Bengal Biennale: A Platform For New Artists To Find Footing Amidst The Veterans 

When Rabindranath Tagore set up the V🏅isva-Bharati in the heart of rural Bengal, in Shantiniketan, his motto, as mentioned in one of his writings, was to “make hearts and minds bloom like thousand petals of lotus”. With his unique way of blending education with art, music and culture, his focus was to shape young minds in a holistic and humane form. Bringing in masters of every field, puttingꦍ them under the same proverbial roof, he created a democratic space for the free flow of ideas―of knowledge and learning, which flowed both ways.  

It is thus befitting that the Bengal Biennale, taking place for the first time―which had its inauguration and the first phase in Shantiniketan―would follow the same spirit of providing a platform for young artists to showcase their vision and collaborating with veterans of the Indian art world. For the young artists of GABAA, the opportunity opens a new opportunity for collaboration. In an attempt to create a “pedagogical site”, which started as analytically looking at the everchanging landscape of Shantiniketan, once a village, gradually turning into a retreat for the upper middle 🔯class of Bengal from the 1990s, where empty houses are taken care of by the very own villagers.

Spaces not their own, stripped off of their original identity, much like the rented space of these artists. Ex-students of Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan―Ritushree Mondal, Himanshu Sharma, Rabiul Khan and Surajit Mudi―in collaboration with the homemakers of Birbhum, women whose hands skilled in the everyday work of stitching, were never before been seen as artists in their own right, have now created “Kanthar Ghar” (a house of Kantha). These women are not trained weavers or emb𒆙roiderers by trade; they are mothers, daughters and wives, sewing in quiet domestic spaces for their families. 

In contrast to the many kanthas now made for the market, especially for popular venues like t💖he 'Shonibarer Haat' (Saturday Bazaar), where each piece is stripped of its maker’s name and story, these works are imbued with the personalities, struggles and triumphs of the women who created the☂m.

Here, stitching becomes an act of self-recognition. Each kantha carries fragments of their lives. In their exploration, the collaborators♏ state how memory itself is often devoid of agency. A video projection inside the house showcases the stories of these women, where stories of self gets often sidelined by stories of the family. The ownership of memory and ownership of space thus becomes the driving factor in “Kanthar Ghar”, where biographies, however mundane, are stitched into pieces. By covering up their rented space with these stitched stories, the artists have crꦯeated a common space for learning, while also questioning the ownership. Their collaborators, through the act of weaving, take back the agency of these now commercialised fabric, along with the agency of their own stories. 

From art that questions complex th♏emes of agency and ownership, the Biennale also creates space for simplification―of art that is created for the joy of creation and innovation. 

For Mahesh K. S., a young artist from Kerala, art intertwines with his scientific approach and sensibilities of exploration. Formerly a student of Kala Bhavan, working in tech and a childhood hobby of mechanical invention has culminated into his creation of “The Troupe”, where he works as a creator and a conductor of his mechanised dance troupe, a set of meticulously modified and programmed electronic fans. His ability to look for quality in innate objects made him come up with the concept, while making a sketch of an electric fan―a machine that almost all sections of society in this country are well aware of. The fan, a substance of bliss in summer days, a machine we often look up🌜 as we lie and contemplate our day, has thus become personified where they dance to the tune composed by his friends, thoughtfully crafted to be pleasing as the air hits the viewers.

Mahesh thus blends science with art, as he aims to channel the senses of his viewers into a blissful place. Looking at his fans and their performances gradually makes one paint a human shape on these innate objects. The performance plays with the basics and does not claim to be anything that is more complex than its own value, yet the mere act of turning fans into performers, changes these machines from mere mass market products to one which embodies art in its🎐elf. 

The Biennale, creating a space for many other young artists in both Shantiniketan and Kolkata, has thus created a unique opportunity for its viewers to delve deeper into the minds of the upcoﷺming artists of India. The fresh perspectives show how exploration and inquisition as a process leads to a wider dialogue on various niche or common concepts.