Showcasing the beautiful mosaic
of British-Indian folk traditions, artistes from the two frontiers converged at the historic Victoria Memorial today recreating the street art of, say Birbhum and Birmingham, on the marbled archways.
"Our exhibition brings to the fore a mosaic of art works including drawing, painting, film, performances, costumes, decoration, suffused with discourse and understated satire," Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller, two British artistes having conceptualized the Folk Archive, travelling continents, said.
The exhibition consists work from prisoners, community groups, Notting Hill carnival troupes, pop fans, teenagers - in short across segments, presenting the populist form before another country having shared similar traditions and pasts," Kane said today.
"And when you hear the folk musicians of Bengal, the baul singers, strumming up their stringed instrument in the same platform you can sense why the saying goes about merger of different cultural strands and about borders having ceased to exist when music invades," Deller said.
"Folk Archive blurs the lines between traditional categories of fine arts, design, craft, folk and daily creativity. Folk Archive demonstrates through its quirkiness - the presentation of hand-crafted objects, festivals, and the aspirations of people that art is something not removed from our daily lives," the artistes said.
The duo will make a trip to Bolpur, - the red earth land, the place of baul singers and having Tagore's dream abode as Visva Bharati this month.
Placing side by side the Indian folk artistes, the essentially British art exhibition, is aimed at opening an unconventional and layered cultural dialogue, Kane, the motivator behind the show as stared by Deller, said.
"We had been planning to hold this for past four year. The preparations went on and on," Kane said.
Folk Archives' is essentially a collection of things that the individuals came through. Part of British Council collection it has travelled to Belgrade, Paris, Milan and Shanghai previously.
