6.30 pm
Inaugural conference of the Arts, Societies and Contemporary Mutations chair
Bose’s hybrid mode of practice interweaving long-term research and engagement with local communities including his own family history accentuates certain subaltern experiences of the marginalised yet resilient in post-Partition Bengal. Enmeshing fiction and reality, Bose’s work opens up daring realms of memory, desire, vulnerability and identity.
In parallel with his long and meticulous research work, S. Sankar Bose creates what he calls alternative archives, which are representations of an incident and its repercussions. He reconstructs archival materials and oral history into photography, films, alternative archives, and artist books. These alternative archives are both the only traces of these events and reflections on their repercussions.
The conference will be held in English but interpretation to French will be available
Presentation of the conference by Soumya Sankar Bose
Image as alternative archives
I will present on two of my projects, namely, 'Where the Birds Never Sings' and 'A Discreet Exit Through Darkness'.
‘Where the Bird Never Sings’ (2017-20) deals with researching and re-enacting memories of the survivors of the Marichjhapi massacre (which caused 3000 people missing over a night) that happened on 31st January, 1979 at the Sundarbans, India. The project mainly focuses on caste issues and communal conflicts in post-partition India resulting in forceful eviction of lower caste refugees from the island of Marichjhapi.
'A Discreet Exit Through Darkness' revolves around the incident of my mother's disappearance in 1969. Narrated by my reimagined grandfather, ‘A Discreet Exit Through Darkness’, a VR360 feature film, transports the viewer deep into the psyche of a protracted, devastating search in 1969 Midnapore.
In the conference, I will talk through how I tried to create an alternative visual archive on events from the past which have barely any archival materials or documentation. while developing the visual archive, I not only highlight the event, but also take into account the 40-50 years in between the time it happened and the present. Thus, 'Where the Birds Never Sing' becomes more of a social archive whereas 'A Discreet Exit Through Darkness' can be considered as a family archive. I use the word 'alternative' to refer to the fact that it is not archives of one particular historical event but a representation of an incident and its aftermath perceived through oral memories and extensive research. It is interesting to note the alternative visual archives I developed become the sole existing visual archives for these events.
'A Discreet Exit Through Darkness', Inkjet print on archival paper, mounted on dibond.
