Madhuja Mukherjee

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will create a site-specific installation/exhibition titled Route no 033, comprising photographs, images, videos, sounds, voices and noise. As the title suggests, the project will focus on the complex cartography of Kolkata and present it as the site of multi-layered narratives and interwoven histories. This is a collaboration with the Victoria Memorial Hall (VMH) in Kolkata. The VMH, recognised as a national monument was dedicated to Queen Victoria and opened its doors to the public in 1921. The museum houses a large collection of artefacts and a rich visual and textual archive that encapsulates the history of the Indian subcontinent extending over three and a half centuries, beginning from 1650. Madhuja Mukherjee is the Principal Investigator for this project. 

 

Madhuja Mukherjee, currently Professor of Film Studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata is a visual artist, production designer, filmmaker and curator. She has authored books and is the editor of several publications the most recent of which is Industrial Networks and Cinemas of India: Shooting Stars, Shifting Geographies and Multiplying Media, (with Monika Mehta) London/ New York: Routledge,2021. She is the researcher-director of Ratan Bai vs. New Theatres (an audio documentary in English) 2019, that was selected for the 15th IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival, New Delhi. She initiated TENT (Theatre for Experiments in New Technologies, Calcutta) in 2012, and is the Artistic Director of TENT Biennale (2020-2024). Madhuja has always lived in Kolkata, which is the focus of this project, and has explored it extensively both as an academic and a creative practitioner. Her engagements with the city makes her best placed to be the Principal Investigator of this Foundation project of IFA.

 

Route no 033 takes the metaphor of the ‘rhizome’, made popular by the theorists Deleuze and Guattari in 1980, as its point of departure, both conceptually and visually. The idea is to construct a centre-less map of the city, one that spreads horizontally rather than vertically, and demonstrates how the centre could be routed through multiple perspectives. This map challenges the conventional Centre vs North/South ‘tree-like’ linear structure, which presents a hierarchy of spaces (main road, street, by-lane) and times (colonial, late-colonial, post-independence). Typically, the rhizomatic structure ‘has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, inter-being, intermezzo.’* Similarly, the architecture of the display will be navigable, like a typical internet search, in which words are tagged and hyper-linked to indicate the complex web of culture, practice and history.

 

The photographs at the VMH are the starting point for this project. As the photo archive at VMH is largely made-up of images of Central Kolkata, two possible areas have been identified for research - the New Market and the Metro Cinema area. Both locations are inherently heterogeneous in character, surrounded as they are by landmark institutions, government buildings, public and private offices, markets, shops, eateries, hotels, etc, and offer the opportunity to uncover a multiplicity of experiences. 

 

As the process of preparing and working towards the installation is complex, the timeline has been divided into three phases. The first phase will involve a thorough research of the VMH photo archives. Once the photographs have been selected, they will be layered by visual and aural narratives through a study of literary and filmic texts and songs. Storytellers will be identified who can enrich the material with their tales and personal memories. 

 

The second phase will include fieldwork comprising photo and audio-visual documentation of various parts of the city, in order to develop the visual and aural pool. This will form the database for the videos that will be displayed during the final installation. Phase two will end with an informal gathering titled Adda One at TENT art space, which will bring people together who will share their memories of the locality, based around a chosen theme.

 

Phase three will include another gathering titled Adda Two which will be organised in an iconic cinema hall. Both Addas will be documented and some of the footage used as content for the videos. Short videos, audio-visual material, video-essay and video art will all be created during this phase. The final phase will also involve the actual planning and building of the installation. As mentioned earlier, the rhizome imagery will inform the mode of presentation and the structural design of the installation. At the moment, the framework of the on-site installation at VMH is envisaged as a maze-like structure made of bamboos and ropes that will reference the road maps of Kolkata. The aim is to build a simple navigable space that evokes the sense of a labyrinth, of a city that is centre-less, with multiple entryways and exits and with its own lines of flight. The final installation will be accompanied by lectures and talks at VMH by social scientists, urban historians, media and cultural theorists who will inspire the audience to think and imagine worlds beyond the existing frameworks.

 

The outcome of the project will be the exhibition and talks and lectures at the VMH. The deliverables to IFA with the final report are the documentation of the exhibition, recordings of the talks and lectures and other textual material if any.

 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees. 

 

(*Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. B. Massumi (Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1987).)