THE KHOJ MARATHON by HANS ULRICH OBRIST 22nd January 2011 . New Delhi
Saturday January 22, 2011 Lodi – The Garden Restaurant courtyard Lodi Road, opposite Mausam Bhavan 1.45 PM-11.00 PM
A SERIES OF PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS
Entry is free. Seating is on first come first serve basis. The KHOJ Marathon will be held in an open-air structure. While arrangements for heating have been made, we recommend that you dress warmly. *Programme subject to change.
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM
Registration at the venue
1:45 PM - 2:00 PM
Opening of the Khoj Marathon by Francesca Von Habsburg
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM Dayanita Singh Vivan Sundaram Lawrence Liang Homai Vyarawalla Sheba Chhachhi Nivedita Menon Shilpa Gupta Gulammohammad Sheikh Vandana Shiva
5:00 PM - 5:20 PM Tea Break
5:20 PM - 8:00 PM
Geeta Kapur Sheela Gowda Dilip Simeon Bharti Kher Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam Kiran Subbiah Kaushik Basu Jitish Kallat
8:00 PM - 8:20 PM
Break . Drinks & Snacks
8:20 PM - 11:20 PM Amar Kanwar Anita Dube Sundar Sarukkai Sudarshan Shetty Bijoy Jain Ranjit Hoskote Sadanand Menon Raqs Media Collective Subodh Gupta
SCHEDULE
THE KHOJ MARATHON IS A SERIES OF TWENTY MINUTE PUBLIC INTERVIEWS WITH 25 LEADING INTELLECTUALS - THINKERS, SOCIAL PHILOSOPHERS, POLITICAL ANALYSTS AND ARTISTS - BY A COMPELLING AUTHORITY IN THE ART AND INTELLECTUAL WORLD- HANS ULRICH OBRIST.
Hans Ulrich Obrist is one of the most prestigious and sought after curators of contemporary art in the world. The Marathon series of public events, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Stuttgart in 2005, are landmark public interviews which initiate some of the most scintillating and exciting conversations of contemporary times. The first in the Serpentine series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007; in 2008 the Manifesto Marathon showcased different generations of artists alongside practitioners from the worlds of literature, design, science, philosophy, music and film who were experimenting with the historical notion of the manifesto; the Poetry Marathon in 2009 featured unique performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars and musicians and more recently the multi-dimensional Map Marathon in 2010 that featured non-stop live presentations by over 50 artists, poets, writers, philosophers, scholars, musicians, architects, designers and scientists. The Khoj Marathon is the first Marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist to be held in the subcontinent. A unique public event, the Khoj Marathon hopes to provide a critical understanding of art practice, its varied contexts and its value – other than in monetary terms. By inviting artists and intellectuals from the pure and social sciences, political commentators and activists, to be interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist it hopes to provide a spirited interrogation into the world of ideas and thought that also influence artistic practice in India.
Hans Ulrich Obrists’ interview project is cast from a very unusual, individual mold. It is neither journalistic nor a scholarly enterprise, but it rather follows an encyclopedic philosophical model, based on a very emphatically understood concept of the conversation as a fruitful/successful exchange of ideas and exemplified in the form of the interview. 1 As Sigmar Polke has said “An interview is good when it has its own internal logic, when it becomes an art form”. Obrist is a passionate conversationalist, mainly because of his personal desire to find out more about a given subject or a certain position, often inspired by an essay, a book or an artwork. His interviews have assumed an art form.2 The Marathon is being organized by KHOJ International Artists’ Association, an autonomous, registered society based in New Delhi. KHOJ has built an international reputation for outstanding alternative arts incubation and plays a central role in the development of art practices which are critical and experimental, challenging established thinking about art.
1 “Infinite Coversation” Or the Interview as an Art Form” Michael Diersin Hans Ulrich Obrist Interviews Volume 1; Editzioni Charta, 2003, Milan 2 Ibid
Khoj has invited Obrist to hold the Marathon in New Delhi as a collateral event of the India Art Summit when artists, curators, art critics, collectors and a general public tend to congregate from across the country, the subcontinent and the rest of the world. The Marathon is being held in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Austria which was founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg. It represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family’s dedication to the arts and is committed to supporting the production of contemporary art and actively engaged in commissioning and disseminating unconventional projects that defy traditional disciplinary categorizations. It is being supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council in India, The British Council, CoCCA-Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Arts, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay Sapphire and Arts Collaboratory, The Netherlands. The interviews of The KHOJ Marathon will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA).
Hans Ulrich Obrist © Marco Anelli 2009
HANS ULRICH OBRIST
Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He became Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery in April 2006, joining Julia Peyton-Jones, the Serpentine Gallery Director. Prior to this, he was Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as Curator of museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993 to 2000. Obrist has curated and cocurated over 200 solo and group exhibitions and biennales internationally since 1991, including: World Soup, 1991; do it, 1994; Take Me, I’m Yours, 1995; Manifesta 1, 1996; Laboratorium, 1999; Cities on the Move, 1997; Live/Life, 1996; Nuit Blanche, 1998; 1st Berlin Biennale, 1998; Utopia Station, 2003; 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, 2005; Dakar Biennale, 2004; 1st & 2nd Moscow Biennale, 2005 and 2007; Lyon Biennale, 2007; and Yokohama Triennale, 2008. In 2007, Hans Ulrich co-curated Il Tempo del Postino with Philippe Parreno for the Manchester International Festival, also presented at Art Basel, 2009, organised by Fondation Beyeler and Theater Basel. In the same year, the Van Alen Institute awarded him the New York Prize Senior Fellowship for 2007-2008. In 2008 he curated Everstill at the Lorca House in Granada. The Marathon series of public events was conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Stuttgart in 2005. The first in the Serpentine series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews
with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007, which included 50 experiments by speakers across both arts and science, the Manifesto Marathon in 2008 and the Poetry Marathon in 2009. In 2009 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Recent publications include A Brief History of Curating, JPP Ringier; Gerhard Richter Text, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König/Thames & Hudson, The Pen is the Sister of the Brush, Maria Lassnig, Steidl; Gerhard Richter Obrist, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König; Ai Wei Wei, Ways Beyond Art, Ivory Press; Susan Hefuna Pars Pro Toto II, Kehrer; Hans-Peter Feldmann, Interview, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König; The Conversation Series, volumes 1-20, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König: Robert Crumb, John Chamberlain, Konrad Klapheck/Hans Peter Feldmann, Rem Koolhaas, Rosemarie Trockel, Wolfgang Tillmans, Yona Friedman, Zaha Hadid, Gilbert and George, Thomas Demand, Nancy Spero, Dominique GonzalezFoerster, Olafur Eliasson, Philippe Parreno, Enzo Mari, Gustav Metzger, Yoko Ono, John Baldassari, Christian Boltanski and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Obrist is contributing editor of Abitare Magazine, Artforum, Paradis Magazine and 032c Magazine.
SPEAKERS
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 and Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany and is also the recipient of the 1st Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art, Norway.
ANITA DUBE Anita Dube is an art historian and critic turned artist. She works with a conceptual language that valorizes the sculptural fragment as a bearer of personal and social memory, history, mythology, and phenomenological experience. Employing a variety of material drawn from the realms of the industrial (foam, plastic, wire), craft (thread, beads, velvet), the body (dentures, bone), and the readymade (ceramic eyes); Dube investigates a very human concern with both personal and societal loss and regeneration. Marked by her early engagement with the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association, a self-styled political grouping of artists in the late 80’s; she has since attempted to work with both an ‘erotics’ and a ‘politics’ that investigates the resistance of individuals and women, against the overarching idea of ‘power’.
BHARTI KHER Bharti Kher’s radically heterogeneous work encompasses painting, sculpture and installation. Sculptures she has made since the mid-2000s combine animal with human body parts to create hybrid female figures that confront the viewer with a compelling mixture of sexuality and monstrosity. Kher’s bindi ‘paintings’ are abstract and aesthetic, turning mass-produced consumerist items into artworks of sumptuous beauty. Bindis in Kher’s work operate as a language that the artist has invented to articulate and animate her themes. Overarching themes in Kher’s works are the notion of the self as a multiple and culture’s openness to misinterpretation. She exploits the drama inherent in objects, tapping into mythologies and diverse associations a thing can bring. Recent shows include inevitable undeniable necessary, Hauser & Wirth, London (2010) and Virus, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2008).
BIJOY JAIN Bijoy Jain was born in Mumbai, India in 1965. He studied in the United States and gained his master’s degree in architecture at Washington University in St. Louis in 1990. He worked in Los Angeles and London and then spent some time traveling before returning to live and work in Mumbai. Studio Mumbai was formed under his direction. The studio’s pursuit is to use the Indian landscape as a resource; to create spaces formed by local climatic conditions, materials and technologies and an ingenuity arising from limited resources. In the patient evolution of projects the practice has developed a hybrid approach by combining Indian notions about the nature of living with ideas of both contemporary culture and ecology.
DAYANITA SINGH Dayanita Singh, born in New Delhi in 1961. A photo artist her passion is making books. She is the author of Zakir Hussain Himalayan books 1986, Myself Mona Ahmed Scalo 2001, Privacy Steidl 2003. Chairs Steidl 2005, Go Away Closer Steidl 2007, Sent a Letter Steidl 2008, Blue book Steidl 2009, Dream Villa Steidl2010 . Mapfre foundation and Penguin India co published a retrospective book of her works in 2010. Her most recent publication- House of Love Radius books and Peabody press is a book of 11 short stories.
DILIP SIMEON Dilip Simeon studied in Delhi in the late 1960’s; and participated in the first phase of the Naxalite movement. He taught history at Ramjas College from 1974 till 1994. In 1982, he was severely assaulted after a hunger-strike to restore the salary of a college gardener. In 1988 he was elected to the Academic Council. From 1984 onward, he participated in the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan. He has been a visiting scholar in Surat, Sussex, Chicago, Leiden and Princeton. From 1998 till 2003 he worked on a conflict-mitigation project with Oxfam; and is now chairperson of the Aman Trust, which works to reduce violent conflict. His thesis, ‘The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism’, was published in 1995; and his first novel, ‘Revolution Highway’ in September, 2010.
GEETA KAPUR Geeta Kapur is a Delhi-based critic and curator. Her books include Contemporary Indian Artists (1978); When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India (2000); Ends and Means: critical inscriptions in contemporary art (forthcoming). Her curatorial work includes the co-curated, ‘Bombay/ Mumbai’ for ‘Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis’ at Tate Modern (2001); and ‘subTerrain’ at House of World Cultures, Berlin (2003). A founder-editor of Journal of Arts & Ideas, she is advisory editor to Third Text and Marg. She was Jury Member for the Biennales at Venice (2005), Dakar (2006), Sharjah (2007) and Member of the Asian Art Council, Guggenheim. She has lectured worldwide, and held Visiting Fellowships at Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
GULAMMOHAMMED SHEIKH Gulammohammed Sheikh (b. 1937) is an artist, writer and educationist. His art has pioneered an engagement with historical forbears and a socio-political investment in art practice. Sheikh has shown widely since 1961 and among his solo exhibitions was a retrospective of work from 1968-1985, Returning Home at Centre Gorges Pompidou, Paris (1985). In his tenure as teacher of Art History (1960–63 and 1967–81) and Professor of Painting (1982–1993) at his alma mater the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara and through curated exhibitions, visitorships and publications he has contributed to a renewed understanding of cross-cultural themes in artistic pedagogy in an Indian and international context. He was founder member of Group 1890. Sheikh has been honoured by the Indian state with a Padmashri (1983) and Kalidas Samman (2002).
HOMAI VYARAWALLA Homai Vyarawalla was India’s first woman Press photographer who photographed the last days of the British in India and the birth of a new nation. As a pioneering woman in her time, Vyarawalla captured moments that would later become iconic images of Indian history from 1937 till 1970. She had the unique opportunity, of catching on camera great personalities including Lord Mountbatten, Marshall Tito, Queen Elizabeth, Jacqueline Kennedy, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Eisenhower, Nixon, Atlee, Nasser, Chou En Lai and others who shaped the contours of 20th century history. Her span of work ranged from recording the end of World War II in India to the years leading up to independence and subsequently the hectic days of Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.
JITISH KALLAT Jitish Kallat’s work, incorporating varied media including painting, sculptural installations, photography and video, derives much of its thematic and visual vocabulary from his immediate urban environment. Besides numerous participations in exhibitions at museums, public institutions, biennials and triennials, he has had solo shows with leading galleries such as Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai), Arndt (Berlin), Haunch of Venison (London), Nature Morte (Delhi) and Arario (Beijing/ Seoul) amongst others. His solo exhibition titled ‘Public Notice 3’ is currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago and his solo show at Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai will open in March 2011. Kallat also writes frequently on the subject of contemporary art.
KAUSHIK BASU Kaushik Basu, a Padma Bhushan awardee, is Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Previously Professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics he is currently on leave from Cornell University where he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies. He is President of the Human Development and Capabilities Association, founded by Amartya Sen, member of the Board of Directors of the Exim Bank of India and has held advisory posts with the ILO, the World Bank, and the Reserve Bank of India. Basu has held visiting positions at a number of educational institutions including the London School of Economics and Princeton University. Basu has published widely in the areas of Development Economics, Industrial Organization, Game Theory and Welfare Economics. His books include Analytical Development Economics (1997, MIT Press) and Prelude to Political Economy: A Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics (2000, Oxford University Press).
KIRAN SUBBAIAH Kiran Subbaiah was formally trained as a sculptor but uses other media including text, audio, video, electronics and informatics. A common tendency in his practice is to exploit the form and function of material/ media, addressing the relationship between their aesthetic and use-value to form analogies for contradictions inherent in everyday life. His objects aspire to emancipate themselves from their original use potential. With simple binaries: functional/defunct, action/reaction and cause/effect Subbaiah teases out his ideas and observations. Often everyday objects are manipulated into paradoxes. Under the disguise of street-signs and official notices his public-space ‘insertions’ carry self-subversive authoritarian messages like “Prohibitions Strictly Forbidden”. In his recent videos, the artist performs in fictitious autobiographical plots - as though to deliver his given self to the aspired.
LAWRENCE LIANG Lawrence Liang is a lawyer and founder of the Alternative Law Forum. He works on the intersection of law and cultural politics. His work on Intellectual Property looks at how the digital turn has accelerated conflicts over questions of authorship, ownership and circulation in the cultural domain. His interest in free software and media piracy led him to looking at how these practices define contemporary culture. Liang has been involved in a number of anti censorship cases and campaigns. He has also written on the hidden aesthetics of law and justice. Currently finishing a book on Law, Justice and Cinema in India, Liang has also shown as an artist in Manifesta, and in collaboration with CAMP and OXDB is one of the initiators of PAD.MA (Public Access Digital Media Archive)
NIVEDITA MENON Nivedita Menon, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi is the author of an edited volume Gender and Politics in India (1999) and Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law(2004). Her more recent books are an edited volume Sexualities (2007) and Power and Contestation: India after 1989 (2007, co-written with Aditya Nigam). She is an active commentator on contemporary issues in newspapers and on the blog kafila.org. Nivedita has translated fiction and non-fiction from Hindi and Malayalam into English, and received the AK Ramanujan Award for translation instituted by Katha. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Khali Jagah is forthcoming from Harper Collins. She has been active with non-funded, non-party citizens’ forums in Delhi on issues of secularism, workers’ and women’s rights, sexuality, and in opposition to the nuclear bomb.
RANJIT HOSKOTE Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, cultural theorist and curator. He is the author of 19 books. These include the poetry collections Vanishing Acts: New & Selected Poems 1985-2005 (Penguin, 2006) and Die Ankunft der Vögel (Carl Hanser Verlag, 2006), as well as nine artist monographs, the most recent being Zinny & Maidagan: Compartment/ Das Abteil (Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/ Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010). Hoskote’s essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, including, most recently, ‘Biennials of Resistance’, in Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal and Solveig Øvstebo eds., The Biennial Reader (Hatje Cantz, 2010). Hoskote and Hyunjin Kim co-curated, with Artistic Director Okwui Enwezor, the 7th Gwangju Biennial (Korea, 2008). Hoskote is curator for India’s first-ever national pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).
RITU SARIN & TENZING SONAM Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam formed White Crane Films in 1990. Focusing primarily on Tibet-related subjects, its productions include the documentaries, The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche (1991), The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet (1998), The Sun Behind the Clouds (2009), and the dramatic feature, Dreaming Lhasa (2005). They were commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary to make the single-channel video installation, Some Questions on the Nature of Your Existence (2007). The video was included in “The Kaleidoscopic Eye: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection,” exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2009), and the Busan Biennale 2010. Through their films, they have attempted to document, question and reflect on the issues of exile, identity, culture and politics. They are currently exploring various new media options, including video installations and architecture/archive related projects.
SADANAND MENON Sadanand Menon is a nationally reputed arts editor, popular teacher of cultural journalism, widely published photographer, arts curator and prolific writer and speaker at seminars on politics, ecology and the arts. He is currently Adjunct Faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, where he conducts courses on ‘Arts & Culture Journalism’ and ‘Photojournalism’. He is member, Apex Advisory Committee, the National Museum, Delhi; member, Executive Council, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi and Managing Trustee, SPACES, An Arts Foundation, Chennai. A long-time collaborator with Chandralekha, he is deeply involved with issues connected with the creation of a contemporary Indian dance. In 1998, he curated the Retrospective Exhibition of Fifty Years of Dashrath Patel’s work in painting, ceramics, photography and design for NGMA, Delhi and Mumbai.
SHEBA CHHACHHI Sheba Chhachhi works with lens based images, both still and moving, investigating questions of gender, ecology, violence and visual culture. Her works address the question of transformation, personal and collective memory, retrieving the marginal, and the play between the mythic and social. A long time chronicler of the women’s movement in India, as both photographer and activist, she began developing collaborative, staged photographic portraits with her subjects in the early 90’s, moving on to photo based installations. Chhachhi places the photographic image in space with video, sound, light, objects, text. She has developed a new artistic language , that of the moving image light box, which uses a series of still and moving layers of photographic images to almost cinematic effect. Public art interventions are an important part of Chhachhi’s practice, in Delhi and elsewhere.
SHEELA GOWDA Sheela Gowda, a leading artistic figure, is known for creating large-scale sculptural installations which take everyday materials as the starting point and for works that combine abstract forms with references to society. Having trained as a painter, Gowda diversified her practice in the early 1990s moving into sculpture and installation. She has formed a visual language which responds to the complexity of the contemporary world. Gowda’s use of material includes both an investigation into its physical qualities, as well as its source. Collateral (2007) was made by rolling, arranging and burning incense on mesh frames producing a sculpture of ash. Kagebangara (2007) uses tar drums sourced from road workers and plastic tarpaulins.
SHILPA GUPTA Shilpa Gupta is an interdisciplinary artist who uses interactive video, photography and performance to query and examine themes of consumer culture, desire, security, militarism and human rights. Much of Gupta’s work relies on audience participation with the viewer challenged to respond, to extend or complete the work’s meaning. Gupta blurs the boundary between art and the culture of everyday life, prompting questions about how we think and who we are. Shilpa’s work has been shown in leading international institutions and museums such as the Tate Modern and Serpentine Gallery in London, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Torino, Mori Museum in Tokyo, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Museum and Queens Museum in New York, and Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon.
SUBODH GUPTA Subodh Gupta initially trained as a painter. His work encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, photography, performance and video. Gupta is best known for incorporating everyday objects that are ubiquitous throughout India, such as the steel tiffin boxes used by millions to carry their lunch as well as thalis, bicycles, and milk pails. From such ordinary items the artist produces sculptures that reflect on the economic transformation of his homeland and which relate to Gupta’s own life and memories. Gupta transforms the icons of Indian everyday life into artworks that are readable globally. In 2010 Gupta designed the stage set for the ballet CREATION 2010 by Angelin Preljocaj, the French choreographer - a ballet produced by the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, and the Ballet Preljocaj.
SUDARSHAN SHETTY Sudarshan Shetty’s artistic oeuvre encompasses the medium of sculpture and installation. Though formally trained as a painter, Shetty combines these forms in object-assemblages. Shetty takes objects apart without dismantling them, decoding them by revealing their mechanical being. He experiments with found objects in a variety of media with the idea of creating an emotionally charged experience. This incongruous association of objects bearing different meanings is intended to form new meaning and create an abstract space where his enduring fascination with the dark underbelly of the object-human relation, the duality of free will and the inertness of things are visually exploded. Among Shetty’s most recent shows are this too shall pass, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai and The more I die the lighter I get, Tilton Gallery, New York, both in 2010.
SUNDAR SARUKKAI Sundar Sarukkai, trained in physics and philosophy, has a PhD from Purdue University, USA. He has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, Fellow of IIAS, Shimla and PHISPC Associate Fellow. He was at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore from 1994-2009. Presently, he is the Director of the Manipal Centre for Philosophy & Humanities, Manipal University. He is the author of the following books: Translating the World: Science and Language, Philosophy of Symmetry and Indian Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. His book What is Science? will soon be published by the National Book Trust. Among his other professional activities, Sarukkai is a member of the Council, Indian Council for Philosophical Research and is an Editorial Board Member, Leonardo Book Series, MIT Press, USA.
THE RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE The Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. Raqs follows its self-declared imperative of ‘kinetic contemplation’ to produce a artistic trajectory that is restless in terms of the forms and methods that it deploys even as it achieves a consistency of speculative procedures. They enjoy playing a plurality of roles, often appearing as artists, occasionally as curators, sometimes as philosophical agent provocateurs. They have produced art works, curated exhibitions, edited books, staged events and collaborated with architects, computer programmers, writers and theatre directors. In 2001 Raqs co-founded, with Ravi Vasudevan and Ravi Sundaram, the Sarai Programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi. Raqs were co-curators of Manifesta 7, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art (2008).
VANDANA SHIVA Vandana Shiva is a physicist, philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist and celebrated author. The titles of her books reflect her values and practice. She trained as a physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory”. She has fought for changes in the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food. She plays a major role in the global Eco-feminist movement and has suggested that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved through reinstating a system of farming in India that is centered on women. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds. Among numerous accolades, Shiva is the recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize (2010). She is the author of Staying Alive and many other books.
VIVAN SUNDARAM Vivan Sundaram b.1943 is an artist, curator and editor. Sundaram works in many different media, including painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video art, which deal with the personal, autobiographical, social and political. His works in the 1980s showed a tendency towards figurative representations, and dealt with problems of identity. His works engage with questions of memory and history. The digital works create new narratives from old family album photographs and quiz how we perceive fabricated landscapes. His latest installations and videos often refer to his artistic influences among them are Dadaism, as well as more recent Fluxus and Arte Povera.
ADVISORY BOARD
Amar Kanwar Anita Dube Raqs Media Collective Shanay Jhaveri
The KHOJ Marathon is presented by KHOJ International Artists‘ Association in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary - T-B A21, Austria. This project is being supported by The British Council, Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, CoCCA (Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Arts), Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Arts Collaboratory and Bombay Sapphire. It is a collateral event of the India Art Summit. All interviews will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA).
CO CURATED BY: KHOJ INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS’ ASSOCIATION KHOJ International Artists’ Association is an autonomous, registered society based in New Delhi. It has built an international reputation for outstanding alternative arts incubation and plays a central role in the development of art practices in India which are analytical, critical and experimental and which challenge established thinking about art. Over the past 13 years, through its various international workshops, residencies and other projects, KHOJ has developed a vibrant network of artists not only in Europe and America but across the global south as well. It has actively sought to build partnerships in South Asia and has developed the first ever South Asian Network for the Arts in the region, whilst simultaneously working with artists in politically marginalized places such as Kashmir and the North East within India. www.khojworkshop.org
IN COLLABORATION WITH: THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA ART CONTEMPORARY Founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family’s dedication to the arts. Committed to supporting the production of contemporary art and actively engaged in commissioning and disseminating unconventional projects that defy traditional disciplinary categorizations, T-B A21 sustains a far-reaching regional and international orientation and explores modes or presentation that are intended to broaden the way viewers perceive and experience art. www.tba21.org
SUPPORTED BY: THE BRITISH COUNCIL The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are a registered charity; 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland). We build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. www.britishcouncil.org.in
PRO HELVETIA - SWISS ARTS COUNCIL Pro Helvetia, New Delhi initiates, supports and presents projects that reflect the multicultural character of Switzerland and India. The liaison office in New Delhi aims to coordinate Pro Helvetia’s activities by supporting artistic and cultural collaboration between India and Switzerland, and also promoting Swiss ideas and arts practice among Indian audiences. www.prohelvetia.in
CoCCA (COIMBATORE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS) CoCCA will be a centre for continuing fine arts education, both practical and theoretical. The Centre will serve as a space in which students are given an opportunity to explore, question, experiment and innovate. It will strive to provide an integrated art education experience that is interdisciplinary in spirit. CoCCA’s major contribution to the contemporary Indian art world is to offer artists an educational experience that assists in the development of their thinking about art making, art pedagogy and the social functions of art. These will be learned along with other disciplines such as film theory, anthropology, ethnography, art history, sociology, media theory, economics, ecology, political science among others, so as to introduce intellectual diversity and rigour to creativity, conceptualization and practice.
GOETHE-INSTITUT/MAX MUELLER BHAVAN The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany which is also known as Max Mueller Bhavan all over India, in honour of the renowned Indologist who was cofounder of modern Indian studies and a scholar of comparative religion. The institute organises and promotes a wide spectrum of events in Indian cities with the aim of presenting German culture, particularly its contemporary aspects. It’s programmes and projects are developed in close cooperation with Indian partner institutions, public and private cultural bodies, the German federal states and municipalities, and the corporate sector. www.goethe.de/newdelhi
ARTS COLLABORATORY Arts Collaboratory is a programme for the support of visual artist-led initiatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and for exchange between these and visual arts organisations in the Netherlands. It provides financial support, facilitates knowledge sharing, and promotes networking and artistic exchange. http://www.artscollaboratory.org/
BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Based on a Sapphire is balancing a ingredients
secret recipe from 1761, Bombay a unique gin created by perfectly combination of the finest botanical sourced from around the world.
Bombay Sapphire has been actively supporting inspirational design worldwide for nearly 20 years, through the highly acclaimed annual designer glass design competition and the Bombay Sapphire Foundation that recognizes, encourages and rewards the very best in contemporary design. www.bombaysapphire.com
COLLATERAL EVENT OF: INDIA ART SUMMIT-India’s Contemporary Art Fair
Modern
and
India Art Summit provides an unparalleled opportunity for collectors and art enthusiasts to view the largest and most diverse showcase of modern and contemporary art in India. The 3rd edition of India Art Summit presents 84 exhibiting galleries from 20 countries. Alongside the art fair there will be a sculpture park, video lounge, curated art projects, live performances, an elaborate speaker’s forum, an art store and a range of exciting collateral events around the city of Delhi. www.indiaartsummit.com
THE KHOJ MARATHON TEAM
Pooja Sood, Director Shweta Wahi Gayatri Uppal Asmita Rangari Charu Maithani Saranjit Singh VP Manoj
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
THE KHOJ MARATHON TEAM
Shweta Wahi Akshay Tankha Rohini Devasher Anubhav Sengupta Tanvi Sirari Anasua Chatterjee Sushmita Pati Priyani Roy Choudhury Deeksha Nath Eesha Phanse Saikat Ghosh Vidushie Shriya Nishat Nizar Asha Achuthan Pratap Pandey
SPECIAL THANKS Emma Ridgway
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Vivek Sahni Design
SITE DESIGN
Sumant Jayakrishnan
S-17, Khirkee Ext. New Delhi - 110017 T +91 11 2954 5274 E interact@khojworkshop.org W www.khojworkshop.org
KHOJ STUDIOS