Amar Kanwar
08 Mar - 12 Apr 2008
The Lightning Testimonies, 2007
8 Channel Vudeo Installation
Synchronized, Colour and b/w, Sound,
32 minutes and 31 seconds, Loop
8 Channel Vudeo Installation
Synchronized, Colour and b/w, Sound,
32 minutes and 31 seconds, Loop
AMAR KANWAR
Amar Kanwar
March 8 th 2008 - April 12 th 2008
Opening : Saturday 8 th March, 2008 from 6:pm to 8:pm
Marian Goodman Gallery is delighted to present for the first time in its space in Paris an exhibition of the Indian artist Amar Kanwar. During the time of the exhibition from March, 8th to April, 12th 2008, four pieces will be shown: The Lightning Testimonies (2007), The Bodhi Tree (2005), Henningswaer (2006) and The Smile (2007).
Amar Kanwar's poetic documentary films and video works explore the political, social, economic and ecological conditions of the Indian subcontinent, often through stories and experiences. Much of his work traces the legacy of decolonisation and partition, with the splitting of families, sectarian violence and border conflicts forming recurrent motifs. Interwoven throughout are investigations of family relations, gender and sexuality, philosophical and religious questions, and the processes of globalisation. Through images, ritual objects, literature, poetry and song, Kanwar creates lyrical, meditative film essays that do not aim to represent trauma or political situations so much as to find ways through them; Kanwar's work looks deeply into the causes and effects, and of how they are translated into everyday life and cultural forms.
The Lightning Testimonies, 2007
8 Channel Video Installation
Synchronized, Colour and b/w, Sound,
32 minutes and 31 seconds, Loop
Amar Kanwar's new work The Lightning Testimonies (2007) is a multi-channel video that reflects upon a history of conflict in the Indian subcontinent through experiences of sexual violence. In this exploration, multiple submerged narratives are revealed, sometimes in people, images and memories, and at other times in objects from nature and everyday life that stand as silent but surviving witnesses. In all the narratives, the body is central - as a site for honour, hatred and humiliation and also for dignity and protest.
The Lightning Testimonies creates an experience that emerges from a constellation of eight synchronized choreographed projections with sound tracks that lead to disparate narratives that then converge into a single projection. As the stories unfold, women from different times and regions come forward. The multiple projections speak to them directly, in an effort to understand how such violence is resisted, remembered and recorded by individuals and communities.
Submerged narratives appear, disappear and are then reborn in another vocabulary at another time. Using a range of visual vocabularies, The Lightning Testimonies transports us beyond the realm of suffering into a space of quiet contemplation, where resilience creates the potential for transformation.
Henningsvaer, 2006
Single Channel Video Loop, 15 Minutes
Numbing were the turn of events, bewildering was the journey into exile, tragic was the smile of the bureaucracy, forced were the associations between hope and home, involuntary was the merger between past and present - thin was the line between paradise and prison.
Henningsvaer was filmed mostly through glass, and is located on the famous cod fishing island of Henningsvaer in Norway in the Arctic Circle.
The Bodhi Tree, 2005
Single Channel Video Loop, 7 Minutes 4 seconds
Sitt Nyein Aye is a graduate of the prestigious State School of Fine Arts and a well-known artist in Burma. After the military crackdown on pro democracy demonstrations in August 1988, Sitt had to escape from Burma. He now lives in exile in New Delhi where he continues to practice as an artist.
The Bodhi Tree was filmed in his studio in New Delhi.
The Smile, 2007
Single Channel Video Loop, 31 seconds
The next morning Senior General Than Shwe Supreme Head of the Burmese Military Dictatorship visited the cremation memorial site of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi to pay his respects. The Burmese dictator laid a wreath, offered rose petals and his aides smiled.
This happened on the 25th of October 2004.
Selected awards and exhibitions
Amar Kanwar was born in 1964 in New Delhi (India), where he still lives and works.
He is the recipient of the 1st Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art from Norway , a Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Maine College of Art, USA , the MacArthur Fellowship in India, the Golden Gate Award ( San Francisco International Film Festival). His recent solo exhibitions have been at the Whitechapel Gallery , London ( 2007 ) ,APJ Media Gallery , New Delhi ( 2007 ) , National Musuem in Oslo ( 2006 ). Amar Kanwar's recent exhibitions include: ( 2007 ) Documenta 12 , Kassel ,Germany , Thermocline of Art-New Asian Waves, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, GeoPoetics, Centro Guerrero,Granada, Spain , After Shock : Contemporary Art Norwich ,UK , Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Vienna , ( 2006 ) Sydney Biennale, Australia ; Image War: Contesting Images Of Political Conflict . ISP Exhibition -Whitney Museum, New York ; Sub-contingent Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo , Turin. Italy ; (2002) Documenta 11 in Kassel.
Amar Kanwar
March 8 th 2008 - April 12 th 2008
Opening : Saturday 8 th March, 2008 from 6:pm to 8:pm
Marian Goodman Gallery is delighted to present for the first time in its space in Paris an exhibition of the Indian artist Amar Kanwar. During the time of the exhibition from March, 8th to April, 12th 2008, four pieces will be shown: The Lightning Testimonies (2007), The Bodhi Tree (2005), Henningswaer (2006) and The Smile (2007).
Amar Kanwar's poetic documentary films and video works explore the political, social, economic and ecological conditions of the Indian subcontinent, often through stories and experiences. Much of his work traces the legacy of decolonisation and partition, with the splitting of families, sectarian violence and border conflicts forming recurrent motifs. Interwoven throughout are investigations of family relations, gender and sexuality, philosophical and religious questions, and the processes of globalisation. Through images, ritual objects, literature, poetry and song, Kanwar creates lyrical, meditative film essays that do not aim to represent trauma or political situations so much as to find ways through them; Kanwar's work looks deeply into the causes and effects, and of how they are translated into everyday life and cultural forms.
The Lightning Testimonies, 2007
8 Channel Video Installation
Synchronized, Colour and b/w, Sound,
32 minutes and 31 seconds, Loop
Amar Kanwar's new work The Lightning Testimonies (2007) is a multi-channel video that reflects upon a history of conflict in the Indian subcontinent through experiences of sexual violence. In this exploration, multiple submerged narratives are revealed, sometimes in people, images and memories, and at other times in objects from nature and everyday life that stand as silent but surviving witnesses. In all the narratives, the body is central - as a site for honour, hatred and humiliation and also for dignity and protest.
The Lightning Testimonies creates an experience that emerges from a constellation of eight synchronized choreographed projections with sound tracks that lead to disparate narratives that then converge into a single projection. As the stories unfold, women from different times and regions come forward. The multiple projections speak to them directly, in an effort to understand how such violence is resisted, remembered and recorded by individuals and communities.
Submerged narratives appear, disappear and are then reborn in another vocabulary at another time. Using a range of visual vocabularies, The Lightning Testimonies transports us beyond the realm of suffering into a space of quiet contemplation, where resilience creates the potential for transformation.
Henningsvaer, 2006
Single Channel Video Loop, 15 Minutes
Numbing were the turn of events, bewildering was the journey into exile, tragic was the smile of the bureaucracy, forced were the associations between hope and home, involuntary was the merger between past and present - thin was the line between paradise and prison.
Henningsvaer was filmed mostly through glass, and is located on the famous cod fishing island of Henningsvaer in Norway in the Arctic Circle.
The Bodhi Tree, 2005
Single Channel Video Loop, 7 Minutes 4 seconds
Sitt Nyein Aye is a graduate of the prestigious State School of Fine Arts and a well-known artist in Burma. After the military crackdown on pro democracy demonstrations in August 1988, Sitt had to escape from Burma. He now lives in exile in New Delhi where he continues to practice as an artist.
The Bodhi Tree was filmed in his studio in New Delhi.
The Smile, 2007
Single Channel Video Loop, 31 seconds
The next morning Senior General Than Shwe Supreme Head of the Burmese Military Dictatorship visited the cremation memorial site of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi to pay his respects. The Burmese dictator laid a wreath, offered rose petals and his aides smiled.
This happened on the 25th of October 2004.
Selected awards and exhibitions
Amar Kanwar was born in 1964 in New Delhi (India), where he still lives and works.
He is the recipient of the 1st Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art from Norway , a Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Maine College of Art, USA , the MacArthur Fellowship in India, the Golden Gate Award ( San Francisco International Film Festival). His recent solo exhibitions have been at the Whitechapel Gallery , London ( 2007 ) ,APJ Media Gallery , New Delhi ( 2007 ) , National Musuem in Oslo ( 2006 ). Amar Kanwar's recent exhibitions include: ( 2007 ) Documenta 12 , Kassel ,Germany , Thermocline of Art-New Asian Waves, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, GeoPoetics, Centro Guerrero,Granada, Spain , After Shock : Contemporary Art Norwich ,UK , Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Vienna , ( 2006 ) Sydney Biennale, Australia ; Image War: Contesting Images Of Political Conflict . ISP Exhibition -Whitney Museum, New York ; Sub-contingent Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo , Turin. Italy ; (2002) Documenta 11 in Kassel.