Dancing with the Devil

Dancing with the Devil is a curatorial project which aims to interrogate and decodes the notions of beauty that circulate in the gallery practices of Contemporary Indian Art.

 The title of the show is inspired by the song of rapper Immortal Technique. The song contains a narrative in which Immortal Technique describes the story of a young man named Billy Jacobs who attempts to join a gang, and in order to prove how "real" he is, he steals, gets into fights, sells crack cocaine, and to finally prove himself, rapes a woman. An intoxicated Jacobs completes this task after covering the woman's face with her shirt, and is unaware of the identity of the woman until he takes the cover from her face. He is repulsed to find that the woman in question is actually his mother, which leads him to commit suicide.

The show focuses on a group of artists who  who live on the edge of contemporary art,  both in terms of art making and 'living as an artist' .  It is a curatorial re visitation of  questions around an ideal 'artist' . We can ask, what is not contemporary art? what are the trends that have the potential to de stabilise how the the word and the praxis of contemporary culture is understood? This  engagement goes beyond 'manner', and focusses into the process of art making itself.  Embracing an understanding of art that is almost suicidal in the context of how the contemporary imagines itself. 

 In this way the show seeks to become a collaboration between the artists Merlin Moli, Chi Muk, Sambaran Das, Moumita Ghosh, Aditi Chitre,  Rishi Dharia and Varnita Mahajan) and the curator. 

There is definitely an engagement with darkness...but what kind of darkness is the show looking at-

• The praxis of contemporary art has created this structure inside which contemporary artist hood exists.   home, studio, gallery, (s), residencies, biennales, fairs and so many things have begun to define the lifestyle of being an artist. But if art has to become independent of market forces, we need to look at artists who survive on the tangents  of structure of contemporary artist-hood. 

• as we explore the political and the personal (and spaces in between)- it is important to interrogate the Contemporary's marriage of politics and beauty. What is the zone beyond that. We will be (re) exploring the content-technique-form-presentation dialogue in New Media Art. 

• We do see a return of analogue in terms of taste and demand. The formal face of contemporary art is changing. Digital polished surfaces seem to have be out of fashion- but this post digital analogue, is still very 'consumable' - : still working within the mainstream idea of beauty.Darkness here is the edge of practice; emerging painting styles that are formally very rooted to the 'painterly'  yet extremely resistant to becoming a 'beautiful object on the wall - as we search for a post contemporary directions,  right  now it is important to focus on the borderline between the beauty and and the ugly. 

The show will be held at the NINE Schools of Art for a period of twenty days starting on the 23rd of April 2016. 

THE MANY DEATHS OF ROHIT VEMULA

The first blow came from his comrades
Realising that his struggles meant nothing to his Marxist brothers, he moved on further left
That was some years ago
Rohit took the blow and like any good fighter
Used the blow to become stronger

Somewhere though, the death had set in
A young Marxist was forced to become a young Dalit Marxist
the world of universities and learning, could not free him from caste suppression
They pushed him deeper into it
Yes, the first blow came from his comrades

The second blow came from the nation
Caste is history they said
Some even said, caste was the culture of the nation
Yet they believed that talking about caste now destroys the nation

Rohit loved justice too
It is a sad one-sided love story
He and his friends felt that Yakub Menon did not get justice
They called some friends to talk about Yakub Menon and justice

A small band of boys, radical and isolated
A small band of boys with a one-sided love affair with justice
Easy to isolate and destroy

A strong South Asian powerhouse began flexing its muscles and nationalism
Such strength against a small band of boys
Dalit Marxists, with a one-sided love affair with justice
Yes the second blow came from the nation

The third blow might have come from us all
Poverty, hunger, pride loneliness and fire
Rohit must have remembered his old Marxist friends 
There were many of them and in large numbers
They had all the organisation and structures
There were many love affairs they still shared

But they were still silent 
Busy with their grand struggle against capitalism
many did connect 
But, they too were isolated, few and sometimes far away 

It is an absence of hope that leads to suicide
A complete absence of hope
Yes, the third blow might have come from us all

Rohit died but left behind a body that was so alive
Finally in death, maybe he just wanted to be
Just a student, bright, political, hounded by institutions; 
a bright citizen who had to leave all hope
Yet in his death, he became more Dalit
His identity was further hounded

Rohit's fire touched many hearts
Many of his older Marxist friends came out on the streets
Marching and chanting
But they brought in their old battles
Fascism and capitalism won over Rohit again

The final (yet)  flow came from his comrades 
Even as his mother led an emotional candlelight march
Even as she was assaulted, arrested
The old Marxist friends stayed inside universities debating nationalism and capitalism

Yes, the final flow came from his comrades 
His narrative does not suit their memory

The room where Rohith killed himself . (Source: Express photo by Harsha Vadlamani) - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/dalit-scholar-rohith-vemula-the-student-the-leader/#sthash.lMlEpZ9R.dpuf