Why binary should have all the pun 

Tifa Working Studies, Pune, May-June, 2019. Co-curated with Kaur Chimuk

​

Our world is brought to us through categorised understandings, binary ideas and normative fields of action, suggesting dichotomies of good and bad, black and white, West and East, masculine and feminine, civilised and barbaric, and the list goes on. From this point the binary has become part of the human navigation system from where we make up our mind; it guides our daily discussion-making, socio-political behaviour and judgement, and it makes us more capable of thinking and acting in complex situations. We try to segregate what we perceive as right from wrong and form our preferences, public appearance, taste and belonging. Beliefs and actions are structured in order to become a good citizen, a loving partner or an emphatic friend, among many several roles, so that we are able to express presence, authenticism, sensitivity and care.

 

In these moments, we inevitably construct notions of evil, lies, distance and otherness. As noted by the French writer, André Gide “the colour of truth is grey,” an essential reminder that we need to seek the in-between of our prime categories of understanding and practice. Why binary should have all the pun endeavours to look between the black and the white and re-map the journey to between the known and the unknown from where the binary is brought into reconsideration by turning to multiple processes of in-betweenness. Exploring how doubts, ambiguity and process are approached through contemporary art practices, we want to open up new meanings, expressions and possibilities in-between societal binaries. Through investigations of public/private spaces, identity and gender roles, sociality and materiality, the exhibition aspires to bring in a non-identical rizomatic exploration of daily life and society. In-between becomes a methodology of confusion, blurring and re-evaluating popular categorisations whilst questioning and problematising notions of post-colonialism, neo-orientalism and global aspirations. We believe that the greatest riots and emphatic gestures are acts confronting the binaries - forming new possibilities in-between. But how will the narrative of reality be constructed inbetween the categories of understanding and acting? This show is a cross-disciplinary curation on contemporary artistic perspectives on binaries and how to open up more abstract, processual and performative understandings and actions inbetween. It offers a re-investigation of various dichotomies of individual and collective experimentation processes, approaching new possibilities of mobilities, democracy and resistance in-between. In the exhibition, we ask how artistic methodologies can create confusion between categorised spaces, cultures, socio-political behaviours, and add new sensitive, personal and collective ideas into and beyond the socio-political and cultural context of Pune and India.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

Artist taking part in the program and exhibition

​

Poonam Jain | India

Tamara De Laval | Sweden

Marko Cesarec | Sweden

Rhine Bernardino | UK/Philippines

Hediyeh Azma | Iran/Norway 

Sumedha Bhattacharyyaa | India

Saviya Lopes | India

Yogesh Barve | India

Julian Toldam Juhlin | Denmark

Prabhakar Pachpute | India

Avon Bashida | Denmark/USA 

Sabitha Sofia Söderholm | India/Denmark

Keepa Masky | Nepal

Afshana S. Zuma | Bangladesh

Taxi - Suman S. and Sourav R.C. | India

Nikhil Raunak | India

Arijit Bhattacharya & Balaram Koley | India  

Rupali Patil | India

Amol K Patil | India

Natacha Voliakovsky | Argentina

Sayli Kulkarni Joshi & Vidhi Vora | India

​

​

​

​