, a University consultant for special projects in
Art/Science (eg. the ISWA European Project), and a curator. She focuses
between disciplines: how science, architecture and political science relate
to art. The exhibitions she has curated include MNEMOSYNE – L’ Atlante
delle immagini (group show) Centro Arti Visive Pescheria 2009, CITIES –
Places Visionaires (group show) Auditorium Arte Parco della Musica
preview of the Festa dell’ Architettura Rome 2009, ISWA European Project
of Art – Science – ‘After the Crash’ (group show) Orto Botanico Museum,
Rome 2011 and ‘Before the Crash’ (group show) Exeter UK 2011,
“CITIES” TAM, CA.