Imaging South Asia

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art organizes a one-day Symposium in collaboration with The Alkazi Foundation
Co-organised in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition, Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular, co-curated by Iftikhar Dadi and Roobina Karode in collaboration with Sharjah Art Foundation, and the launch of the 2023 reader, Unframed: Discovering Image Practices in South Asia edited by Rahaab Allana, co-produced by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts and HarperCollins Publishers India.

This one-day symposium in collaboration with The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts explores present modes of inquiry related to the ‘place’ South Asia, and the ‘idea’ of subcontinental identity as engaged through practice.

With reputed specialists from art production, curation and publishing, these talks question the complex, intersectional dimensions of arts practices in “South Asia” – a divided entity with major new borders gouged into a decolonised landmass. Based on personal experiences and projects, the speakers engage with shifting modes of image practice – fixed and itinerant formats – that have long enabled a deep visual interpretation, assimilation and diffraction of “South Asian” realities, and have continued to challenge existing discourses. How has image culture then transitioned into the contemporary “post-digital” moment and has it drastically altered our concepts of territoriality itself?

The ongoing exhibition Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular showcases the works of around 50 artists from different parts of the world. Organized by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and Sharjah Art Foundation, Pop South Asia is curated by lftikhar Dadi, artist and John H. Burris Professor at Cornell University, and Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of KNMA. Initiated and displayed first at the Sharjah Art Foundation, the exhibition is now presented at KNMA with additional works and parallel projects located in both the Saket and Noida spaces of the museum.

Session details:

• Session 1: New Images and Media
  Speakers:
  Abdul Halik Azeez | Sheelasha Rajbhandari | Rashmi Devi Sawhney Moderator: Shohini Ghosh
• Session 2: Placemaking and Personal History
  Speakers:
  Diwas Raja KC | Sandev Handy | Farah Mulla Moderator: Nancy Adajania
• Session 3: Diaspora and Post-Coloniality
  Speakers:
  Jeanno Gaussi (Online)|Tanzim Wahab(Online)|Sasanka Perera Moderator: Sabeena Gadihoke
• Book Discussion of 2023 reader – Unframed: Discovering Image Practices in South Asia
  Rahaab Allana (editor) in conversation with Arushi Vats