By Mehru Jaffer, IANS,
Vienna : As the largest exhibition of contemporary Indian art to open in the Austrian capital in recent times, “Chalo! India” is certainly making visitors more and more curious about the South Asian giant.
“India’s impressive economic progress has spurred interest in the artistic developments of the country as well,” said professor Karlheinz Essl, founder of the Essl Museum of contemporary art.
“Chalo! India” was inaugurated by Austrian President Heinz Fischer. Apart from more than 100 works by 27 artists, the two-month long exhibition will see many a talk and workshop. Names like Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Gulammohammad Sheikh feature in the show.
At a symposium titled “Concepts of Modernity – The Indian Perspective”, audiences were curious to know what modernity means to most Indians. Pointing to traditional images of gods and goddesses in the works of many artists, some visitors felt the trend did not spell modernity.
“Our sense of the modern is less singular than that of Europeans. We are able to embrace new ideas without giving up the old,” explained artist Sheikh, a leading light of the Baroda School in the 1970s.
He said no single definition of modernity exists in his mind.
“Contemporary India is able to live in the midst of several epochs at the same time amidst a feeling of a tremendous sense of time, a tremendous sense of continuity,” said Sheikh who was born in 1937 in Gujarat and lives in Vadodara.
In recent times he has been creating 3-dimensional works and hi-tech video worlds that include mythologies from different cultures.
His contribution at “Chalo! India” includes a travelling shrine made from a three-screen video triptych of a circular world without borders populated by a digital collage of sufis and yogis and figures of Gandhi, Kabir, Mary Magdalene and Majnu. The gigantic but colourful installation begins with the question “Whose World?”
He said an exhibition like this is proof enough that participants are obviously aware of local traditions but not bound by them.
There were more questions from the floor on the relationship and conflict between art, religion and economics in India.
“We still have a long way to go. India has to do much more by way of human development but I am happy that we are moving in the right direction,” said Professor Sunil Kanwar from the Delhi School of Economics.
Curated by Akiko Miki to mark the fifth anniversary of Japan’s Mori museum, “Chalo! India” first opened in Tokyo in November 2008 for four months.
Essl is already home to some 6,000 works of contemporary art from Europe, the US, Australia, Mexico and China, all collected by Karlheinz and his wife Agnes over 30 years.
The Essls are perhaps owners of Europe’s most important private art collection and the couple is considered one of the top 100 players in today’s art world.
The interest of the Essls in Indian art goes back to the early 1990s. Since then they have chosen the work of at least 30 young and yet unknown Indian artists which will be displayed for the first time at an exhibition at the Essl Museum early next year.