THE
S A H M AT
ART AND ACTIVISM IN INDIA SINCE 1989
COLLECTIVE
FEBRUARY 14 - JUNE 5, 2013
The SAHMAT Collective
SAFDAR HASHMI FUNERAL, JAN 3, 1989
Since its founding in 1989, the influential Delhi-based artists’ organization, SAHMAT, has offered a platform for artists, writers, poets, musicians, actors, and activists to create and present interdisciplinary works that promote artistic freedom and secular, egalitarian values. The group SAHMAT—an acronym for the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust—formed in a spontaneous response and show of solidarity after the death of Safdar Hashmi, a colleague who was fatally attacked by politically patronized mafia during a street theater performance on January 1, 1989. In the years that followed, their core group has been supplemented by countless contemporary artists bound by their support of the promotion of human rights and equality, and desire to bring culture across class boundaries. With a potent collective voice of resistance, SAHMAT has critically reflected on events of India’s past and present through interdisciplinary performances and projects ranging from informal, street-side traveling shows to innovative conceptual exhibitions and projects of public engagement. As SAHMAT’s first retrospective in the United States, this exhibition will explore their endeavors and impact on contemporary Indian art and society. FACULTY WORKSHOPS
“If it needed Safdar among us to die in order to recall that an artist is not so innocuous, then we must pay a certain price for this awareness. That price may be as private as self-reflection in which we allow our convictions to be put to the test. But Safdar’s terrible sacrifice should also make us face up to the present, to become historically alert…” Geeta Kapur, 1989 from Artists Alert catalogue
The SAHMAT Collective exemplifies one of the many ways that the Smart Museum supports the University of Chicago’s commitment to interdisciplinary discovery. Unlike shows that reflect a single predominant viewpoint, the Smart Museum’s unique exhibition model is collaboration-based and welcomes diverse perspectives and expertise—adding depth and richness to the Museum’s already distinctive offerings. Projects like The SAHMAT Collective capture the intellectual energy of the University while infusing the Museum’s public offerings with intriguing new directions.
CATALOGUE
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue offering interdisciplinary perspectives on SAHMAT and investigations into India’s history, politics, and culture. CURATED BY
JESSICA MOSS Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Smart Museum of Art RAM RAHMAN Founding member of SAHMAT, independent curator, and photographer
SLOGANS FOR COMMUNAL HARMONY (1990)
On January 1, 1990, SAHMAT invited auto rickshaw drivers to take part in a competition writing poems about communal harmony to be painted on the backs of their vehicles. Hundreds of drivers participated and a procession was taken through the city. This was one of the biggest public art projects ever mounted in India at the time. The exhibition will include photographs of the rickshaws and event, and an actual rickshaw.
ARTISTS AGAINST COMMUNALISM: IMAGES AND WORDS (1991)
For this project, 400 artists and writers from all parts of India contributed visual or textual messages against communalism. The statements, each of which was on a 11 x 11 inch canvas, were incorporated into 3 x 3’ panels for the exhibition. They were displayed on bamboo and jute structures, designed for ease in dismantling and reassembling so the exhibition could travel. It was shown on streets and sidewalks in 40 cities around India. The informal display attracted a more diverse audience, sparking lively conversation amongst them, than a traditional exhibition may have. The exhibition will include several of the jute panels, which are imbued with the patina of use and age.
AYODHYA MOSQUE DEMOLITION AND AFTER (1993-94 )
After the shocking demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, SAHMAT undertook a year long series of events. As a part of the project Hum Sab Ayodhya a huge performance event called Mukt Naad was held in Ayodhya on August 15, 1993. This involved a mobilization of thousands of artists, writers and performers from across India. This is extensively documented in video and in press reports. Attacks and protests from the Hindu right against Hum Sab Ayodhya led to the exhibit being seized by the Delhi police. SAHMAT challenged the ban and won a decisive legal victory after an eight year court battle. This became a landmark case for the freedom of expression in India and a defining moment for SAHMAT: The concerted attack by the Sangh Parivar on Hum Sab Ayodhya was a classic example of the threats of violence, fear, rumor and allegations of ‘hurt to religious sentiment’ which have been their weapons of choice in all their attacks in subsequent years – on writers, artists, film-makers, historians, theatre artists and institutions.That attack, which led many to retreat from what had been a secular, liberal space, only clarified the battle for SAHMAT. History and its interpretations or mis-interpretations and the communalising of education became a central focus of SAHMAT’s actions.
POSTCARDS FOR GANDHI (1994)
Postcards for Gandhi involved a yearlong series of events to commemorate the 125th year of Gandhi’s birth. Gandhi used the inexpensive postcard to communicate with thousands of people through quick, short notes. 100 artists and photographers each made six postcard-size works constructing their own understanding of Gandhi - his political leadership, his philosophy, and his relevance to contemporary India. These were exhibited simultaneously in six galleries across the country, each artist being represented in every city by one original work. All were for sale at a uniform, reasonable price, and one work of each artist was printed as a postcard for even wider dissemination. This was one of the first projects to attempt to engage a large number of artists collectively to work on a single theme. A book, Addressing Gandhi, was released by the president of India to accompany the show, with one reproduction by each artist.
ART ON THE MOVE (2001)
Many of SAHMAT’s activities have been conducted in public spaces and on the street. One of its projects, Art on the Move, took this one step further by finding a vehicular form, a wheeled cart or a cyclerickshaw, for navigating the art-object into unlikely places in the city. From among many artists’ proposals, sixteen artists were invited to a workshop in Delhi where they fabricated their artworks on wheels by taking cues from such modes of transport as ordinary people use – the bicycling labourer, the street-vendor and the rickshaw-puller. Taking a readymade ‘base’ of such humble vehicles, these artists built iconic, architectural, circus-like and ritual forms, and then demonstrated their viability by riding, pushing, pulling the composite structure out before the spectators and on to the road. In an imaginative rendering of three key terms – art, mobility, public space – SAHMAT’s Art on the Move was among the early projects seeking a wider engagement of artists with the city and its people.
A GIFT FOR INDIA (1997)
Artists from all over the world were invited to contribute a gift, constrained to the format of a 5 inch cube, to commemorate India’s 50 years of independence. Almost 200 artists participated. The curator of the project, Vivan Sundaram noted: “Gift for India is part of a series of exhibitions marking historical moments in the life of the nation, but it works like something of a gesture. We send out a participatory signal and receive a response in the same spirit… The messages that have come with the boxes endorsing the idea, SAHMAT’s existence and artists’ solidarity on a common imaginative ground, make the project truly a gift among friends.”
MAKING HISTORY OUR OWN (2007)
“The year 2007 is going to be celebrated as the sixtieth year of Independence as well as the one hundred and fiftieth year of the 1857 uprising. It occurred to us that we are all, as individuals, and in our creative practice – an embodiment of precisely those complex lineages, inspirations and personal trajectories, as well as those larger histories – which have made our culture so unique in its layering. The idea is that we make a work which acknowledges our personal roots, our inspirations, our teachers, our gurus – our own histories, which collectively will be a visual history of ourselves, made by ourselves – Making History Our Own. Our inspirations come from so many sources and cultures, from literature, from music, from dance, from architecture, from our personal experiences. Collectively expressed, this was a unique project which became a visual history of who we are now.
Installation images from the exhibition Image Music Text - Twenty Years of SAHMAT at The MF Husain Gallery, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. 2009
MADANGOPAL SINGH
SHUBHA MUDGAL
PERFORMANCES AND STAGE BANNERS
The exhibition will include an area devoted to the screening of performance footage from SAHMAT’s history. Designed to evoke the vibrant setting of the stage, SAHMAT’s hand-painted banners will be included in a colorful and lively installation.
SAHMAT 29 Ferozeshah Road New Delhi 110001 011 91 2338 1276/2307 0797 sahmat8@yahoo.com www.sahmat.org www. http://issuu.com/sahmat-india/docs/image-music-text
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