Asia Art Archive (AAA) presents ‘Another Life: The Digitised Personal Archive of Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram’ at ART HK 11.
Recreating the Delhi studio of Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram and bringing a selection of material from AAA’s recently completed individual archive project, the booth welcomes visitors during the fair, providing a new perspective into the recent history of Indian art.
Through 1:1 scaled photographs, books, image projections, video footage, music, and even scent, this display recreates the physical archive of two significant figures in Indian art history, Kapur and Sundaram, and attempts to enrich and complicate the way in which a regional history is told and accessed. Illustrating the multiple perspectives in even a single individual archive, this space is also a reflection on the collaboration and participation of the archivist, numerous artists, AAA’s researchers, and designer Stanley Wong aka anothermountainman.
The contributions to the field of art by Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram are incommensurable, particularly in terms of paving the way for discursive shifts in Indian art practice. Spanning the period from the late 1960s to the present, the personal archive of art critic and curator Geeta Kapur and artist and activist Vivan Sundaram is a wide-ranging cross section of documents from India’s art scene over the last 50 years.
The collection includes more than 6,500 images of artworks and exhibition views, 1,150 documents of group exhibitions and events, and comprehensive documentation of Geeta Kapur’s critical and curatorial work and Vivan Sundaram’s artistic career and public projects. It also contains a chronology of events at Kasauli Art Centre, the artist-led residency centre integral to the development of cultural studies in India, along with photo-documentation of the Centre from 1976 onwards. In digitising this trove of images, rare publications, and other documentation, ‘Another Life’ opens up the panorama of an art world unfolding through the perceptive visions of two integral participants, and brings it into the public domain for the first time.
Daily talks by Sabih Ahmad, AAA's researcher for India:
Thursday 26 May, 2.30-3.30pm
Friday 27 May, 3-4pm
Saturday 28 May, 4.30-5.30pm
Sunday 29 May 1-2pm
Funded by Burger Collection
Booth supported by 84000 communications, ART HK 11, AXA Art Insurance, IFAS, Pico
Special Thanks to Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram.
Photography: Subhash Chandra