Arko Datto, Installation view
सावधान! (Attention!), used both as a call for the disciplining of troops, as well as a call to vigilance and wariness, succinctly describes the visceral tension currently felt in India and other countries caught in the grasp of right-wing authoritarian regimes. Most individuals in India are faced with two primary choices: either to succumb to the divisive ideology being propagated through WhatsApp groups and neighborhood shakhas (ideological meetings), or ignore it with the hope that rampant lynchings and unfounded arrests don't reach one's doorstep. A third option--dissent--is shrouded in a cloud of fear and is systematically equated to anti-nationalism.
Saavdhaan: The Regimes of Truth examines this socio-political landscape, highlighting the power of information, as theorized by Michel Foucault, in the control and mobilization of masses. Part of Mahbubani?s series Allies for the Uncertain Futures, the exhibition initiates a conversation between the work of artists and independent media organizations. Together, they strive to challenge state apparatuses and present multiple sides of the tale in the asymmetrical wrest for power. Assembling video, photography, drawing, installation, performance, and more, this multi-sensory experience will be presented within the abandoned underbelly of a stone amphitheater in New Delhi.
Inviting viewers to re-examine these media strategies as forms of control, this exhibition draws attention to the urgent need for citizen action, proposing alternative ways of asserting individual agency within our degenerating democratic systems.
Saavdhaan: The Regimes of Truth was selected through apexart's Open Call. For more information email press@apexart.org.
Saavdhaan: The Regimes of Truth examines this socio-political landscape, highlighting the power of information, as theorized by Michel Foucault, in the control and mobilization of masses. Part of Mahbubani?s series Allies for the Uncertain Futures, the exhibition initiates a conversation between the work of artists and independent media organizations. Together, they strive to challenge state apparatuses and present multiple sides of the tale in the asymmetrical wrest for power. Assembling video, photography, drawing, installation, performance, and more, this multi-sensory experience will be presented within the abandoned underbelly of a stone amphitheater in New Delhi.
Inviting viewers to re-examine these media strategies as forms of control, this exhibition draws attention to the urgent need for citizen action, proposing alternative ways of asserting individual agency within our degenerating democratic systems.
Saavdhaan: The Regimes of Truth was selected through apexart's Open Call. For more information email press@apexart.org.
Special thanks to the Kalakar Trust for their donation of the exhibition venue.
Shaunak Mahbubani is a nomadic curator currently based in New Delhi, India. They primarily pursue projects under the series Allies for the Uncertain Futures, which was initiated in 2016 and focuses on excavating the possibilities of socio-political, ecological, and techno-evolutionary futures through the lens of non-duality. They are keenly interested in complicating boundaries between the artwork and the viewer through the deployment of participatory devices, diffusions, and the use of alternatives to the white cube. Mahbubani is also currently Curator of Programming for The Gujral Foundation, an international not-for-profit foundation supporting art and culture.
Shaunak Mahbubani is a nomadic curator currently based in New Delhi, India. They primarily pursue projects under the series Allies for the Uncertain Futures, which was initiated in 2016 and focuses on excavating the possibilities of socio-political, ecological, and techno-evolutionary futures through the lens of non-duality. They are keenly interested in complicating boundaries between the artwork and the viewer through the deployment of participatory devices, diffusions, and the use of alternatives to the white cube. Mahbubani is also currently Curator of Programming for The Gujral Foundation, an international not-for-profit foundation supporting art and culture.
