An ode to exigencies

There’s Saranraj V’s exhibit of the work being done at the Keezhadi excavation site
An ode to exigencies
An ode to exigencies

The third edition of Chennai Photo Biennale’s biennial exhibition extravaganza is in its closing week and there’s still much left to behold from this mammoth exercise. From the physical exhibition to their digital counterparts, CPB3 — titled Maps of Disquiet — has managed to enthral art enthusiasts in the city and beyond. 

A grand vision

This time around, the curation is a reflection on the exigencies of our recent times: resisting majoritarian impositions, ecological collapse, and technological dystopias by reclaiming pluralities of thought, voices, and art, and building new networks of solidarity and care. It brings together artists and practices that explore the representation of labour, urban imageries, the commons, economic and migratory flows, archaeology and mining, and what anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, describing growing hostility towards minorities across the world, refers to as a ‘fear of small numbers’.

With all this, it carries through the biennale’s original vision that placed considerable impetus on ‘mapping’. “Two years ago, when the four creators started envisaging the curatorial process, they looked at a very important mapping exercise that took place around 1802 – the entire map of India was designed here in Chennai. Besides, they also looked at how mapping is being used and misused. The mapper can almost redefine how history is looked at and the viewer themselves can look at it in a different way,” explains Uday Issac Gnanadasan of CPB. 

While four iconic locations in the city — Roja Muthiah Research Library, Ashvita Art Gallery, Forum Art Gallery and Madras Literary Society — have been playing host to the physical exhibition, the digital tours have invited more people, thanks to a healthy concern for Covid and its stipulations. Yet, the last of the guided tours are set to happen — with all the appropriate practices in place — this weekend.   

What’s in store

There’s Saranraj V’s exhibit of the work being done at the Keezhadi excavation site. “There’s a lot being presented about Keezhadi (in media). However, two artists were commissioned by the curators to explore this. Of them, Saranraj has looked at the people doing the excavation work, documenting the work around the labour aspect,” notes Uday. Saranraj brings alive his familiarity with the lives and ways of the workers he has interacted with through multiple mediums — photography, video, drawing, sculpture, etc. 

This is at the Roja Muthaiah library. An art installation of the human body awaits the viewer too. At the Forum Art Gallery, an important presentation to look out for is Senthil Kumaran’s take on man-animal relations, particularly exploring the ties between man and elephant. Siva Sai Jeevanantham’s documentary photography of life in Kashmir. In the project titled ‘In the same river,’ he discusses the importance of memory in resistance movement using the family photographs of victims of enforced disappearances in India-controlled Kashmir. There’s Keto’s take on social media and the misinformation it offers, and Yuvan Aves’ exploration of coastal biodiversity of the state and the lives it brings together. There’s a student exhibit going at DakshinaChithra as well.

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