Mumbai artist Shilpa Gupta and Rashid Rana from Lahore in Pakistan are set to share a exhibit at the upcoming 56th Venice Biennale, nonprofit organisation Gujral Foundation announced on Saturday.
The two artists are set to work together on a shared presentation under the title "My East is your West" in the centre of Venice during the Biennale that stretches from May 5 to October 31 this year.
The exhibition is being organised by the Gujral Foundation, which was founded in 2008 by Mohit and Feroze Gujral, the son and daughter-in-law of artist Satish Gujral.
The non-profit organisation supports contemporary art and design on the Indian subcontinent.
"I was at the Venice Biennale where I was standing in the cold when a passerby wanted to know where the Indian Pavilion was. I said there was none. Then another passerby came and enquired about the Pakistani Pavilion and again I replied in the negative," Feroze Gujaral said at the ongoing India Art Fair.
The passerby turned out to be contemporary Pakistani artist of Indian origin Rashid Rana, said Feroze who says the genesis of the shared pavilion was thus born.
"This is a really really ambitious fun dream. It is not something that can ever take the place of a national pavilion, but just come and experience India, come experience Pakistan at Venice," she said.
For the upcoming project, the Gujral Foundation has partnered with the Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta with Natasha Ginwala as Curatorial Advisor and International Curator of Public Programming.
"We are exited about the two artists whose practices have been seminal to the subcontinent but also in the region we are very excited with the paring," Ginwala said.
