Text-Context

The latest contemporary Indian exhibition entitled Text - Context opened at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts on the 10th of December 2009. Apart from students of the University, a great number of foreigners were also interested in the opening ceremony held in the Barcsay Hall, thanks to the international character of the SANDARBH (Sanskrit for context) art initiative founded by Chintan Upadhyay.

Sandarbh

As it has been claimed in the opening speech, the main objective of the art movement is to break with traditions and step out of the sterile world of museums. Building on workshops and art camps, the initiative counts much more on the interaction of spectators, rather than pursuing the idea of the perfect object. Going against globalisation that permeates our everyday lives, artists of Sandarbh build on localisation, and contact the local communities of Indian villages. The connection also has some practical bearings on both sides. While locals face their own past and context, taking a significant part in the creative processes, artists and spectators of the exhibited objects can witness the life of a local community, and get an intuition of a valuable world showing its contours beyond globalisation.

Source: www.mke.hu

Text and Understanding

Wheter they are photographs, installations or video works, this is the link that connects all the works by the Indian artists Veer Munshi, SakshiGupta, Shreyas Karle, Manjunath Kamath, LochanUpadhyay, Sanjeev Khandekar, Anish Ahluwalia, Chintan Upadhyay and Kirron Telkar. Although these contemporary works of fine art have an unusual impact on spectators on first sight, the English and Hungarian language descriptions, the texts support a deeper understanding.

Powha, Soccer Ball, and a Near-Fanta-Bottle

Although even the organisers find that the exhibition linked to the SZEGMENS series that launched in 2004 only presents a narrow section of contemporary Indian art, and the sample can only give us an inkling, it is perfectly fit for presenting a situation, a process.

This is how the powha vendor offering the favourite rice dish of Indians becomes an ideal model, the most authentic subject of the photo series imitating the world of comics. Also, this is how the documentation of the boards being set up to shape the identity of the village also becomes important. They all reflect on the interaction with the locals, while also turning us, spectators into witnesses of the birth, function, and maybe even part of the impact of the work.

The plastic bottles dipped in orange-red paint symbolise globalisation, while the sheepskin sacks heaped on top of each other stand for the history of a village. The artsits also reflect on the absurdity of our present world: the brutality of plastic surgery is presented by a collage of a female body wrapped up in cambric, and a bandaged soccer ball is meant to express the dog-eat-dog fights of football players and the "impurity" of the game.

Let it Impact You!

Seeing the exhibition not only helps us to learn about Indian culture: faithful to its ideology, the Sandarbh movement aims to overwrite our models of behaviour. After all, the exhibition itself is a situation to which we have to adapt after our first abashment, irrespective of mother tongue or traditions, so that, just like the artists did, we can get in touch with the inhabitants of the villages, and start to interact with the works of art displayed and the rural India suggested behind them.

If we want to put our openness and capacity of reception to test, it is worth visiting this exhibition and glance at artists' new ways of looking at things, as presented to the interested audience until the 20th of January.