Gargi Gupta tracks the journey of artists Desire Machine Collective from the banks of the Brahmaputra to the upcoming Venice Biennale
For artists who say they stay well away from the gallery circuit and are uninterested in the production of art “objects” — at least not in the way most of us understand them — the Desire Machine Collective’s selection as one of four Indian artists whose works will be displayed at the first official India Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale has catapulted them to the centre of the Indian art economy. It’s a singular achievement for the young artists — Sonal Jain, 36, and Mriganka Madhukaillya, 33.
But what is, perhaps, even more remarkable is that in a country where art is still primarily valued for its decorative attributes, and where most “contemporary” artists whose works are conceptual (as opposed to representational) find it tough going, Jain and Madhukaillya have managed to keep Desire Machine Collective going for seven years, continuing with their experimental, avant garde art practices in Guwahati, so far off the so-called centre in Delhi or Mumbai.
It is this that drew the attention of Ranjit Hoskote, commissioner of the India Pavilion, too, as he scouted for artists “from different locations, histories and economies of art production” who would fit the theme of cultural citizenship, of “what does it mean to be an Indian?” around which he has curated the art-works for the Indian Pavilion. “Desire Machine Collective has a sophisticated, vital practice,” says Hoskote, a well-known critic. “They have very strong regional commitments, yet they have taken their body of work out to the world. They embody what I say, that you don’t have to be metropolitan to be cosmopolitan. Their work is political in essence, highlighting economies that have been superseded and voices that have been silenced, but it is nuanced.”
The seeds of Desire Machine Collective lie in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Jain and Madhukaillya were in Ahmedabad, she teaching at the National Institute of Design and he doing a post-graduation in cinema, when they saw closely the communal violence that followed the burning of the Sabarmati Express on the morning of February 27. It was, says Madhukaillya, something “we failed to understand.” That experience was one reason for their decision to shift back to Guwahati. The other, more important one being their desire to address the “problem”, as Madhukaillya terms it, with “the notion of the north-east”.
“Periferry 1.0” (the pun in the name underlining the centre-margin dialectic), the Collective’s most enduring work, addresses just these issues. Located on an abandoned ferry near Seraighat Bridge — “the region's only link with the mainland,” says Jain — it is a space in which artists are invited to explore “notions of self, identity, borders, nationality and cross-cultural encounters.” Over the past four years, the ferry has been a place where artists from the region, elsewhere in the country and abroad have met, discussed, researched, documented, photographed, staged and engaged with each other and the world outside.
Over the years, the duo has created more tangible works such as digital videos, sound installations which they have shown at a few galleries in India and museums abroad. “Residue”, a video they shot at an abandoned thermal power plant in Chandrapur near Guwahati, was shown last year at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. The Guggenheim was also the site of their sound installation,“Trespassers will be prosecuted” where they used recordings from the sacred groves in Meghalaya. Even Periferry 1.0, which is more of a “curated project” than a work of art, was recreated in the German capital on a three-hour barge ride on the river Spree, with the boat travelling along a route that touched the former East and West Berlins.
It hasn’t been an easy ride for the Collective. Periferry was partly supported by Khoj, the Delhi-based artist-led forum for experimentation, but the arrangement comes to an end this year. The Lalit Kala Akademi has also funded Periferry on a project basis, says Madhukaillya who teaches at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. The international showings help — the Collective will be at the prestigious NGBK Gallery in Berlin later this month. “But often you get a production fee, not a commission as the well-known artists do,” says Jain. The life of an artist was never easy.
