No Love Lost 

The exhibition begins with a screenshot of a Google search that asks for the distance between Delhi and Dibai. Google has politely suggested to search for the distance between Delhi and Dubai instead. But the location here is Dibai, approximately 150 kms outside Delhi, where Saidul Hasan Qadri started work on a replica of the Taj Mahal called Maqbara Yaadgare Mohabbat (Tomb in Memory of Love), in memory of his wife, Tajammuli Begum. She was worried that being childless, no one would come to visit their grave, so Qadri promised to build her a mausoleum. The story has been documented by Rahul Irani in his photo series “Another Love, Another Taj”.

While Dang was struck by the love story, it also sparked the connection between the reams of literature that addresses the Taj Mahal, and Sahir Ludhianvi’s scathing perspective on the monument. “We wanted to see what would happen when we bring it all together — love, money, power and public memory — and the artists have let it take off in different directions,” says Dang. The exhibition also shows a clip from the documentary by Anant and MK Raina, Zohra Sehgal on Zohra Sehgal (2012), wherein Sehgal is reciting from Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Mujhse pehli si mohabbat.

The event — on till November 15 — will also feature a series of talks that they call Happenings, in and around the JNU premises. A walkthrough will be held this evening with Dang, along with artists Anant Raina, Gagan Singh, Raqs Media Collective, Vishal K Dar and Zuleikha Chaudhari.