This image captures a 'pandal' as shown in the exhibition titled 'Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001', co-curated by Geeta Kapur and Ashish Rajadhyaksha, in 'Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis', at Tate Modern, London, 2001.
Commissioned for 'Century City', this 'pandal', or pavilion, made from cloth and scaffolding, represents a unique collaboration between an architect’s team and urban craftsmen, artists and filmmakers. The Mumbai architect, Sen Kapadia, has adapted traditional techniques used throughout India to make temporary open-air structures for public functions, weddings and religious festivals, to create a cinema hall within the exhibition.
On the front is a film hoarding, hand-painted by Balkrishna Art, depicting the stars of the film Fiza (2000). Directed by one of Bombay’s leading film critics, Fiza is a tragic story set during the 1992-3 riots, in which the hero kills both Muslim and Hindu politicians before dying in his sister’s arms.
Screening inside are five contrasting films: edited versions of Father, Son and Holy War and Our City by the celebrated Anand Patwardhan; Madhuri in Paris and The Genesis of Gajagamini by Owais and Reima Husain; and film-clips compiled by the exhibition’s co-curator, Ashish Rayadhyaksha.
Regarding the exhibition, the curators write:
'Bombay/Mumbai 1992-2001 presents the embattled visual culture of India’s leading metropolis. Committed to the cultural dynamic of secularism, we have positioned artworks, photography, video, film and architecture as signs in the city's persistent desire to transform.'
Online
English
survey exhibition,  curatorial practice,  architecture,  film,  politics,  popular culture,  urbanism
event photograph/recording
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