With Gandhi at its heart, India returns to the Venice Biennale after 8 yrs

This is the second time that the biennale is seeing an official India Pavilion, with works of seven artists featuring in a group exhibition, writes Veenu Sandhu

A month before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, Mahatma Gandhi wrote him a letter imploring him to “prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state”. That letter, which began with “Dear friend” and which Hitler, as we all know, did not heed, is now floating in fog. Literally. Artist Jitish Kallat has projected the letter onto fog to create an immersive video installation called Covering Letter (2012) that allows visitors to step into that moment in history just before World War II. The artwork is on display at La Biennale di Venezia, or simply the Venice Biennale — the world’s oldest international art exhibition to which India has returned after a gap of eight years.

This is the second time that the biennale is seeing an official India Pavilion, with works of seven artists featuring in a group exhibition — Our Time for a Future Caring — curated by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), which is also the pavilion’s principal partner. India’s return to the 124-year-old event is the result of a unique public-private partnership that has seen the coming together of the ministry of culture, KNMA, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) whose director general is the project’s commissioner.

Atul Dodiya’s Broken Branches | Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art

One of the ‘Haripura Panels’ by Nandalal Bose | Photo: National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi

With India celebrating 150 years of Gandhi, each of the exhibits links to the Mahatma — some in obvious ways, others through the artist’s reflection of his spirit and philosophy. The exhibition opens with 16 “National Treasure” category posters — the “Haripura Panels” — by Nandalal Bose, the artist who also illustrated the Constitution of India. Painted in 1930s, these tempera works, which are now part of NGMA’s collection, were commissioned by Gandhi to adorn the pandals for the Haripura Congress session. Rather simplistic works that depict mundane scenes of Indian life — man ploughing the field, dhaki or drummer, blacksmith, cotton spinning and so on — these are being shown in Europe for the first time.

Jitish Kallat’s Covering Letter | Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Also on display is Atul Dodiya’s Broken Branches (2002) — exact replicas of the wooden cabinets displaying memorabilia from the Gandhi memorial museum in Porbandar. Only here, it’s objects from Dodiya’s life and experiences that fill the cabinets. Dodiya’s fascination with Gandhi, whom he calls an “artist of non-violence”, has steered his work for years.

M F Husain’s Zamin | Photo: National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi

MF Husain in Old Delhi | Photo: Richard Bartholomew

M F Husain’s Zamin (1955), which represents Gandhi’s village republics, Shakuntala Kulkarni’s wearable sculpture and photo-performances, Of Bodies and Cages (2010-2012), which probe the ideas of freedom and non-violence, particularly for women, and the works of Ashim Purkayastha, G R Iranna and Rummana Hussain are also part of India at Venice. 

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The 58th edition of the Venice Biennale will be on till November 24. For details: www.labiennale.org/en