Links Destroyed and Rediscovered

Rise of right wing fundamentalism in Bombay had been gradually affecting the cultural climate of the city but Bombay riots following the Babri Masjid demolition in 92 / 93 raised specific questions concerning the need to recognize cultural difference in a so called cosmopolitan / multicultural city of ‘Mumbai’. Large number of people from a particular community were killed and driven out of the city, which was their home for past many decades. It was a traumatic experience having to redefine one’s identity in one’s own country.

At this point, strong need to collaborate with creative persons working in different disciplines but with similar creative and political commitments led me to realize an Installation ‘Links Destroyed and Re-discovered’. Installation incorporated two documentary films by Teestha Setalvad and Madhushree Dutta and specially composed and sung bandishes by a classical vocalist Neela Bhagwat. This mutually consented collaborative endeavor also exposed me to the levels of relationships in interactive aspect of collaborative mode and Installation art making process. In a reciprocal as well as dialectical relationship between the collaborators, none had to abandon independent thinking, which actually is a source to draw from. Interactive aspect of Installation also facilitated relationship between the “viewer and the work, the work and the spacte and space and the viewer”.