Engaging the audience

Kolkata is a rather unlikely location for a gallery dedicated to experimental art, but Experimenter is thriving

Prateek and his wife Priyanka Raja have made a smooth transition from the corporate world into that of contemporary art. While Prateek worked with Tanishq, Priyanka was a part of the media division at Procter and Gamble. Today, they head Experimenter, the year-old contemporary art gallery in Kolkata. “For us, the gallery is an extension of what we are,” says Prateek, who wants to showcase contemporary art from not just India, but the entire South Asian region.

The ongoing exhibition, “This is Unreal” by Raqs Media Collective, artists Sushanta Mandal and Yamini Nayar, for instance, is typical of the avant garde experimentation sweeping through the art world. The works at the show claim to “examine the duality of identities in the modern world”, letting the viewer decide the “reality” of the work according to her own perception of it.

With eight exhibitions under its belt, Experimenter sells everything, from installations to the more predictable canvases. Most artists create work especially for the exhibition, and no work is priced at more than Rs 10 lakh. The owners say that since they are a private art gallery, there has to commerce involved, but it comes much later — engaging the audience is the priority. “We not only want to make contemporary art accessible to people, but also give young artists an impetus to continue,” says Prateek.

But how has Kolkata reacted to the idea of contemporary art? After all, Experimenter showcases art the city hasn’t seen before. “They may be a little crabby, but they will at least see it before they trash it,” says Prateek. Plus, he feels that since there’s so much happening in Delhi and Mumbai, it is difficult for avant-garde art to grab attention there. Also, since the themes are mostly political — for instance, one of Experimenter’s shows, “SEZ who”, was about SEZs and their implications) — it generally creates a buzz in Kolkata, one of the most politically aware Indian cities.

Ironically though, the gallery’s buyers are mostly from outside the city. “People here tend to look at art as something that reflects human effort by way of brush strokes,” says Prateek. For Kolkata’s sake, let’s hope it changes.