My East Is Your West

‘My East is Your West’ is an official collaborative event of the 56th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, which unites, for the first time, the two conflicting nations India and Pakistan in exhibition by artists from both countries. In conversation with Natasha Ginwala, let us know what this exhibition is all about:

My East is Your West, Installation Shot, work by Rashid Rana 2015, photo Mark Blower

Can you give an overview of how this project came into being?

The project ‘My East is Your West’ has been initiated by Feroze Gujral, Arts patron and Founder-director of The Gujral Foundation, and first came into consideration through her conversation with artist Rashid Rana to develop a joint presentation with artists from India and Pakistan at the Venice Biennale, since neither country currently has official representation.

My East is Your West, Installation Shot, work by Rashid Rana 2015, photo Mark Blowe

The two artists, Shilpa Gupta and Rashid Rana share concerns around mapping place, perceptions of community and individual belonging, aspects of visual culture (high and low) as well as the use of an image archive, to consider daily experiences of nationhood and borderlines.

Natasha Ginwala Courtsey Gaurav Anand

Where does the title ‘My East is Your West’ come from?

This title is drawn from an ongoing light installation by the artist Shilpa Gupta. The words presented us with a compelling and subjective reading. It alludes to aspects of multiplicity in language, human mobility and geographic conditions.

My East is Your West, Installation Shot, work by Shilpa Gupta, 2015, photo Mark Blower

Do you think projects like this can bridge gap in political terms and transcend difficulties that exist between nations/cultures etc?

The political realities are not within our direct control, however through a deeper engagement with artists in South Asia there is a great potential to harness the underlying cultural affinity, shared imagination and social narratives that may strengthen the artistic climate of the region as a whole and its presence on the international stage of the art world. It engages artists, filmmakers, theorists and architects to mobilize a shared conversation across a politically fraught South Asia, deliberating upon a shared history, geographic affinity, cosmological knowledge and colonial legacy.

Portrait, Feroze Gujral, 2015, photo Mark Blower

What are the artists trying to portray? And how are they working together but separately on the project?

As you would know the International Art Exhibition and Country pavilions at Venice Biennale have come to historically form a critical conversation between the state of contemporary art as an international community and the socio-political condition of the world as explored through the Arts – deploying experimentation in aspects of exhibition making, cultural thought-models and conceiving of aesthetic engagement with a broad audience. The presence of India and Pakistan within this forum has been nearly absent since the end of the nineteenth century. The Gujral Foundation has created a seminal platform for two artists Rashid Rana (Lahore) and Shilpa Gupta (Bombay) to present their work within a historic venue, Palazzo Benzon in the centre of Venice to extend the regional presence of South Asia at the Venice Biennale.

Palazzo Benzon, Courtesy the Gujral Foundation

Presenting works in a range of mediums, ‘My East is Your West’ eventually hopes to showcase artistic thought as a way of mobilizing cultural correspondence beyond geopolitical tensions and the fractured history nation-building in South Asia.

Portrait, Rashid Rana and Shilpa Gupta, photo Mark Blower

My East is Your West will also correspond with radical attempts from the history of the Venice Biennale itself and with curator Okwui Enwezor’s biennale edition ‘All the World’s Futures’ grappling with seeing the world today through a set of filters, thinking through the history of conflict in the 20th century, revolutionary moments of world-making and times of socio-political impasse with the integral role of the Arts in evolving a larger picture or gestalt for our times.

So far, how has been the response to the South Asia programme and the overall Venice Biennale project?

The overall response has been extremely positive and supportive of this pioneering effort. We have introduced the project through varying configurations at Art Basel Hong Kong, India Art Fair, Art Dubai, Kochi-Muziris Biennale and in each case it was received with curiosity and encouragement.