Curating South Asia: On Festivals and Institutions with Natasha Ginwala and Abeer Gupta
In what ways is the present excavated through encounters with the past and with an eye towards what the futurity of such spaces might look like? What, if any, are the institutional and para-institutional spaces, and the possibilities that lie in artistic labour and fostering community? At the heart of these questions also lie the recent histories of collapse, the urgency to support multifaceted perspectives, and a constant effort to re-think, de-centre and reimagine the curatorial.
On Saturday, 6 July 2024, ASAP | art hosted a discussion with curators, researchers and cultural practitioners Natasha Ginwala and Abeer Gupta. In this edited recording of the discussion, Ginwala and Gupta speak about the pertinent questions and possibilities of curating in South Asia. Both have worked across institutions, curating multi-format spaces, from exhibitions to programmes and beyond, in their respective contexts. The talk began with the moderator, Associate Editor Arundhati Chauhan, prompting the speakers to reflect upon the idea of South Asia itself, beyond its bordered nationalisms. Ginwala talked about her spatial approach, looking towards the Indian Ocean through her work at Colomboscope and her curatorial practice. On the opposite end of the geographic plane, Gupta’s work is primarily rooted in the Western Himalayas and its cultural histories. Through both of their practices, there emerged a commitment to re-vision what South Asia, through its many margins and beyond its typical centres, might entail in cultural and curatorial work.
As the curator of the upcoming Sharjah Biennial, as well as through her work at the Gropius Bau and Colomboscope, Ginwala signposted the importance of South Asian feminisms as informing her own exhibitionary approach. Realising the importance of activating spaces that are historically considered beyond the pale of South Asia, especially with India often dominating the space within such conversations, Ginwala spoke about Colomboscope’s latest iteration, traversing the forest as a lexicon for new kinds of belonging and rootedness. The upcoming new spaces and programmes by Arthshila formed the basis of Gupta’s presentation, as he enumerated his own academic training in anthropology along with Arthshila’s foundational principles, rooted in fostering new artistic communities and initiatives. Both speakers insisted on the importance of examining “para institutions" at a time when the state is withdrawing support and artistic institutions are largely becoming avenues hosted by private enterprises. In their practice, both Ginwala and Gupta uphold the need to create institutions through care, collective action and an impulse to remain committed to sustaining artistic endeavours in South Asia.
Natasha Ginwala is a curator, researcher and writer. She is the co-curator of the Sharjah Biennial 16 (2023–25), Artistic Director of Colomboscope, Sri Lanka since 2019 and Associate Curator at Large at Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018–2024). She was also the artistic director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale with Defne Ayas (2021). Ginwala is a widely published author with a focus on contemporary art, visual culture and social justice.
Abeer Gupta is the Curator of Visual Arts at Arthshila, and the director of the Achi Association India. He has directed several documentary films and curated art, education and community media projects. His research and practice are based in the western Himalayas, in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir around oral histories, material cultures and visual archives.
(Featured image: Anupam Roy, Time is Sloshing, 2023, Installation of drawings with black pigment, distemper, acrylic, & adhesive on tarpaulin; banners with black pigment, acrylic & adhesive on Madarpath cloth; screen-printed posters on newspapers; 3 single-channel videos on loop; zines and diaries. Installation view at Colomboscope 2024, J.D.A. Perera Gallery. Co-commissioned by Colomboscope 2024 and Ishara Art Foundation. Photography: Sarker Protick. Copyright: Colomboscope 2024.)
To learn more about ASAP’s public programming, watch our previous recordings with Naeem Mohaiemen discussing his book Midnight’s Third Child, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Vazira Zamindar and Shuddhabrata Sengupta discussing How Secular is Art?, and Ashish Rajadhyaksha discussing his book John-Ghatak-Tarkovsky. Also read Mallika Visvanathan’s essay on a panel thinking through the contours of South Asia in contemporary practice, and Shivani Kasumra’s essay on the geospatial politics in the work of Navina Sundaram.
