Sarai way ahead

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An exhibit at the Sarai Reader 09

Usually, the opening of an exhibition is the end of it. Once the art works are displayed, there’s no other addition to the exhibition in the coming days. But Sarai Reader 09: The Exhibition — a collaboration between Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon and Sarai-CSDS, Delhi and curated by Raqs Media Collective that opened in the capital recently — is changing the way to look at art.

“It is a result of a conversation between us, Sarai and the Devi Art Foundation that focuses on the new ways of exhibition practices — what are the changes that can be brought in the way we look at contemporary art,” says Shuddhabrata Sengupta, one of the three art curators from the Raqs Media Collective.
Proposals have been invited by the artists to come and intervene. One can either intervene and add to the existing structure, or create something entirely new. Like, Lawrence Lanngs’s proposed project Shadow Libraries would see an empty space filled up by piles of books in an interesting manner.
It’s not anything similar to a residency programme because here there’s scope for the audience to come and intervene. “People can respond to the site and the structure,” says Shuddhabrata.
Taking the conversation forward, Jeebesh Bagchi, another curator from the team, talks about the building prototype in the courtyard, called the Cybermohalla Hub. It is a result of collaboration between two German architects — Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller — and the Cybermohalla team. Jeebesh says that the concept was to look at the resettlement colonies like Gheora in north-west Delhi and the size of government plots offered.
Some of the projects that are already there consist of an architectural insertion by Zuleikha Chaudhari. “Since the exhibition hall was empty, to give it some meaning Zuleikha was called to intervene. Through a slant light installation, there’s something in the empty hall now. New insertions can be made around it,” says Bagchi, talking about Zuleikha’s work.
Sarai Reader 09 will be punctuated through “episodes” from October to February next year. The episodes will be points of focus and dispersal, where processes that have been undertaken by artists during the unfolding of the exhibition will gather impetus and unravel across concentrated moments of public attention.
Also, over nine months, the exhibition intends to investigate methodologies like “art writing” or “as a location for shooting a soap opera or a crime story”, or even invent newer ones.