Moving Art Finds a Home

What About Art? opens with a bang,with nine video art pieces that will be screened as part of ‘Translucent’,which is a preview to the first edition of a video art festival by the same name,conceived by Kanchi Mehta. The films that will be screened include those by Jehangir Jani,Nikhil Chopra and Munir Kabani,Ashish Avikunthak,Sahej Rahal,Niyati Upadhyay,among others. The final festival is slated to open in Goa on December 15 to February at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for Arts. Mehta,who was a student of painting,fell in love with the moving image (of the arty type) when she was called to be part of a jury of an international award for video and performance. Her idea behind the festival is the same as Lemesle’s for the new space. “In a country dominated by Bollywood,the art form has not had enough exposure. I want to encourage students and collectors and critics,to learn about this form of art,” says Mehta. She is the founder of Chameleon Art Projects,which organises residencies,prints publications and manages artists and curates exhibitions.

Lemesle’s space is seated in Bandra bohemia,unlike the storage rooms with high ceilings that give galleries in South Bombay a sense of old-world opulence. The hall of a 1BHK is being used for exhibition of video art,while the bedroom serves as the office for What About Art?. The old tiles have been polished,but it still looks a lot like a typical middle-class home. “The space has been designed keeping in mind how people in Bandra are; it’s a creative neighbourhood. The official timings of the space — from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm and will extend to 9.30 pm on weekends — will make the space more accessible to people,” says Lemesle.

The space ties in Lemesle’s business which she describes as one that “caters to every need between an artist and the completion of his art work”. So What About Art? handles everything from the ideation process (they facilitate residencies,both Indian and international),to the fabrication of art works,the technical know-how of putting together a great show and finally displaying the work at a gallery. Lemesle hopes to make it a space where various forms of art can converge. The ground floor of the building houses Bandra Base,the new go-to place to check out interesting music. On the second floor,Lemesle has taken over a flat and converted it into an artist residency,which hosts one international and one local artist. “People who come for gigs downstairs can come up check out a video and then go attend the gig,or vice versa. Also,because What About Art? is open only in the evenings,during the day,the space will be used for other activities which will include talks with the artists who are in residence,maybe screenings and other events.”

The setup for now is pretty simple,with just one projector,but they plan to host not just videos but even video installations. “The best part about having a space for video art is that you are free of all the logistical problems. All an artist needs to do is upload his/her movie on a link or send across a DVD.”

kevin.lobo@expressindia.com