Tracing the History of Independent Initiatives in the Arts in Bangalore: A Presentation by Chinar Shah | Project Showcase@IFA | February 27, 2023

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA)
invites you to
Tracing the History of Independent Initiatives in the Arts in Bangalore
A Presentation by Chinar Shah

Tuesday, February 27, 2024 | 06:30 PM IST onwards | Zoom and Facebook Live

Who exists beyond institutionalised art, what is their history in a city like Bangalore?

Join us at this project showcase, where Chinar Shah speaks to us about a project she undertook recently that was an editorial inquiry into the history of independent initiatives in Bangalore. Through various forms of writings in collaboration with artists, writers and researchers, the work is an attempt to weave a narrative around the economic and political contexts within which independent spaces exist. These include Bar One, Samuha, Jaaga, Maraa, G159, Kanike Studio, Power Cut, Reliable Copy, Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) Forum, to name a few. Chinar attempted to open up and invite engagements in a larger discourse of how generations of artists have created and sustained independent art spaces, personal narratives, and the narratives of the communities involved in these spaces.

The project steers away from the well documented, archived and written history of art in India, that of design colleges, arts and crafts institutes, nationalised art colleges in industrial cities, and so on, to focus on institutions sparked and formed by independent artists or artist collectives.

Click here to register for the presentation on Zoom.

The session will also be streamed live on our Facebook page, for which no prior registration is required.

Chinar is an artist based in Bangalore, and the founder of Home Sweet Home, an exhibition series that uses domestic spaces to show works of art. She is also the co-editor of the book Photography in India: From Archives to Contemporary Practice.

This session is organised as part of Project Showcase@IFA, a series of online presentations to showcase, discuss and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support and implement across programmes.

Image Credits: Chinar Shah

Chinar Shah is the Project Coordinator of the Foundation Project implemented by IFA under the Project 560 programme, made possible with support from BNP Paribas India Foundation.