KHABAR VOL. 7 | JANUARY 2018 – JUNE 2018
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.
KHOJ KHABAR
WE CLOSED 2017, OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR, WITH IMMENSE GRATITUDE TOWARDS THE NORWEGIAN EMBASSY. THEIR SUPPORT OVER THE PAST SIX YEARS HAS ALLOWED US TO GROW OUR IMAGINATION AND THE SCALE OF OUR AMBITION. As that support has ended, we find ourselves in a larger historical moment where sustained institutional funding for arts and culture is scarcer than ever. But this is also a time when the value of the arts, of creative critique and the generation of new frameworks, is pressingly urgent. One of Khoj’s main challenges now is to find new ways to support ourselves and the arts community. In view of the above, February saw three fundraising events at Khoj. In our project space, we unveiled the Wastelands portfolio of black-andwhite prints, gifted to us by some of our oldest friends, including Amar Kanwar, Navjot Altaf, Sudarshan Shetty and Riyas Komu. Downstairs in the galleries, a new generation of artists coalesced in Turn of the Tide, an exhibition representing a set of practices that have emerged in dialogue with each other across the country in the last few years. Khoj has supported many of these artists at various stages in their careers and this exhibition was an expression of their continued commitment to the work we do. On the rooftop it all came together in a celebration: a diverse group of artists, friends, curators and patrons, coming together in the winter sun. Young artists rubbed shoulders with the Tate Modern’s international advisory board. Khoj’s annual VIP brunch, now in its second year, is fast becoming a new tradition during the India Art Fair. Trailblazer Sangita Jindal honoured us with a generous gift, which goes a long way to securing our future. The gift inaugurated the Benefactor
category of Khoj patrons and we look forward to more benefactors joining her soon. On the programme front, we have been tweaking our existing methodologies. For the 3rd edition of the Art and Science programme, supported by Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, we experimented with our established 6-week residency model. In order to support more indepth research and collaborations, the programme began with a 6-month grant period and concluded with a one-month residency, allowing for a longer period for collaborative research and development. The residency also included a daylong seminar on science-fiction, organized in collaboration with Mithila Review. Bringing together all of our work on art and science, we launched Hence Unproven: Reflections on Art and Science, edited by Aparna Uppaluri, the first book in our new publication series, at the Wellcome Trust’s annual trustee gathering in May. Our regular programming in support of emerging artists and practices continues. The Peers residency for emerging artists, now in its 15th year, is more than ever a space for young artists to experiment away from the tedium of art school and the pressures of the market. Peers Share, a two-day seminar for a larger group of emerging artists to interact with established artists, curators and critics, was generously supported this year by Tarana Sawhney and resulted in a unique space of mentorship and exchange. Khoj co-founders and board members Bharti Kher and
Subodh Gupta stepped up to support an exciting new initiative, the Artists for Artists grant which will be awarded for the next three years to a young artist with a material practice, providing them funding to expand the scale of their practice. Support for curating and arts managers is vital for any arts ecosystem. In April, the emerging curators who attended the 2017 edition of Curatorial Intensive South Asia, supported by Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, had the opportunity to realise selected curatorial projects at venues around Delhi. As this newsletter goes into print, we have successfully wrapped up CISA’s second edition with emerging curators from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Iran. Khoj has also run the ARThinkSouthAsia programme for arts managers for nine years, and the taught phase of the programme’s ninth edition concluded successfully in May. Our community art programmes have been tremendously important to how we see ourselves as an institution. Bringing local experiences to bear on global problems, we put together Voices from the Margins, an exciting international arts-based exchange, supported by World Learning, between immigrant youths in our immediate community and in Albuquerque, USA. The exchange threw up new discoveries in our backyard and created a space to share familiar experiences across continents. Khirkee Voice, the Khoj-supported local newspaper, has over the last couple of years become a hub in the community, bringing together contributions from our neighbours from around the world. Now in addition to the regular production of the newspaper, the editors Malini Kochupillai and Mahavir Bisht have begun conducting workshops in photography and writing to actively build skills among youths from the
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neighbourhood. In April, we held the jury session for our collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, to shortlist mid- and late-career artistic practitioners from around Asia for a residency opportunity at the Bellagio Center in Italy. The jurors were Daniela Zyman, Curator, TBA 21; Kim Sunjung, Director of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and artist Ali Cherri, who had himself been on residency at Bellagio through this programme. We would like to thank the Rockefeller Foundation for their generous support over the past three years and we wait with bated breath to find out which of the jury’s shortlist will be selected for a residency at the Bellagio Center next year. We are thrilled to announce that we have been invited by the Pune Biennale
Foundation to be the curators for the Exhibition view of Surabhi Saraf’s 4th edition of the Pune Biennale, Intensities at Turn of the Tide at Khoj scheduled for November/December 2019. As we enter our 21st year, it allows us the amazing opportunity to work at a new scale and ambition. We look forward to seeing you in Pune in 2019!
KHOJ KHABAR
FEBRUARY 2018 TURN OF THE TIDE Held during the India Art Fair, Turn of the Tide was a fundraising exhibition that brought together a new generation of artists. The exhibition surveyed an array of experimental, hybrid and transformative arts practices. reflecting the temperament of our times and a new generation of artists making sense of ‘now’. In conversation with each other they continue to expand contemporary art-making with the construction of a nation-wide scene. The works in the exhibition were generously gifted to Khoj as part of the fundraiser 20/20: Artists for Khoj. Many of the participating artists have been part of significant programs at Khoj and have contributed critically to the many themes we continue to discover and expand. Artists: Abir Karmakar, Amshu Chukki, Andrew Ananda Voogel, Benitha Perciyal, Bhuvanesh Gowda, Kartik Sood, Katyayini Gargi, Manish Nai, Pallavi Paul, Prabhakar Pachpute, Pranay Dutta, Rakhi Peswani, Rohini Devasher, Sachin George Sebastian, Sahej Rahal, Sahil Naik, Shailesh BR, Shreyas Karle, Shweta Bhattad, Sumakshi Singh, Surabhi Saraf
Top to bottom: Sahil Naik’s Portraits of Home / Exit Wounds; Shreyas Karle’s prints, Bhuvanesh Gowda’s Shyam II, with Surabhi Saraf’s Intensities; Kartik Sood’s Love Never Dies a Natural Death alongside Abir Karmakar’s Bulbs
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Left to right: Manish Nai’s Untitled; Shailesh BR’s Eclipse/Grahan series
SAMBA SHIVA Samba Shiva is a son’s reading of the photographic archive of his father. Brazilian artist Vijai Patchineelam commemoratively reimagined the momentous journey from Andhra Pradesh to Rio de Janeiro undertaken by his father Sambasiva, a scientist who immigrated to Brazil at the end of the 1970s. His father’s photographs were digitized and treated by Patchineelam. Artist: Vijai Patchineelam
MONITOR 12: FIGURES POINTING OUTSIDE THE FRAME A travelling selection of film and video works presented by SAVAC, Canada, the works that make up Figures Pointing Outside the Frame considers the peripheries of the image as significant as the content within. Starting from a collaboration formed between the technology, image maker, and subjects, the programme advocates for the viewer to consider the environmental, labour,
historical, economical, gendered, and social conditions that influence the constructed experience. Presented by SAVAC, co-curated by Oliver Husain, Otty Widasari and Yuki Aditya
KHOJ KHABAR
KHOJ ROOFTOP BRUNCH A new tradition at Khoj, the second annual Khoj Brunch was again held to coincide with the India Art Fair. Artists, curators, patrons and friends explored the preview of our exhibition Turn of the Tide as well as the launch of our new portfolio, Wastelands. After a walk through the galleries, everyone emerged into the winter sun on the rooftop to celebrate with mimosas and canapés.
Top to bottom: Shireen Gandhy in conversation with Sabih Ahmed; Turn of the Tide artists Kartik Sood, Pranay Dutta, Katyayini Gargi, Sahil Naik and Amshu Chukki with Khoj curator Mario D’Souza
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Top to bottom: Lekha Poddar, Richard Alford, and Caroline Douglas; Neha Kirpal, Arti and Atul Kirloskar
KHOJ KHABAR
MARCH 2018 ART AND SCIENCE 3 The third edition of the Art and Science residency, generously supported by Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, was designed to advance projects that explored artistic applications of emerging thoughts and technologies with the help of partners from the scientific industry and academia. To further this goal, the programme took a new form: a six-month research and development period leading into a four-week residency at Khoj in March 2018. The selected projects encompassed a range of thematics, hinging on interdisciplinary collaborations. Sonia Mehra Chawla researched the genetic modification of rice to tolerate increasing soil salinity; the Kalpana investigated the Kutch desert and sought to reformulate the field trip as an artistic method; Darya Warner and Puneet Kishor developed the cheapest Open Source 3-D mycological printer currently in existence; and Tulika Aasma, Kaushal Sapre and Abhinav Gupta investigated the use of sensors in scientific inquiry. Artists: Darya Warner and Puneet Kishore; Sonia Mehra Chawla; The Kalpana (Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Goutam Ghosh, and Susanne Winterling); and Tulika Aasma, Kaushal Sapre and Abhinav Gupta.
Top to bottom: Exhibition view of Tulika Aasma, Kaushal Sapre and Abhinav Gupta’s project; Sonia Mehra Chawla with her work The Salt Lab
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Left to right: Darya Warner and Puneet Kishor’s Mycoprinter; exhibition view from The Kalpana’s Project Desert: Speculation
ART- SCIENCE-FICTION: WORLDMAKING IN THE CONTACT ZONE A daylong seminar organized alongside the Art and Science residency and in collaboration with Mithila Review, Art-Science-Fiction brought writers and artists together to discuss the different kinds of truths produced by science and art. Consisting of lectures, artist presentations, screenings and a reading, the gathering explored the ligatures in art-science and sciencefiction as contact zones through which our worlds can be made and remade. Participants: Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Gautam Bhatia, Himali Singh Soin, Indrapramit Das, Mario D’Souza, Monica Narula, Pallavi Paul, Rohini Devasher, Sami Ahmad Khan
Himali Singh Soin performs Silicontology at Art-Science-Fiction
KHOJ KHABAR
APRIL 2018 ROCKEFELLER BELLAGIO CENTER PROJECT JURY In April, Khoj welcomed artist Ali Cherri, Gwangju Biennale Foundation Director Kim Sunjung, and chief curator, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Daniela Zyman to Delhi to serve as jury members for our ongoing collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center to build on the opportunities and visibility for exceptional artists and creative practitioners from across Asia. The jury members selected a shortlist of 16 candidates from a longlist compiled by partner organizations from around Asia. Five of the shortlisted candidates will be
further selected for a residency at the Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy in 2019 and 2020.
Khoj Rockfeller jury members Kim Sunjung, Daniela Zyman and Ali Cherri
FOUR FILMS BY ALI CHERRI
CURATORIAL INTENSIVE SOUTH ASIA / SEVEN EXHIBITIONS
Combining a body of old films and recent productions, this screening session reflected the evolution of Lebanese artist Ali Cherri’s practice over more than a decade. The selection included early films exploring the contemporary history of his native Lebanon as well as more recent work studying archaeological and ethnographic materials and geological data. Following the screenings, Cherri was in conversation with Khoj curator Mario D’Souza.
In collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, the first edition of Curatorial Intensive South Asia (CISA), a new fellowship for young curators from South Asia was held at Khoj in July 2017. Following the taught phase of the programme, selected fellows were offered the opportunity to independently develop curatorial projects over a period of six months, during which they were
mentored by the programme leaders. Curatorial Intensive South Asia / Seven Exhibitions was the culmination of these projects. Participants: Shaunak Mahbubani, Vidisha Saini, Malini Kochupillai, Liz Fernando, Premjish Achari, Karan Talwar, Zihan Karim
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Top to bottom: Savdhaan I choreographed by Mandeep Raikhy as part of Regimes of Truth: An In-Progress Viewing, curated by Shaunak Mahbubani; exhibition view of Jagath Weerasinghe’s solo Shrine of the Innocents, curated by Liz Fernando; and an exhibition view of Workers and Farmers, curated by Premjish Achari
KHOJ KHABAR
MAY 2018 ARTHINKSOUTHASIA FELLOWSHIP 2018-19 ARThinkSouthAsia is a management, policy and research programme in the arts and cultural sector. The programme continues to empower arts managers in the planning and development of sustainable cultural organizations. The residential portion of the 9th edition of the ARThinkSouthAsia programme took place in May 2018.
It included intensive modules in Strategic Planning, Cultural Policy, Marketing and Communications, Fundraising, HR, and Finance. Following the residential course, each fellow will go on a four-week secondment best suited to their professional interests in a cultural organization in Germany, UK or South Asia.
Fellows: Affan Alam Siddiqui, Ammar Khalid, Amrutha R, Aqui Thami, Didar Ali, Kazi Toufikul Islam, Lubna Shaheen, Najeebullah Farzad, Rachna Pande, Sadya Mizan, Salma Jamal Moushum, Samira Hashemi-Fesharaki, Shabnam Lilani, Suraj Prasad, Vanessa Maria Mirza, Yasantha Rajithatheja Hettiarachchi
Artists: Shreya Shukla, Damayanti Debnath, Dharmendra Prasad, Virendra Maurya, Throngkiuba Yimchungru, Manjot Kaur, Sukaina Husain (critic)
This page: Visitors in Damayanti Debnath’s installation.
PEERS 2018 Peers is an annual four week residency that provides emerging artists from across the subcontinent with an opportunity for exchange and dialogue. It aims to provide young artists a forum for experimentation and interaction with the larger creative community as well as attempts to create a network of diverse artists across mediums and disciplines. Peers has been one of Khoj’s pioneering programmes, and this year was a landmark year with the fifteenth edition of Peers. As usual the residency was populated with artists’ visits and interactions, studio visits and curated exhibition walkthroughs, for the residents to have a range of experiences and exposure. This year the Peers visited the studios of artists Subodh Gupta and Dayanita Singh and were mentored by multi-disciplinary artist Gigi Scaria. The Peers residency ended with an Open Day, where resident artists show their works in progress and interact with audiences.
Peers is generously supported by Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.
Opposite page (clockwise from topleft): Dharmendra Ray’s installation in hay, Shreya Shukla’s intervention into her studio space, Virendra Maurya’s installation in scrap wood and found objects
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KHOJ KHABAR
JUNE 2018 PEERS SHARE Following the Peers open day, Khoj organised Peers Share, a two day intensive seminar for young artists who qualified for the final round of the Peers selection process. Peers Share is a great learning opportunity for young artists to showcase their own practice and get valuable feedback and criticism from their peers, colleagues, senior art practitioners, art critics and the Khoj curatorial team.
This year for the first time, Peers Share included an application and proposal writing workshop, led by Dr Annapurna Garimella. Artists: Talhaa Wahid, Mithra Kamalam, Puja Mondal, Anupam Roy, Girish Behera, Ashok Vish, Ishita Chakraborthy, Veda Thozhur Kolleri, Shiv Ahuja, Sitaram Swain, Vineesh Amin
Peers Share is generously supported by Tarana Sawhney.
The participants of Peers and Peers Share
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VOICES FROM THE MARGINS A REFLECTION BY ADITI CHAUHAN, KHOJ FELLOW JULY 2017 - JUNE 2018 In a bid to understand the nature of cultural identity and cultural heritage taking shape at the grassroots level around the globe, youth in the neighbourhoods of New Delhi and New Mexico interacted through a virtual exchange program titled Voices From the Margins. This community arts collaboration between Khoj International Artists Association and Global One to One (USA) was supported by World Learning (USA) as a part of their global project Communities Connecting Heritage that aims to preserve and promote longevity of cultural heritage by supporting artistic expressions of youths across the world.
The project started in April 2018 and over a period of four months involved weekly virtual interactions of teams from both nations. Ashif Khan, Nagina, Lhamu Yanki Bhutia, Ismail, Muzammil, Leeda Ferozy and Romeo Kiseke formed the New Delhi group, representing a vivid network of socioethnic and international communities existing in the city. Exploring the ways in which one coalesces cultural features to create identities and their struggle with marginalization, the participants engaged in thematic discussions and exercises in speech, writing, visual and performing arts.
The virtual exchange sessions were followed by four weeks of in-person exchange where both groups visited cultural sites in each other’s cities and immersed in the local culture. The collective response culminated in an exhibition that took place in New Delhi on June 29, 2018 and in New Mexico on July 14, 2018. The interactive showcase featured material generated through the entirety of the program along with performances highlighting unique perspectives on issues that concern the youth from diverse backgrounds in different situations and places.
The discovery and acknowledgment of a shared cultural heritage directed all activities to reflect on how the dynamics of personal and public spaces affect daily conversations. The insights gained stressed on the need for constant evaluation of inherited norms, pop culture and places for everyday interactions to create an accessible ‘third state’, encouraging the coexistence of diverse voices.
Participants: Mohammad Ashif, Yanki Bhutia, Leeda Ferozy, Adam Gutierrez, Romeo Kiseke, Evan Lavin, Muzammil, Nagina, Karla Ornelas, Ismail Shaikh, Alicia Ulibarri
The two groups from New Mexico and New Delhi at the presentation of their work at Khoj
We extend a big thank you to our Board Members, Advisory Board, Benefactor 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 Ritika Khatri 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
BENEFACTOR Sangita Jindal
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 S-17, Khirkee Extension New Delhi 110017 www.khojworkshop.org For queries please contact interact@khojworkshop.org
Bhavna Kakar Max & Monique Burger Jayashree Mohta
Cover Image: Installation by Virendra Maurya at Peers 2018