Public Programs

Conversation: Rajyashri Goody, Sajan Mani, Swapnaa Tamhane, Birender Yadav

Monday, January 10, 2022, 12:30 PM EST
In English
Free, online
Zoom, YouTube

Focusing on the emergence of Dalit literature and poetry, artists Sajan Mani, Rajyashri Goody, and Birender Yadav, along with curator Swapnaa Tamhane, will delve into the histories of access to literacy, the life and work of early activists such as Poykayil Appachan and Jyotirao Phule, and the poetry issued from the Dalit Panther movement. Further, this conversation will expand on the implications of caste as violence in consideration of histories of labour and the colonial imprint.

Conversation : Sohrab Hura, Prajakta Potnis, Swapnaa Tamhane

Friday, November 12, 2021, 12:30 PM EST
In English
Free, online
Zoom, YouTube

Watch the video

Join artists Sohrab Hura and Prajakta Potnis and curator Swapnaa Tamhane for a conversation on the disembodied and overburdened state of the body in the Indian social and political landscape. Considering the respective role of photography and painting in Hura’s and Potnis’s work, this exchange will examine image-making, as well as the production and circulation of “fake” images through Whatsapp. With Potnis accounting for the traces left by labour within the body and Hura primarily documenting people who live along India’s coastline, the body in this conversation will be approached as a protagonist, a membrane, and a vessel for politics.

Screening

An Indian Story (1982, dir. Tapan Bose and Suhasini Mulay) and Mukti Chai (1977 dir. Utpalendu Chakraborty) with commentary by Dipti Gupta

Tuesday, November 23, 5:00 PM
At the Gallery
Free, in English
By RSVP, mask and proof of vaccination required.

Considering the premise of Constitutions, professor and filmmaker Dipti Gupta has drawn from Concordia University’s collection of Indian independent documentaries to offer a lens through which to examine India’s current political, social and visual environment. Gupta will screen An Indian Story (1982), Tapan Bose and Suhasini Mulay’s trenchant documentary on caste violence in Bihar, and Mukti Chai (1977), Utpalendu Chakraborty’s short and forceful call for political prisoners’ freedom, before sharing commentary on the current politicization of the visual field in Indian media. On the occasion of this rare opportunity to see foundational Indian political documentaries, Gupta will provide a long view on struggles for human rights and representation in India from the late twentieth century to today and open a discussion on the increasing fraught terrain of popular media.

Click here to register for this event.

This presentation is thanks to the Visual Collections Repository, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University.

Tour in Arabic

Wednesday, December 8, 5 PM
In the Gallery
Free, in Arabic

Join artist and educator Lynn Kodeih for a tour in Arabic of our current exhibition Constitutions. Curated by Swapnaa Tamhane, the exhibition brings together artists Rajyashri Goody, Sohrab Hura, Sajan Mani, Prajakta Potnis, and Birender Yadav who each examine the persistence of social inequalities, religious discrimination, and caste- and class-based oppression in India today. Part of a recurrent program, these tours reserve space for Arabic speakers in Montreal to meet at the Gallery and engage in critical exchanges on contemporary art and exhibition making.