exhibition
20/11/2008
- 06/02/2009
opening
20/11/2008
7.30 pm
speech
Zsolt Kozma
| VIDEOSPACE BUDAPEST |
exhibition
20/11/2008
- 06/02/2009
opening
20/11/2008
7.30 pm
speech
Zsolt Kozma
The exhibitionSupporters of the exhibitionArt pieces in the exhibitionThe artistpress images to download
The exhibition
In today's artworld India is what China was not long ago: an emerging world power. Gigi Scaria, the Indian artist whose work is showcased in the exhibition at Videospace Budapest, has presented his art in many countries of Asia, the US and Europe over the past few years. From the opening in Budapest he is heading to the Miami Art Fair.
The title of his exhibition at Videospace is taken from the installation to be displayed in the gallery, and describes the social and economic situation of present-day India. At the same time, Scaria can present this delicate and complex situation in images that convey the meaning of the work to outsiders as well.
Scaria is also a painter, sculptor and photographer. Besides two videos, an installation consisting of three videos will be shown, for which the upper level of the gallery, normally closed from visitors, will be opened to provide a unique spatial effect for the audience.
Curators of the show:
Marianne Csáky and Zsolt Kozma
  
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site under construction
video projection with sound (3 channel), duration 7min, 2006 more images
"Gigi’s particular position is to investigate how city structures, social constructs, and the view of location is translated into social prejudice and class attitude. The video work titled Site Under Construction bears many of the marks of the artist’s characteristic style, of an apparently innocuous conversation suggestive of a narrative, one that reveals at its core, deeply ingrained prejudice. Two middle class neighbours, one a house maker, the other an architect reflect on a subject of mutual concern, housing. Even as they speak an apparently poor labourer sets out to ‘construct’ a small dwelling, in the courtyard, only to violently demolish it. The site that is deconstructed is reminiscent as much of the recent demolitions along Delhi’s streets as of the bull dozing of slum clusters, and the displacement of squatters within Delhi. Equally this work (like Gigi’s earlier The Interview) demonstrates the stereotype or the ‘reading’ of the migrant as poor, dark and homeless, an unwelcome squatter in the city’s public spaces." (Gayatri Sinha, independent critic and curator, she lives and works in Delhi)
A day with Sohail and Mariyan
video duration: 17min, 2004, single channel video with sound
This project has been realized during the Khoj Residency 2004
more images
"Gigi’s work reflects the shifting nature of the city, its historical accretions, layers of migrancy and its elusive heart. This journey of the migrant translates into metaphors of quest, seeking to negotiate a labyrinth. … A Day with Sohail and Mariyan, (single channel video projection) for this anxiety-inducing vision of the avid, growing city." (Gayatri Sinha, independent critic and curator, she lives and works in Delhi)
I met Sohail aged 17 and Mariyan aged 14 at the NDMC Community centre in Sarojini Nagar during their afternoon class. I spent some time in the classroom talking to them and asking about their daily routine. They said they go every night to collect waste from near by places and work through the night till daybreak.
This video has been made as a fictional documentary but not exactly following the documentary mode. While portraying a late night tour with Sohail and Mariyan my video tries to establish a relationship with a world that we are not normally familiar with. This tour also signifies a search of the back door of an established social order representing the world of consumption." (Gigi Scaria)
Panic City
video duration: 3 min, 2006, single channel video with sound
more images
"This present body of work comes on the heels of Gigi’s continuing engagement with the city as migrant/ worker. Delhi as a city is impermanent, its structures malleable, its roads fluid with surprise contours. It is a site under construction. In Panic City, (video, single projection), buildings loom and rise and slide out of vision. Shot from a minaret of Jama Masjid, once the heart of Shahjahan’s imperial India, this view engages the city, its poetry, its oppression, its wretched eternality, a vision where is no relief, no pause even for a single breath of gladness." (Gayatri Sinha, independent critic and curator, she lives and works in Delhi)
1973 born in Kothanalloor, Kerala, India
1998 M.F.A. (painting), Jamia Millia University, New Delhi.
1995 B.F.A. (painting), College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram.
Solo Shows (selection)
2008 Triviality of everyday existence, recent photographs and video, The national Art Studio, Changdong, Seoul, Korea.
2007 Absence of an Architect, video installations paintings and photographs at Palette Gallery New Delhi
2005 Where are the Amerindians? At Inter America Space at CCA7, Trinidad
2001 Exhibition of recent works at Art Inc., Shahpur Jat, New Delhi
Participations (selection)
2008
Walk on line ,Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich,Switzarland, curated by Ranjita Chaney
Who knows Mr.Gandhi? AICON gallery,London.
2007
Freeze Art fair, Khoj pavilion, London.
Reflections, Refractions and Refutations: New and recent work by artists from India, Soulflower Gallery, Bangkok
Public Places/Private Spaces: Contemporary Photography and Video Art in India, Curated by Gayatri Sinha at The Newark Museum, New Jersy, USA
After Shock Conflict, Violence and Resolution in Contemporary Art, a group show supported by Sainsbury Centre in collaboration Matthew Shaul and the UH Galleries in England curated by Yasmin Zahir
Indian photo and Media Art: a journey of Discovery at Vienna, Austria
Horn Please: Narratives in contemporary Indian Art at Kunstmuseam Bern, Switzerland
Dreaming Childhood at Leap Years, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Making History Our Own, Organized by SAHMAT at AIFACS Gallery, New Delhi
Delhi World Social Forum, Nairoby
2006
ROCK curated by Himanshu Desai at Kitab Mahal, Mumbai
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin 2006, a film and video festival in Paris and Berlin
Paper Flute curated by Johny M L at Gallery Espace, New Delhi
Impossible India at Frankfurt Kunstverein, curated by Nina Montmann supported by Goethe-Institute, Germany
Ghost in the machine and other stories (video, interactive media and sound) at Apeejay Media Gallery, Delhi. Curated by Pooja Sood
Infinite-Us at Planet Art Gallery, Gurgaon, Haryana
Gigi Scaria: Panic City / stills from the video
screen JPG 72 dpi / 134 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 452 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 131 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 444 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 124 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 418 KB
To use only in connection with the exhibition at Videospace Budapest mentioning the following credits:
Panic City © Gigi Scaria, Videospace Budapest 2008
Gigi Scaria: A day with Sohail and Mariyan / stills from the video
screen JPG 72 dpi / 57 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 421 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 107 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 353 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 75 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 576 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 125 KB
print JPG 300dpi / 452 KB
To use only in connection with the exhibition at Videospace Budapest mentioning the following credits:
A day with Sohail and Mariyan © Gigi Scaria, Videospace Budapest 2008
Gigi Scaria: site under construction / stills from the videos
screen JPG 72 dpi / 125 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 125 KB
screen JPG 72 dpi / 125 KB
To use only in connection with the exhibition at Videospace Budapest mentioning the following credits:
site under construction © Gigi Scaria, Videospace Budapest 2008
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