Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal — Iron Container with Sound Chamber, Agit-Prop Stage for Contemp

Installation titled Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal by Indian artist Vivan Sundaram (b.1943, Simla), site-specifically installed at Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, India, in 1998.

Hosted in the colonial monument located in the center of Calcutta, the multimedia installation includes several elements brought together in a single standing historical structure. The installation uses historical textual and visual references to draw parallels both conceptually and visually. Using the original space as a platform, it functions as a site-specific interactive and participatory work. 

Iron Container with Sound Chamber, Agit-Prop Stage for Contemporary Performance, Victoria Memorial as a Refugee Terminus
 is a section of Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal which consists of several components: a container made of wood and iron and fitted with tyres, stationed on a dislocated railway track; the interior space soundproofed for an audio installation featuring poetry from the period of Partition; and a photomontage of Durbar Hall with images of famine, Partition, and riots during the 1940s.

Other credits:
Sound composition: Koushik Sarkar in collaboration with Sibaji Bandhopadhyay; fabrication of container: V. George and Praneet Soi; tyres: Calcutta State Transport Corporation

Exhibition history: ‘Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal,’ site-specific installation at Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, 1998.

Alternative title

Structures of Memory | The History Project

Access level

Online

practitioner
Publication/Creation date

1998

Creation place

India

Medium

Site-specific installation

Dimension

Container: 457.2cm x 213.36cm x 152.4cm, stage: 457.2cm x 182.88cm x 60.96cm

Content type

artwork documentation

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Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal — Iron Container with Sound Chamber, Agit-Prop Stage for Contemporary Performance, Victoria Memorial as a Refugee Terminus