This December, the Indian art world should have gathered in Kerala for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. However, organisational roadblocks delayed that show by one year, leaving a fortuitous void for the Bengal Biennale, which is holding its first edition this month (until 5 January).
The first edition of the Bengal Biennale
Courtesy of the Bengal Biennale
The scope of the exhibition is broad, being held across 13 venues in Shantiniketan and 14 venues in Kolkata, and including works by more than 100 Modern and contemporary artists. It was also put together at short notice: “We started out in April this year with the idea of an art festival in Santiniketan,” said Malavika Banerjee, the director of the Gameplan Foundation which has organised the biennale. “By June, it became overwhelming and we felt that we also needed Kolkata to accommodate the scale of the event. Both cities provide compelling credentials in their own way, and give us a larger canvas to work on as we go forward.”
According to the curatorial note, the theme of “Anka-Banka: Through Cross-Currents”, relates to the act of drawing and its inherent deviations likened to the winding, serpentine flow of a river. Anka (drawing) signifies deliberate marks, while banka (winding) conveys the unpredictability and organic fluidity of an artist’s expression.
Among the major shows is an 85 work retrospective on Rabindranath Tagore, which features a painted ceramic pot that has not been exhibited in a major exhibition since 1932, and a rare crayon drawing of two heads. “Rabindranath being India’s preeminent Modernist and a pathfinder for many who followed, it was only natural to include him as part of the first Bengal Biennale, which included vignettes of its historical signposts besides a large number of modernist and contemporary artists from across India,” says the show’s curator, the eminent art historian R Shivakumar.
The prevalence of large solo shows stands in contrast to most contemporary biennials. Siddharth Shivakumar, the biennial’s curatorial director and R Sivakumar’s son asserts, “I chose to focus (on solo shows) because they allow for a slower, more intimate dialogue with an artist’s work while in a group setting in larger biennales, the individual voice risks becoming an accent in a larger chorus. My intent is to expose visitors to the diversity of artistic practices—not through scattered fragments, but through fuller, more complete narratives that could initiate tangible engagements, while the Bengal Biennale itself is the larger canvas, the collective frame within which these singular projects unfold.”
Tarini Malik, the curator of the British Pavilion at the most recent Venice Biennale who was amongst the visitors during the opening week concurs: “I found the theme (of ‘cross-currents’) to be a poignant way to both understand and appreciate the interconnected nature of the Indian art ecology as a whole – and a great way to absorb the expansiveness of cultural practice in Bengal through the inclusion of art historical giants like Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore alongside contemporary artists.. For me, the exhibition’s greatest strength lies in the entangled narratives, and the tensions and harmonies that unfold between its two hosts, Shantiniketan and Kolkata, where past and present collide in compelling ways.”
Abeer Gupta, a curator at Arthashila, one of the venues in Shantiniketan, acknowledged that the biennial has helped draw in new, diverse and younger audiences from the region and beyond. The space was hosting a centenary archival exhibition on the life and movies of Arundhati Devi, a renowned Bengali actor and director of the 20th century.
Major contemporary artists participating in the biennial include Sudhir Patwardhan, Dayanita Singh, Sheela Gowda, Mithu Sen, Nikhil Chopra, and the recent Jameel Prize winner Ohida Khandakar.
The noted artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, whose mother was a classical singer, was deeply moved by Dayanita Singh’s show Museum of Tanpura at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, chronicling her time spent with some of India’s legendary classical musicians. “She had access to private performances by great classical musicians (in their homes and studios), which is extremely rare since they do not normally allow their privacy to be invaded when they are practicing. Looking at the show, I got the feeling that they were close friends who shared a lot of mutual respect,” she says.
Mithu Sen, one of India’s most prominent conteporary artists, collaborated with local artist Sanyasi Lohar and the Santal village community in Pearson Pally in Shantiniketan for her participatory public art project I am Ol Chiki. She explains why the work is so close to her heart: “As a Bengali-speaking artist, I draw from my experience of linguistic dominance of English world where my mother tongue Bengali fades into memory, subordinated by anglophone power structures. But here I resonate with the Santal spirit and reimagine a Shantiniketan where the local cultural coloniser Bengali steps aside for Santali to speak. By honouring the region’s traditions, the project fosters pride, preserves heritage, and highlights marginalized voices, connecting the personal with the political.”
There was however a sentiment among some younger, local artists that they were not represented adequately. Sivakumar counters that that the concern may be unwarranted, since there are 20 artists from Bengal in the show. Moreover, he points out, many participating artists are also under under the age of 35, like Himangshu Sarma, the GABAA collective, Dhiraj Rabha and Mahesh KS. “One should also consider the ten curatorial fellowships awarded where most recipients are local, and 25 or younger. The chorus of youth would grow louder and stronger, when less burdened by the urgency of now,” he hopes.
During the opening weekend, attendees discussed why the biennial was a timely way to bring the focus back on art from the region, and what would be the roadmap for it going forward. “The name carries with it the impression of an undivided Bengal (now divided between India and Bangladesh),” says Prateek Raja, the founder of the commercial gallery Experimenter and an advisor to the biennal. “Notwithstanding the current politics, we do have a shared history, language, food, culture and a riverine ecology. Over time, the biennale could be a platform which provides artists more ways to connect and exchange ideas across borders.”
