SUB CONTINGENT
The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art
30 June – 8 October 2006
Curated by: Ilaria Bonacossa and Francesco Manacorda
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo
Via Modane 16 Turin ITALY
T: 39.011.19831600
E: info@fondsrr.org
www.fondsrr.org
Open: Tues-Sun 12-20, Thurs 12-23
Artists in the exhibition: Bani Abidi, Sarnath Banerjee, Enrico David, Chitra Ganesh, Shilpa Gupta, Alia Hasan-Khan, Runa Islam, Tushar Joag, Amar Kanwar, Sonia Khurana, Huma Mulji, The Otolith Group (Kodwo Eshun, Anjalika Sagar and Richard Couzins), Ashim Purkayastha, Raqs Media Collective (Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Monica Narula and Jeebesh Bagchi), Sharmila Samant, Tejal Shah & Varsha Nair, Kiran Subbaiah, L.N. Tallur, taxi_onomy (Celine Condorelli and Beatrice Gibson) and A Room of My Own a special project by Dayanita Singh.
Subcontingent, The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art is a group show investigating the notion of the Indian Subcontinent (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Maldives) through the work of 26 artists. While the majority of them has studied and lives in India and Pakistan, others live abroad and are culturally and biographically linked to the Subcontinent. All the artists thoroughly explore the complexity of this geographical area, and many of them exhibit in Europe and in Italy for the first time. The show elaborates on many dissimilar points of view, and the works use different mediums (video, installations, painting and sculpture) resulting in the evocation of a diverse and multifaceted cultural landscape. The concept of the exhibition stems from the idea that, although it is “only” a sub-continent, the social, political, religious and economic disparity and diversity of this region make it an area of astonishing multiplicity, and a place of innovation and creativity.
This exhibition is conceived as a journey in which the variety of voices, political positions and modes of expression give birth to a contingent microcosm that is irreducible to a single interpretation. A subcontingent is a detachment, a group both separate from and related to a larger unit, which is sent out into the world to undertake a specific task. The exhibition is inspired to a Subcontinent of contingencies, a subcontingent universe. The heterogeneity of the works plays out intimate considerations, political visions and social criticisms about the Subcontinent; but it also analyses global issues such as the unregulated urbanisation of Asian megalopolis, the spreading of religious fundamentalism and the silent repression of ethnical minorities. In order to point out issues of distance in the dichotomy centre-periphery, Raqs Media Collective operated as critical respondents to the curatorial concept and framework, elaborating its own perspective in special interventions in the space and in the catalogue.
The catalogue of the exhibition is published by Electa and features interviews with art world professionals active in the region, a critical response by Raqs Media Collective, a visual essay Towards a Notion of Indophilia by the Otolith Group and a literary conversation between the Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid and the Indian writer Suketu Metha.
In conjunction with the show, Turin s National Museum for Cinema will present a series of films, curated by Elena Aime, entitled Off Bollywood – Indian Cinema of Today, with films such as: Silent Water by Sabiha Sumar, Amu by Shonali Bose, Little Terrorist by Ashvin Kumar and Matrubhoomi, a Nation without Women by Manish Jha and The forsaken Land by Vimukthi Jayasundara.