Art on the move
In the carefully constructed boundaries of visual art, the recent times have witnessed a burgeoning gradual rise of technology — be it installations, audio or video. And, with cinema forming a large part of popular culture, there is an exploration of diverse themes with the moving pictures as medium.
Keeping the nation-wide obsession for cinema, Video Galaxy, a part of Bonjour India 2013, presented a selection of videos, curated by Pascale Cassagnau, General Inspector for artistic creation, in charge of audiovisual content, CNAP (Centre National des Arts Plastiques, which promotes diverse genres of contemporary art). “The works reflect the complexity of video art. They come together to form a melting pot of “time-based media”, showcasing contemporary artworks and constituting an interesting video galaxy,” explains Pascale.
“As a part of Bonjour India, we wanted to do something innovative for visual arts. Video art is a medium that is being explored by younger artists like Ranbir Kaleka and Amar Kanwar. We felt that it would be interesting to showcase such a medium. The exhibition is a view of video works, which reflect the diversity of video art since the inception of cinema in 1985,” reveals Flora Boillot, Cultural Project Manager at Institut Français.
Pascale adds, “Galaxie Video presents a selection of videos by both young and established artists, and showcases the artists’ ability to invent a cinematic art form that uses a narrative of images to put the disciplines of painting, landscape and dance into a new perspective.”
The exhibition that opened in Chennai on March 4 at the Lalit Kala Akademi garnered an overwhelming response, reveals Benoit Olivier, Director for Alliance Francaise de Madras. “It’s a very original setting because the video screening requires active participation. You need to put off your phones, sit down and see what’s happening on the screen,” he says.
Flora confesses that it was interesting to study the public reaction. “People actually sat and watched each single video and so many questions were raised. Thought video art has been on for more years in Europe, India is also catching up. It is a lot easier to work in this medium and anybody can make a film. Today, it has been democraticised and this interesting genre follows the evolution of technology,” she adds. Benoit concurs. “The image is a medium in itself, irrespective of the environment – it could be images from cinema, television content or news,” he concludes.
Video Galaxy will be on in Chennai till March 10 and from March 18 to April 2 at Delhi, Lalit Kala Akademi.
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