2006-04-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

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Kunst Werke coference, Berlin

These are the latest pictures from the long trail of events I was engaged in over last one year or more. The Berlin conference for the young curators was so rejuvenating that not mentioning that in bold would be a mistake, for that showed how amid various differences of orientation these young people are growing up to be curators of the future are engaged and self reflexive.

We, a group of young curators were lucky enough to be a part of a seminar occasioned by the Berlin Biennale 4 . This was co- hosted by the Goethe Institute and Kunst Werke, and supported by Allianz corporation and the BMW group and made of neatly packed events organised by Christoph Bertrams, Director of Goethe Institut and Natasha Patresin with Fredericke Henz ( of Goethe ) and their team at the KW. There were serious seminars artists interviews, talk sessions, events, studio visits, spectacular openings and numerous parties to add colour to the events.

The pictures and videos that I salvaged from that short visit may go to show how these mega events like biennales are structured.

Over and above this Biennale was very different from the previous ones, in its orientation. It had a threesome all Italian curatorial team: Maurizio cattalan, Massimiano Gioni and Ali Subotnik.

Extrermely energetic and bold,. they took, to my mind enormous risks to put forward a structured but non-thematic show, housing them in the most unexpected places like a church , a graveyard, a few private apartments and an abandoned Jewish school for girls. Though the public impression was that there was a dominance of the new media we could sense a mixing up of categories, moving between objects, representations, drawings, photographs and what may be called conceptual works, and all these were housed in the twelve different spots in Auguststrasse.

more later...

sessions with the artists

L to R:Anshuman,Marko,Thomas Byrle,Carlos Van Eeden (artists) &Adnan

Curriculum Vitae

Anshuman Das Gupta
Born: 14.7.1967

Lecturer, History of Art, Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan ( Since 1997,August )
· Completed Graduation in Art History in1990,from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan;
· Completed Masters in Art History from M.S.University of Baroda,1992;
· Did a Film Appreciation course,at the Film and Television Institute,Pune,India1993
· Was affiliated to Baroda as a research fellow;1992-96

Publications:

1. Read a paper at the Berlin Biennale Young curators conference, March 23rd.2006

2.Seminar paper read at the National conference at Delhi on cross cultural performance, IIC, Delhi, March 2006
3. Seminar paper read at the National conference at Baroda,
On the new Art History, Feb, 2006
4. seminar paper in the international conference on Binodebehari: Benodebehari and his Tools, Feb, 2005 ( to be published)

5. seminar paper on Films on Art, Kolkata, June,05, ( to be published)
6. Seminar paper for the Bhubaneswar conference on Public sphere, July,05, ( to be published)
7. seminar paper on Postmodernism at the International art workshop/ seminar at Kokrajhar, Assam/ BTC, Dec,2004

8. essay for the Searching Lines titled- Unreasonable Animals: Picasso’s Gambit, Nov,2003

9. research article titled Museareality, Modernity, Desire: fabulous encounters; for the journal Nandan, Department of History of Art, Santiniketan, Nov. 2003-11-23
10. introductory note titled- A Graphic Workstation Report for the printmaking folio the Lalit Kala Kendra, Kolkata and the Graphic Art Department ( jointly convened workshop), 2003
11. Written for the Journal Marg ( book version) , titled- Sculptural Embodiments , 2000
12. Santiniketan Architecture : Nature as Artifice, 2003
[A seminar/ lecture version on the same topic was presented at the Indian Institute of Technology, (Kanpur), 2002]

13. essay for the Lalit Kala Contemporary , called Question of Authenticity : paintings of our time, (Lalit Kala Contemporary, No.47), 2003.

14. Paper titled Migrant ideas ,Transitional Forms: Paintings of our Time, presented during the seminar/ exhibition at the Max Mueller Bhavan,( Indo German Cultural Center, N.Delhi, April, 2003

15. paper titled: State of Images :The Specular Body, on occasion of the seminar co-hosted by Kala Bhavan, and Lalit Kala Kendra, Kolkata, March,2003
16. paper titled- New Medium, New Images on occasion of the Multimedia Seminar, at Art Film Theatre, hosted by the Media Centre, Lalit Kala, Nandan, Kolkata,2003
17. article /paper for the Baroda Seminar titled The New Art History and the New Images: A question of Interface , ( in book form) , February,2003

18. article titled- ‘ Rethinking Avant garde: a possible narrative of otherness, for the art journal Nandan, (Dec. 2002 )

19. an interview based piece on Jogen Chowdhury for the Art India Magazine, Bombay,2001.

20. Completed a final version of the paper presented in the Rabindra Bharati University seminar on Installation and Internationalism.

21. an article for the CIMA,(Centre for International Modern Art), Calcutta; all India show of the Art of Bengal , titled: The Trapeze Acts of the selves,2001.

22. an article for the art journal/Book-Marg : On Indian Contemporary Sculptures in the last two decades; titled- Sculptural embodiments: the last two decades , Published in.2000

23. [A seminar/ lecture version on the same topic was presented at the Indian Institute of Technology, (Kanpur), 2002]

24. an essay titled- Allegories among the Signs of our time for the Art History journal Nandan, 2000

25. essay for the Bishwa Banga Sammelan – (an international conference on the art of Bengal), Calcutta, ( In the catalogue accompanying the show);titled-Calcutta:The Rise of Urban Iconography, 1999-2000.

26. Seminar paper presented during the International seminar- The Edge of the Century, titled- Paintings Among the Signs of Our Time ,British Council, N. Delhi,1999

27. Authored a seminar article( being published), during the International seminar, The Calcutta Metropolitan Art Festival, titled- Museum and the desire for modernity, 1997.

28. Co- authored two articles: ( one of them being on Installation in India) Published by Lalit Kala Contemporary, ,( Journal of the National Academy of arts) No.41, 1996, titled- The Transitional Modern:Figuring Post-modernism in India;

29. second one was- Art, Ideology and subjectivity, by Indian Institute of Advance Studies, Shimla, India,1994.

Wrote a few exhibition catalogues From 1994-2005:
One being for the show hosted by the British Council, N. Delhi, For Indian Printmakers Guild, (2000), for Prithvi Art gallery, Mumbai,1997; For CIMA, Calcutta,2001; and for Gandhar, Calcutta,2005, For Ashim Purkayastha at Anant Art gallery, N.Delhi,2006
· Seminars:

Participated at the BB4 workshop for 7 days,Goethe Institute and KW, Berlin,March22-28,2006

Read paper at the khoj outreach programme, feb,2006
Attended the international seminar on Globalization and the multiple Cultures, Mumbai, Feb 2006
Read Paper at The national conference on the New Art History, Baroda, February, 2006
Read Paper at the National Seminar on The Public Sphere,Bhubaneswar, July,2005
Read paper at a international conference on Postmodernism, Assam, Dec 2004,
Attended an international conference on curation ( TAC) in new Delhi, December,2004,
Conducted a three day long seminar on Postmodernism at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, March, 2005
Presented papers at the two conferences held in Calcutta, Feb, March, 2005
Conducted a workshop on cinema ( 7 days) , IIT, Kanpur
Participated in a symposium on the theory practice isuues at the Goldsmiths college, University of London, June,2003; Two seminars at The New Tate Gallery,London,Jun- July’03; Worked on a reseach project at the British Library,June-July’03
Co- convened and Presented a paper At the Co-Hosted Seminar With Lalit Kala Academy, Kolkata, and Derparment of History of Arts, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, 2003;

Invited to read paper at the seminar on Migration, N. Delhi, 2003;

Was invited as a paper reader at the Multimedia/ video workshop, Kolkata, 2003;

Was Invited to two seminars- one, at the Department of Art History, M.S.U. Baroda, 2002; another at the department of humanities, IIT, Kanpur ;

Conducted a workshop at the IIT,Kanpur, Feb, 2002 on Film Viewing and Film Genres.
Was invited to present a paper in a seminar coducted by the Benares Hindu University,Benares ( Feb-2000)
Presented paper at the Calcutta Metropolitan Art Festival, ( International ) seminar,Calcutta,‘97
Presented a Paper at the international seminar at British Council New Delhi, (titled:On the Edge of the Century) , 1998.
Participated and presented paper at the annual seminar of the Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (1996).
Presented papers at the Departmental Seminars at the Department of Art History, Faculty Of Fine Arts, M.S.University of Baroda, Gujarat, from1992 to 1996

· Curatorial Ventures:
Curated Three shows: one at the campus of M. S. university of Baroda, this was curated and written at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.University of Baroda, India, on the young painter Prabhakaran,K.(94);
Another one In New Delhi for the French Embassy , New Delhi, on the occasion the Birth Centinary of Dramatist Antonin Artaud(1997);
Authored and collaborated in a large scale installation show at Kala Bhavan –1999.
Currently curating at least One large scale show and a small scale show at the central venues in Delhi and Kolkata
· Teaching:
Taught at Various Nationally and Internationally reputed Institutions- namely: At IIT Kanpur as a visiting Faculty ( September to December, 2004) at the National School of Drama, as a guest lecturer, N.Delhi.
Taught at the foreign language department, Jawaharlal Nehru University, N.Delhi, Taught at the National Institute of Design,Ahmedabad under their Science and Liberal Arts Programme;
At the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and taught as a reseach fellow at the Dept. of Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S University Of Baroda. Presently teaching at Kala Bhavan (since 1997) .
· Other engagements:
At present writing three long essays ( one for Marg Publications) and Two book -length works on Contemporary art in the last two decades, Another on Postmodernism (In Bengali)
Have worked as the chief researcher for two films on Art and Santiniketan by an eminent film Director Arun Khopkar. Earlier, was engaged in two films as researcher on the artist K.G.Subramanyan, and on the artist Ramkinker, Directed by Ritaban Ghatak . Made a short video, and authored a few filmscripts.
Taken two workshops at the I.I.T., Kanpur on Film Studies and film production: From script to Cinema in February, 2002, and April,2004

Currently
active as member as well as Chairperson of Khoj Kolkata, an international forum for artistic interaction
Member of the advisory board of the proposed Delhi Biennale

(Anshuman Das Gupta) Department Art History, Kala Bhavan (Fine Arts Faculty),Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, W.B, pin-731235, India ,Ph # ++91 3463 264657 (r); mobiles: #09333510463 , 09333510952; ++91+3463 262751,6lines(O) e-mail: # anshudg@yahoo.com

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