Pata curated by Poulomi Paul

Body is one of the most controversial topics in relation to cultural differences, gender issues, social and political conflicts and etc.

As Foucault insists on the historical specificity of the body, this has changed the ways of seeing the body as a social and historical product instead of seeing the body as an existential phenomenon.

In this exhibition the main focus is on different perspectives of seeing body in Iranian contemporary art. The exhibition tries to showcase some different aspects referring to the body, not only as a physical subject but also as a narrative and conceptual notion. There are stories around these bodies and by showing different works, the exhibition tries to consider socio political environment that shape those stories and eventually the bodies.

Shirin Fathi, Ebrahim Noroozi, Sara Rajaei, Laurence Rasti, Behnam Sadighi

There Are No Homosexuals in Iran , 2014-2016 Laurence Rasti,

series, 2014 : Behnam Sadighi, ‘Ghazaleh’ from The Reminder

: Shirin Fathi, Ghost Lovers, 2013

Alisha Sett is a writer, curator and educator. She grew up in Bombay where she teaches art history and is Course Director for Aesthetics, Criticism and Theory at Jnanapravaha Mumbai. She lives in Panjim and spends part of the year in South Carolina working as a producer with RoundO Films. In 2014, Sett co-founded the Kashmir Photo Collective. She received her MA History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art as an Inlaks scholar in 2018. Ashima Tshering is a New Delhi based designer and specializes is museum spaces. She graduated from the National Institute of Design with a degree in Exhibition Design and was a core team member of the first edition of the Kathmandu Triennale. She has also interned at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and since then has been working as a museum designer. Ayushma Regmi is a Kathmandu based writer and educator who works at the intersection of gender, ecology, education and the arts. Diwas Raja Kc is a writer, researcher and curator based in Kathmandu. He is the Head of Research and Archives at Nepal Picture Library. His curatorial exhibitions include Dalit: A Quest for Dignity (2016), The Public Life of Women: A Feminist Memory Project (2018) and the forthcoming All That Is Liquid: Indigeneity in the Anthropocene. Kc also works as a documentary film editor and has worked with several renowned artists and visual anthropologists. Maryam Bagheri holds a BA in English Literature and has diverse experience in documentary filmmaking, researching, film archiving and journalism. At the moment, she works as art residency manager for Kooshk Residency in Tehran and also as MENASA cluster coordinator for Res Artis, worldwide network of arts residencies. Mila Samdub is a writer and curator based in New Delhi. Mila studied creative writing at Bard College in upstate New York. He worked as a curator and programmes manager at Khoj International Artists‘ Association in Delhi. He works on modernist architecture and contemporary digitality. The future is his abiding research interest. Poulomi Paul graduated with a Masters in English Literature in 2018. Since then, she has spent time as a student of painting in Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, and as a teacher of English in the University of Delhi. Her primary interests lie in literature, the visual arts, and their points of intersection. This exhibition, as a part of the CISA fellowship, marks her first stint as a curator. Pranamita Borgohain is an independent art curator and writer based in Delhi. She did her Masters from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2007. She has served as the Deputy Curator at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and as an Art Consultant at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. She has also served as an Assistant Professor (Visiting), College of Art, University of Delhi. She was one of the curators for the Students’ Biennale – Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014. She is the founder of Shield Art Initiative that works for alternative art practices Rumi Samadhan is a Mumbai based artist-sculptor- researcher, interrogating the subject of Dalit visual art practitioners. She extends her research practice into a curatorial form, as a research based exhibition format. She completed her PG in Modern and Contemporary Indian art and curatorial studies from Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. Her two solo-shows ‘Invisible-Connections’ and ‘Sediment’ reflected queries of anthropocene, relating earth-human-culture accord. Rumi is currently working on a collaborative project, Little Blue Zine, which resonates the Little Magazine movement of the 60’s Maharashtra, in its current form. Sadia Marium is an independent photographer based in Dhaka. Her practice pollinates with the process of creating photographs, video and alternative printing methods. Ordinary characters, unremarkable memories, space & objects are the protagonists of her works to trace the overlap of reality and fiction, private & public. Sadia studied Professional Photography at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh and currently teaching at the same institute. She also works as a Programme Coordinator in Bengal Arts Programme. Sarker Protick is a visual artist from Bangladesh, lecturer at Pathshala-South Asian Media Institute and curator at Chobi Mela International Festival of Photography. Protick makes work that explores the materiality of time and disappearance. His portraits, landscapes and photographic series engage philosophically with the specificities of personal and national histories. Incorporating detail observations and subtle gestures the works enter into personal spaces, often minimal and atmospheric. Kirubalini Stephan received her BA in Art History from Jaffna University in 2013 and is currently working as a Lecturer in the same department. Previously, she was a visiting instructor in this department and worked in some Projects. Zohreh Deldadeh is a freelance art researcher and curator based in Tehran. She graduated with a BA in Graphic Design and obtained her MA in Art Research in Tehran. Zohreh has been working as a project manager, art coordinator and curator with galleries, art institutions and foundations in Iran and abroad.

Thank you to our CISA mentors Dr Leonhard Emmerling and Latika Gupta. And to all the invited tutors who shared with us their knowledge and experience: Tapati Guha Thakurta, Vidya Shivadas, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Anita Dube, Jyotindra Jain, Naman P. Ahuja, Gayatri Sinha, Pooja Sood, Urvashi Butalia, Sneha Raghavan, Ranjit Hoskote, Shai Heredia, Dayanita Singh, Ravi Agarwal, Radha Mahendru and Abhay Sardesai.