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Invitation to India revealed, 2007 Photo Antonio
Manfredi
Vibha Gahotra_Where are we going?, 2006 Interactive work
Gigi Scaria _Picture perfect, 2006 Video
Ashis Ghosh_Flying bullets, 2006 Installation
Pooja Iranna_Pillars, 2003 Installation
Rati
Basu_Living-The beauty parlour, 1994
Nirmalendu Das_We destroyed Dodos, 2006
Sukanja Das_ Untitled, 1994
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India revealed
Pictures, photographs, installations, videos
CURATED
BY
Antonio Manfredi
May
26th- July 10th 2007
OPENING
May 26th 18.30 pm
Pulak
Dutta, Rati Basu, Arpan Mukherjee, Nirmalendu Das,
Ashis Ghosh, Sukanja Das,
Gigi Scaria, Jenson Anto,
Pooja Iranna, Vibha Galhotra, Shreya Mukherjee
MUSIC
PERFORMANCE
by “Dioniso Group”
SPONSORED BY:
 Italian
Cultural Institute of New Delhi, India
 Indian
consulate of Naples
Contemporary Art Center_Santiniketan-West Bengal, India
Saturday the 26th of May a wide selection of Indian
artist will be presented in the CAM_Casoria Contemporary
Art Museum exhibition “India revealed”. The artworks are
a selection of engravings, paintings, installations
multimedia works and videos by Indian artists and
photographs taken in India by Antonio Manfredi.
The “India revealed exhibition“ has originated from a
trip in a magical and contradictory part of the world,
looking for emerging Indian artists.
Travels into the houses and personal lives of some
artists portrayed by Manfredi’s lens while they are
preparing their artworks for the exhibition at
CAM_Casoria.
A pursuit directed not only to the exterior aspects of
being an artist both in East and West, but with the
purpose of analysing the real role of a contemporary
artist who has to show not only the invisible, but more
than this, the modern artist has to emphasize problems
and truths difficult to confess. It is a sociological
and introspective search initiating from the Neapolitan
suburbs to mystic places without time.
CONCEPT
A terrible noise and a sultry hot weather, colourful
people in motion, characters and costumes, which are
part of a visual myth: this is the common view of India.
But India is the continent REVEALED by the
travel-pursuit of Antonio Manfredi: a mixture of
ancestral and modern myths. The artist’s perception of
reality is deep-rooted between an undeletable tradition
impossible to forget and a new technological West.
Manfredi’s photographs are not just a mere reportage but
real artworks. Its lens sees order where there is chaos:
in the midst of noises and colours Manfredi foresees an
ancestral design, a mystical repetition of the features
of the mankind. Mysticism is destroyed by the strength
of the Sacred River with colourful goods, rainbow
flowers, animal icons, hundreds of taxis, and on the
background humanity is only a passive object, just a
frame.
The exhibition route is designed to allow people to
discover contemporary Indian art and expression which
are similar to the western ones but freer and in search
of their identity. The India world, in its evolution,
gives us artworks made of contrasting techniques and
themes, with diversified means and expressions.
The artist Suksnja Das portrays a modern votive
offering in which the Virgin Mary is substituted by the
Statue of Liberty. Beneath the feet of the Madonna there
is a human figure while overhead an angel holds a banner
saying “Global”. The multimedia works of the Indian
artist Vibha Galhotra constituted of 2 videos
based on existential questions have a strong accusing
impact. A collage of newspaper items and a flow of war
scenes transform daily horrors into works of art. The
digital interactive works symbolize a constant
construction and evolution of abstract shapes and an
amorphous humanity without any ethnic identification.
Beneath a mosquito net lies the outline of a corps which
tries to protect itself from bullets with wings, which
symbolize that death lies over us all the time. One over
the other like a totem Pooja Iranna’ boxes
picture India’s modern skyscrapers, like colourful toys
for powerful children. Gigi Scaria’s video, which
is not less dramatic, portrays a young adolescent who
has to make calendars in a stuffy room, moving in a
mechanical way similar to a robot. Here Indian labour
becomes global trade.
The photographs taken by Antonio Manfredi in India will
be exposed and sold to finance the CAM_Casoria
exhibitions.
Graziella Melania Geraci
Translated by Chiara Patitucci |
