In Person: Residency Open Studio at PhotoKTM5

Nepal is home to nine species of vultures, of which four have been considered critically endangered in the last few decades. Conservationists have attributed the rapid decline of vultures in South Asia to the use of the chemical diclofenac. Initially used to treat animals, traces of the compound would be found in the animal carcasses consumed by the vultures, ultimately resulting in kidney failure among the predatory birds. Although the use of diclofenac has been banned in Nepal since 2006, the drastic effects were reflected in the rapid decline of species such as the white-rumped vulture, among others. Despite efforts to curb deaths associated with diclofenac, newer scientific studies point to other drugs such as aceclofenac that metabolise into diclofenac, thus being fatal for vultures. 

Taking stock of such long-lasting effects that gravely endanger the vulture population of Nawalparasi district, a buffer zone in the Chitwan National Park, D. B. Chaudhary set up the Jatayu Vulture Restaurant. Established in Kawasoti in 2006, the community-led initiative provides food for vultures and aids in maintaining their population. The restaurant buys livestock from local farmers and takes care of them until they pass away from natural causes. The animals’ carcasses are then fed to the vultures. The restaurant’s efforts are also supported by the organisation Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN).

Photo Kathmandu, in collaboration with BCN, invited applicants to stay in Kawasoti to learn about and respond to the vultures as well as the conservation methods carried out by the restaurant. The residency invited artists to explore the possibilities of loss and regeneration through a community-first approach. The selected residents—Ajay Narsingh Rana, Jonas Böttern from Hillside Projects and Nilanjana Nandy—spent six weeks learning about the work undertaken by the restaurant and the involvement of the community at large, as they developed works based on their research and lived experience during this period. In this episode of In Person, the residents discuss their processes as they visited various areas in Kawasoti, learnt about the community conservation efforts, and the individual works they produced as a result, on display at their Open Studio in Namkha, Patan. 

Ajay Narsingh Rana is a wildlife, nature and adventure photographer and videographer. Rana writes about nature and conservation on his blog as well as for local print media. As part of the residency, the artist has produced a series of images around the natural landscape in Kawasoti and its stray dog problem. Focusing on the rise in distemper cases, which in turn affect the vulture population and biodiversity in the area, Rana presents a mix of photojournalistic documentation and scientific articles. Through his work, Rana highlights how prevalent this everyday problem has become and the solutions that can be implemented at on institutional scale.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Hillside Projects is an artistic collaboration between Emily Berry Mennerdahl and Jonas Böttern. Situated within a conceptual framework, their practice explores tales of disappearances in the natural world and the interrelated socio-political narratives that arise through them. Böttern produced a video work that positioned himself as the outsider listening to the non-human. By listening and transcribing the class of vultures in the restaurant, the work confronts the idea of the residency itself. Here, placed firmly as the outsider, Böttern appears dressed in a formal suit and seated on a chair, looking out onto the birds, who choose not to interpret or respond but instead listen in a way that decentres the human.  

Nilanjana Nandy is an artist and educator who makes artist-books and sets up installations for people to collectively experience and exchange ideas. She is interested in gender-based issues, the impact of patriarchy in everyday situations, and shaping young minds through a canonical understanding of concepts. Nandy worked with school children in Kawasoti, to highlight young voices from the community as they responded to the prompt, “Who am I?” Nandy produced a series of images of the children, who also participated in activities such as body mapping onto caricatures as well as drawing their interpretation of commonly used terms such as “discourse”, “identity” and “community”, among others.

This conversation was recorded on 27 February 2023. 

ASAP | art attended the opening weekend of the PhotoKTM5, where we spoke with the KTK-Belt Project and Monica Alcazar-Duarte about their works on display; Srizu Bajracharya wrote on fostering community, poignantly depicted in Fazal Rizvi and Aziz Sohail’s lecture-performance. Shranup Tandrup examined the filmography of Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnet, screened at the festival. Lastly, revisit Anisha Baid’s essay on the online iteration of The Skin of Chitwan, which is on display for the first time in its physical form this year at the festival. 

All images courtesy of the artists unless stated otherwise, and PhotoKTM.