Khoj Khabar (Volume 6)

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Khoj aims to connect creative practitioners and catalyse interdisciplinary collaborations and experimentation to create new possibilities of art and art-making. It also seeks to build networks and informed audiences who engage critically with contemporary art in India. In its uncompromising commitment to support creative thinking by building an institutional infrastructure in India for making, exhibiting and researching contemporary art, Khoj is creating a unique legacy for the future.

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THE SECOND HALF OF 2017 HAS BEEN A PERIOD OF GROUNDBREAKING PROJECTS AND BLOCKBUSTER ENGAGEMENTS. KHOJ TURNED 20 IN THIS PAST YEAR, AND OUR PROGRAMMES MARKED THE CULMINATION OF LONGSTANDING COMMITMENTS AS WELL AS WORK THAT INCREASINGLY ADDRESSES THE URGENCIES OF OUR TIMES. IN THE TWO BIGGEST EVENTS OF OUR YEAR, KHIRKEE FESTIVAL AND ASIA ASSEMBLE, WE RENEWED OUR COMMITMENT TO STRENGTHENING REGIONAL AND LOCAL SOLIDARITIES THROUGH A VIBRANT ART SCENE. Khoj has always been committed to emerging practices and knowledge production. This year we convened fresh spaces for dialogue to generate new regional thinking. June saw the inaugural edition of Curatorial Intensive South Asia, which brought young curators from around the region to Delhi for a period of training, discussion and practice.

As part of a push to make meaningful forays into discourse, we have been making ambitious changes to our programming. Our Art and Science programme has expanded into a six-month grant culminating in a one-month residency. And in the third edition of the Coriolis Effect residency our exploration of the links between India and Africa shifted to the broader Indian Ocean world, with anthropologists and curators joining visual artists for a residency with a strong research focus.

In November, Asia Assemble posed some of the questions we have been asking ourselves to the continent at large, questions about what it means to practice as an artist, a curator or an academic in the region at the current moment. Growing out of Khoj’s ongoing project with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, the gathering was a culmination of Khoj’s interest in and admiration for the work being done by artists, curators, institutions and creative communities in politically fraught times. It brought together these various stakeholders from around Asia for three days in Delhi to share challenges, explore connections and exchange ideas.

Among many pressing realisations, the assemble reiterated one of Khoj’s enduring beliefs: that any meaningful approach to the regional must be grounded in the local. Our own activities in our immediate context, the urban village of Khirkee, have never been stronger. The new Canteen at Khoj Studios, which we opened in July, has grown into a central node in the neighbourhood, a part of Khoj but distinct, with its own calendar of events, including book readings, poetry recitals, workshops and more.

Crucially, we’ve been glad to see Khoj’s community programmes, a full-time commitment for the past two years, come into their own. A sure sign of the maturity of these programmes is how they are cross-pollinating and collaborating in new and exciting ways. The Khirkee Ensemble, our neighbourhood band with representation from many of Khirkee’s communities, put out calls for auditions in the Khirkee Voice newspaper, gained new members through the Khirkee Recording Studio and was mentored and joined by members of Aagaaz Theatre Trust.

Khirkee Ensemble’s first public performance was also the moment when Khoj opened out into the community like never before: the Khirkee Festival. In addition to our community projects, the festival showcased the works produced during the four-week Khirkee Residency.

For many residents of Khirkee who may have curiously walked past our building, the festival was the first time they entered our space and

engaged with us and, perhaps most importantly, each other. The festive atmosphere also spilled out of Khoj, with performances and events at other spaces and organizations around the village. In the four days of the festival, we saw the Khoj’s emerging importance as an arts-based interface for the diverse and often fraught communities that live here.

A collaborative outlook across regions has always been a part of Khoj’s identity. We have continued our residency partnership with the Africa Centre and started partnerships with University of the Arts London and Australia Council for the Arts, creating new vectors for exchange for international artists. And we have had a steady stream of visitors and wellwishers, including artists Theaster Gates and Sue Williamson, teams from the New Museum in New York, the Beirut Art Centre, Artes Mundi, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre and more. Meanwhile, Khoj’s team travelled to Taiwan, Croatia, Lebanon, and around the country to share our work.

2017 marked the conclusion of a six-year grant from the Norwegian Embassy, whom we thank for their generous support and for being a part of our journey. The year ended on a high note, with Khoj winning the India Today Art Award for Best Artistic Collaboration for Landscape as Evidence: Artist as Witness in December. And as we move into a new phase in Khoj’s history, we are very excited to welcome Czaee Shah to our board.

Our next chapter opens in 2018 with 20/20: Turn of the Tide, a survey exhibition coinciding with India Art Fair, whom we are delighted to collaborate with. The show brings together artists we’ve had the opportunity to work with at various stages of their careers, joined by new friends who believe in and support the work that we do. It is moments such as these that consolidate the distinct space Khoj has created for itself. To the next 20!

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JULY 2017 CURATORIAL INTENSIVE SOUTH ASIA Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA) is a new fellowship for young curators from South Asia, whichs aims to develop a diversity of perspectives on the medium of the exhibition and to provide both a structured and an experimental inquiry into the possibilities of curatorial practice today. CISA was organized in collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan.

The first phase of the fellowship was a two-week intensive programme at Khoj Studios from July 1st – 15th 2017. In the second phase the fellows will have the opportunity to independently develop curatorial projects, with mentorship from their tutors, culminating in an exhibition in New Delhi in Spring 2018.

The participants of CISA during a session

Participants: Akanksha Maglani, Imaad Majeed, Karan Talwar, Kritika Mudgal, Liz Fernando, Malini Kochupillai, Premjish Achari, Shaunak Mahbubani, Vidisha Saini, Zeenat Nagree and Zihan Karim

THE NEW CANTEEN AT KHOJ STUDIOS OPENS Khoj’s canteen is now an in-house endeavour. The Khoj team redesigned the space from the ground up, with new interiors, a new identity and a seasonally changing menu of food and drinks. The Canteen has its own programme of events, including book readings, poetry recitals, cooking workshops and more.

The new Canteen at Khoj Studios

The programme was led by Dr. Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer (Professor, Institute of Theory, HGB Leipzig) and Dr. Kavita Singh (Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU).

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AUGUST 2017 AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS RESIDENCY PARTNERSHIP As part of Khoj’s new partnership with Australia Council for the Arts, artist David Brazier had a residency at Khoj. This was Brazier’s second residency at Khoj, and he spent his time investigating and activating the neighbourhood of Khirkee. As part of the residency he organized a Khirkee edition of the Strongest Man armwrestling competition, which he had previously organized in different locations around the world.

Artist: David Brazier

Top to bottom: the armwrestling table on display during the open day; David Brazier with the winner of the Khirkee’s Strongest Man armwrestling competition

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UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON ART FOR THE ENVIRONMENT RESIDENCY PARTNERSHIP University of the Arts London and Khoj inaugurated a new residency partnership as part of UAL’s Art for the Environment Residency Programme. The programme offers UAL students and recent graduates a residency at Khoj Studios to explore biodiversity, environmental sustainability, social economy, human rights and through their artistic practice, envision a world of tomorrow. Artist and designer Vanessa Lovell was selected for a residency at Khoj, where she worked with local textile artisans.

Artist: Vanessa Lovell

Vanessa Lovell’s textile-based work at the open day

LAUNCH OF KHIRKEE VOICE ED 4 The fourth edition of Khirkee Voice, the bilingual neighbourhood newspaper supported by Khoj and edited by Malini Kochupillai and Mahavir Singh Bisht, examined the neighborhood as a micro-economy, a tiny microcosm of the immensely complex and diverse economic realities of our country. Through comics, photo essays and reportage it looked at how this tiny, thriving and interconnected conglomeration of small and medium enterprises is also environmentally and economically sustainable.

Artists: Malini Kochupillai Mahavir Singh Bisht

and

Readers enjoy the fourth edition of Khirkee Voice

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SEPTEMBER 2017 CHRISTOPHER KLOEBLE: HOME MADE IN INDIA In this event organized by GoetheInstitut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Khoj, German author Christopher Kloeble read from Almost Everything Very Fast, originally published in 2012, and from his new book Home Made in India. He was in conversation with Indian author Chandrahas Choudhury (author of Arzee the Dwarf) about cultural perceptions and misunderstandings.

Participants: Christopher Kloeble, Chandrahas Choudhury

Christopher Kloeble and Chandrahas Chowdhury in conversation

WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN ART: WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THON Over 20 participants brought their laptops to Khoj Studios to create and edit Wikipedia articles on Indian women artists who either had no representation on Wikipedia or on whom very little information was available. Materials from the Khoj research library were made available to the participants, who edited and created 18 articles during the edit-athon.

The edit-a-thon was organized in collaboration with Feminism in India.

Volunteers edit Wikipedia articles

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SUMEDH RAJENDRAN: WATER WITHOUT MEMORY, A PREVIEW In collaboration with Sakshi Gallery, Khoj hosted the New Delhi preview of Sumedh Rajendran’s show Water without memory. Composed of Rajendran’s exquisitely crafted sculptures in wood and glass, the works on show dealt with familiarity and unfamiliarity, land and distance, intimacy and identity, visibility and invisibility.

Artist: Sumedh Rajendran

Works from Sumedh Rajendran’s exhibition

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OCTOBER 2017 CORIOLIS EFFECT ED 3: MEMORY, MIGRATION AND THE CURRENT MOMENT The third edition of the Coriolis Effect residency represented a progression of the concerns that shaped the ongoing Coriolis Effect project. Having focused in the first two editions on exchange between India and Africa, particularly in Khoj’s neighbourhood of Khirkee, this edition widened and re-intensified the scope of the project.

This year the residency sought to activate the social, economic and cultural relationship and historical exchange which has existed across the Indian Ocean World. As a result it was more research-oriented than in the past, with anthropologists and curators working alongside visual artists.

The residency was accompanied by a full programme of lectures, conversations, discussions and reading groups. Events included ‘Conversations across the Indian Ocean’, ‘Gandhi in Africa: A Conversation Between Dilip Simeon and Anil Nauriya’, ‘The Illegitimate Archivist: Shubigi Rao’ and ‘The Case of the Flying Baskets, or how to Investigate the City by the Sea’.

Participants: Nidhi Mahajan, Nyambura M Waruingi, Sarover Zaidi (critic-in-residence), and Shubigi Rao. This page (top to bottom): Shubigi Rao in discussion with Sarover Zaidi during a public programme; a visitor interacting with Nidhi Mahajan’s installation; Shubigi Rao’s video and photo based works Opposite page (top to bottom): a shrine from Sarover Zaidi’s work; (L to R) Sarover Zaidi, Nyambura M Waruingi and Nidhi Mahajan during the session “Conversations Across the Indian Ocean”

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KHIRKEE TALK SHOW A collaboration between two community projects supported by Khoj, Khirkee Voice and the Khirkee Storytelling Project, the Khirkee Talk Show sought to create a space for open and honest dialogue between the Khirkee locals and the Africans who might cross each other often on the street but have few opportunities to talk to each other. The first day began with Yves from the Ivory Coast welcoming curious questions ranging from his country’s spices, music and politics to frankly discussing racism against people from African countries in Delhi. The Indians from the neighbourhood in turn told him about their regional dishes, movie stars and music. Over two days, biases began to be put out in the open, questioned and discussed over the next two days.

Locals of different age groups, gender

and backgrounds began to open up in their perceptions of their African neighbors while African nationals shared their experiences of living in the city over the last few years.

BOMBAY ZINE FEST: DELHI EDITION The Bombay Zine Fest: Delhi Edition was organized by Bombay Underground and hosted by Khoj. It featured more than 200 zines from more than 75 zine makers around the world. Zines were available for browsing and for sale. In addition to showcasing the zines, an all-ages zine-making workshops took place, using zines from the zine fest as inspiration. Visitors to the zine fest had a chance to experiment with a variety of zine structures, techniques, and materials, and meet and connect with the participating zine-makers.

Some of the zines on display

A lighthearted moment during the Khirkee Talk Show

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KHOJ NOMINATES RAKHI PESWANI FOR AOMORI CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTRE RESIDENCY

WELCOMING OUR NEWEST BOARD MEMBER CZAEE SHAH

Khoj was delighted to nominate artist Rakhi Peswani for a threemonth residency at the Aomori Contemporary Arts Centre under their artist in residence programme for theme “Here and Beyond”. Peswani’s residency began in September and ended in December.

It is with great pleasure that I accept your invitation to be with all of you - an inspiring group of old and new friends on the Khoj Board. I look forward to contributing to the discourse and dynamism that the organisation has brought to the Indian cultural sphere.

As it moves into a new chapter Khoj is delighted to welcome Czaee Shah to its board in 2017.

ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION BELLAGIO CENTER RESIDENTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2018 In the second year of Khoj’s partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Mohammed Hanif (Pakistan), Mourid Barghouthi (Palestine), Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh), Sinan Antoon (Iraq), and Urvashi Butalia (India) were selected as awardees to receive a residency at the Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy, in 2018. The purpose of the collaboration is to build on the opportunities and visibility for exceptional artists and creative practitioners from across Asia. The

four-week residencies at the Bellagio Center will take place throughout 2018, affording the awardees an intensive period for working on their projects as well as interacting with fellow residents from an array of geographies and disciplines.

As part of the selection process, Khoj had invited the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Australia), Theatreworks (Singapore), KUNCI Cultural Studies Centre (Indonesia), International Prize for Arabic Fiction

(UK), Salima Hashmi (Pakistan) and YARAT (Azerbaijan) as institutional partners to nominate key artists, writers, musicians, dancers and other creative practitioners from their regions. This pool of over 50 applicants was reviewed by an international jury of Gayatri Sinha, Jane DeBevoise, and Tarek Abou el Fetouh at Khoj in April 2017, followed by a secondary review by the international jury assembled at the Rockefeller Foundation.

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NOVEMBER 2017 ASIA ASSEMBLE Asia Assemble was a three-day gathering of artists, curators, academics and arts institutions from around Asia in New Delhi. Structured as a series of conversations, screenings and artist presentations, Asia Assemble sought to understand the possibilities, modalities and urgencies of arts and cultural work around Asia in 2017.

Khoj entered this conversation from the perspective that Asia has never been purely self-delimited, but rather the product of interaction with other regions. Through conversations, Asia Assemble provided a platform to share challenges, explore connections, discuss strategies and exchange ideas to collectively speculate on new frameworks for our times. Some of the themes discussed included the political and cultural implications of the Belt and Road project, migration, censorship and borders.

Asia Assemble was supported by Sher-gil Sundaram Arts Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, GoetheInstitut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Take on Art (media partner) Participants: Aman Sethi, Amar Kanwar, Ashish Rajadhyaksha, CAMP, Cosmin Costinas, Gayatri Sinha, Geeta Kapur, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Haeju Kim, Ho Tzu Nyen, Iftikhar Dadi, Jegan Vincent de Paul, Khoj International Artists’ Association, KUNCI Cultural Studies Centre, Patrick Flores, Reem Fadda, Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam, Sabih Ahmed, Shilpa Gupta, Shubigi Rao, Yawnghwe Office in Exile, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Zoe Butt

Top to Bottom: Ho Tzu Nyen presents his project, the Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia; Audience members during the assemble

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Clockwise from top-left: critic Geeta Kapur asks a question; Patrick Flores delivers his keynote; a dinner held at Khoj during the gathering

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Mario D’Souza, Zoe Butt, Ritu Sarin, Shubigi Rao and Tenzing Sonam (L to R) in conversation during Asia Assemble

ART AND SCIENCE GRANTEES ANNOUNCED For its third edition, the Art + Science programme has been reimagined as a small number of projects that engage emerging themes around science and technology. The grant consists of a six month research and development period culminating into a four-week residency and Open Studio at Khoj Studios in Spring 2018.

Participants: Sonia Mehra Chawla, Kaushal Sapre, Tulika Aasma and Abhinav Gupta, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Goutam Ghosh and Susanne M. Winterling, Darya Warner and Puneet Kishor Art + Science is generously supported

by Wellcome Trust / DBT Alliance India.

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DECEMBER 2017 KHIRKEE RESIDENCY For the first-ever Khirkee Residency, three artists were in residence at Khoj for four weeks, making work responding to the neighbourhood of Khirkee. Their residency culminated in the Khirkee Festival, a community festival that celebrated through art the neighbourhood and the people who live in it.

Artists: Aziz Hazara, Tito AderemiIbitola, Rajyashri Goody

Top to bottom: a still from Rajyashri Goody’s video work produced during the residency; Aziz Hazara and Tito Aderemi-Ibitola’s installation.

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KHIRKEE FESTIVAL Khirkee Festival was a four-day festival of the arts that took place from 14 – 17 December 2017. The festival was a celebration of the cultural multiplicity of Khirkee, bringing to the foreground a variety of narratives about and from the neighbourhood through exhibitions, interventions, music, theatre, sports, bazaars and food.

The festival kicked off with a women’sonly edition of the armwrestling competition first organized by David Brazier. Women from around the neighbourhood competed for the title of Ms Bahubali. The compeition ended in an intense deadlock, with the three finalists agreeing to share the title and the cash prize.

The spirit of community continued as the festival activated various spaces around the neighbourhood, including Khoj Studios, the Sai Baba

Mandir Road and Jamun Wala Park, and spilled over into the premises of various other organizations around Khirkee, like Gati, Swechha, and Studio Khirkee.

Khoj Studios was brought to life by an exhibition, titled World Next Door, comprised of interactive installations, videos, workshops and conversations that showcased the four long-term community-based projects that Khoj has supported. Khirkee Storytelling Project by Swati Janu; Khirkee Voice/ Khirkee Awaaz by Malini Kochupillai and Mahavir Singh Bisht; Khirkee Dialogues and Kisse Connection

by Aagaaz Theatre Trust; and the Young Artists of Khirkee project by the children of the neighbourhood, facilitated by Aru Bose. Another component of the exhibition was the open studio of the first Khirkee Residency.

The Khoj rooftop terrace hosted a food mela and craft bazaar, with home cooks and small eateries from Khirkee offering samplings of Afghani, Cameroonian, and Bihari cuisines, among others. Craft shops included screenprinting by Khirkee 17 and upcycled goods by Green the Map. Public performances in the Jamun Wala Park took place over the weekend. The Khirkee Ensemble, in international band of musicians from Khirkee performed a concert with songs from India and Cote d’Ivoire.

Young members of the community put on two short plays, Duniya Sabki and Kitaabein, made in collaboration with members of the Aagaaz Theatre Trust. There were also screenings of short music videos and films that were created as part of the Khirkee Storytelling Project.

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Participants: Aagaaz Theatre Trust, Fouzia Dastango; Gati Studio, Khirkee Voice, Khirkee Residency artists, Khirkee Storytelling Project, Swechha, Vinit Gupta, Working Hours Collective, Young Artists of Khirkee

Khirkee Festival was generously supported by Select CityWalk

Opposite page: Khirkee Ensemble in concert at Jamun Park This page (top to bottom): the festive lighting on the street outside Khoj; visitors sample the foods on offer at the festival; a screening of the Khirkee Recording Studio videos in Jamun Park

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Top: the winners of Ms Bahubali Middle (L to R): participants discuss “Photographing the City” in a session organized by Khirkee Voice; the rules of a game created by the Young Artists of Khirkee Bottom: people interact in one of Aagaaz Theatre Trust’s Kisse Connection sessions

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KHOJ WINS INDIA TODAY ART AWARD Khoj was proud to win the India Today Art Awards for Best Artistic Collaboration for Landscape as Evidence: Artist as Witness. The project was conceived by Khoj and Zuleikha Chaudhari with lawyers Anand Grover and Norma Alvares, justice Yatindra Singh and artists Navjot Altaf, Ravi Agarwal and Sheba Chhachhi.

Khoj curator Radha Mahendru and Zuleikha Chaudhari accept the India Today Art Award

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LAST SIX MONTHS

Clockwise from top-left: Khoj director Pooja Sood speaking on ‘The Institution in the Era of Social Turbulence’ with Nabil Ahmed, Thomas Boutoux, Carles Guerra and Sebastian Cichocki at the Lopud Seminar 2017, organized by T-BA21 in Croatia; Khoj curator Mario D’Souza at the Asia Discovers Asia Meeting at Taipei Performing Arts Centre; artist Theaster Gates during his visit Khoj

We extend a big thank you to our Board Members, Advisory Board and our Capital Circle members for their ongoing support.

THE KHOJ TEAM Director Pooja Sood Programmes Team Radha Mahendru Mario D’Souza Mila Samdub Aditi Chauhan (Khoj Fellow August 2017 - July 2018) Media and Production Suresh Pandey Accounts and Administration Team VP Manoj Zubin Ekka Laxmi Devi Support Staff Arun Chettri Manohar Bhengra

KHOJ BOARD

Amar Kanwar Anita Dube Bharti Kher Czaee Shah Manisha Parekh Pooja Sood Savita Apte Subodh Gupta Urvashi Butalia

ADVISORY BOARD

Aditya Jhulka Amrita Jhaveri Azad Shivdasani Hoor Al-Qasimi Poonam Bhagat Shroff Shalini Passi Sunita Choraria Special Thanks to Robert Loder

CAPITAL CIRCLE

Project Room supported by Amrita Jhaveri Courtyard supported by Shalini Passi Artist Residence supported by The Malhotra Weikfield Foundation (in memory of Kanwal Mohini Malhotra) Reading Room supported in memory of Late Mr. Manhar Bhagat

by Poonam Bhagat Shroff, Nirlon Foundation Trust Terrace supported by Czaee Shah Media Lab supported by Sunita Choraria Studio #1 supported by The Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Studio #2 supported by Geeta Kapur & Vivan Sundaram Studio #3 supported by S.H. Raza Studio #4 supported by Apeejay Trust in Memory of Surrendra Paul Studio #5 supported by Nature Morte

SPECIAL THANKS TO Bhavna Kakar Max & Monique Burger Jayashree Mohta

Khoj International Artists’ Association receives support from the Norwegian Embassy

Design I Me Am Design

Cover Image: Installation by Rajyashri Goody for Khirkee Residency

S-17, Khirkee Extension New Delhi 110017 www.khojworkshop.org For queries please contact interact@khojworkshop.org