This installation is an archive from the workshop titled “Who will write the history of tears?” The workshop conducted by Vidisha Saini was held at Kathputli Colony(New Delhi) with support from Poornima Sardana , centered at Pearl Academy,Noida. A workshop about social practice and alternate history making had almost thirty student participants, and other co-narrators from the colony. The process followed learning from Vidisha’s previously initiated project “You LikeMr. Shekhar” which was a narrative from a rehabilitation project site in Hampi(Karnataka). Kathputli Colony,a large colony of artists and other migrants, is currently in the process of being rehabilitated. This archive as invited into 3 Sentences on the Curatorial by Prac forum at the initiation of Rahul Bhattacharya.
--------------------
The following
is a email conversation between a curator and the keeper of a fleeting archive
Addressed to you
Questions presented by Rahul Bhattacharya
R: What does
this archive mean to you?
This archive is
a way of participating in history, by creating documents of a presence that may
be forgotten in the near future. These are not only documents of existence of Kathputli
Colony but also their erasure, or movement. What are the possible reasons for
these rehabilitation projects: failed government policies?, unforeseen value of
now squatted lands?, many other myths presented as reasons, or just greed?
Similar to
other archives, this one too might have some fiction. What is important is that
it plays a role narrating about communities being obliterated from our
collective memories as well as stories beyond their victimhood.
R: What could it possibly mean to me?
In the
installation of ‘record objects’[1]there is
no guiding text except for location. The archive is performative, it is what
every viewer makes out of it, curiosity is how one leaps into it. One might
form a relationship through identifying the function of the objects, many we
share real-time with or have consumed, and other subjective weaving of stories.
R: Isthis
archive a story or a collection of stories?
Both. Many stories here become a single story on
the tabletop. The story here doesn’t only have to be story of its previous
owner but the ownership you take when you view them, the story you make. So its
singularity or plurality depends on how much is one participating in it.
R: How were
these objects chosen to represent the larger archive?
This archive is an outcome of a workshop that had
almost thirtyparticipants. They worked in groups of 4-5 along with a
co-narrator (a resident of the Kathputli Colony). During the workshop the participants
chose to understand the community by using art form as their initial categories
of engagement. They interacted with puppeteer and magician communities among
others. After spending time, learning from each other’s experiences (groups
sharing their narratives and correlating) and documenting oral histories, participants
were asked to collect objects to speak about their learning.This archive though
built as a part of the workshop, is not in isolation from personal biases as
well as influence of the relationships participants built with the community
and their perception of struggle. And also an outcome of decisions made while
installing.
Archives are products of performances, before they
start performing. They are also institutions. The restrictions of these
institutions may easily be set by how big the bag in which you are carrying
things is. Limitations also come with how one gains access: by being welcomed,
taking permissions, buying or stealing.
R: What does
Kathputli colony mean to you?
Kathputli
Colony is a hub of vibrant communities that does not exist on the map of Delhi,
like a living lore. This is the biggest artists colony in our country.
We as contemporary art practitioners have to see, acknowledge and learn from
the practices and social engagements of the artists coming from these age-old
art practices, and how they have sustained and transformed over centuries.As
our country is a becoming a more capitalist economy Kathputli presents a case
of crossover where there is many times conflict in values of tradition vs
capitalism. The collectiveness, humility, rhythm of life, co-existence, are
among many other things to learn from this community.
R: What could Kathputli colony mean to me?
The first thing
one of the workshop participants said about Kathputli was “not happening”; we
still don’t know what it means. As they engaged more, they started questioning
their own realities. Eventually they said, “these people are more traveled than
us”, “Hindu and Muslim communities live together”, “neighbors jump over each
others roofs to help and to meet”,“they have many wives”, “they know more
languages”, and “they’re more talented then we are”. Initially some also said
it’s better to remove such a dirty colony, but over time they humbled to
appreciate these livelihoods and participate in them.
The communities
that surround us give us our identity. We need to know our neighbor to know
more about ourselves. We have to not let institutions of power control our
identity, like governments dictating what your nation’s culture or religion is.
One has to seek and share. Perhaps you could identify your own skillset on how to
tell stories, and then study muted communities and spaces. It’s important for
us to make “queerness” visible to challenge the hegemonic narrative.
[1]Record Objects’ is a vernacular archiving term.
Here the record stands for what the archivist claims it’s a record of. Which in
this case is of the community where it comes from, and events that surrounded
it.
