Kashmir Art Quest opened the first ever centre for contemporary arts and research in Kashmir - GALLERIE ONE, today at Srinagar.

Syed Mujtaba Rizvi 

The creative and cultural infrastructure in Kashmir has been seriously lacking. The platforms and opportunities for creative expression had become non-existent here due to decades of conflict, ignorance by successive governments and absence of any organisations working in the field of arts. There have been no avenues for the artists to showcase their work. There is no exchange of creative dialogue with the international world. Art education is seriously lacking. Hardly any research takes place in the field of visual arts in Kashmir. In spite of a rich history of arts and crafts, unfortunately due to the conflict our creative sector is now in a crippled shape.

New Art Gallery :  Gallerie One :  Jammu & Kashmir.

To address these issues Kashmir Art Quest has been working towards the advancements of arts, artists and art education in Kashmir since its foundation in August 2009. It is one of our foremost goals to create a situation in Kashmir where an international art-scene might exist – therefore channelize creative energy towards Kashmir. We celebrate a culture of innovation & creativity, and strive to foster creative and cultural entrepreneurship in the region. Over the years through various projects we have been able to revive the art scene in Kashmir, bring it to the public domain, and take it to the international stage.

We are still the only independent contemporary arts organisation working actively in Kashmir. However, today we launched the first ever centre for contemporary arts and research in J&K after over 5 years of hard work and planning.– a historical landmark, and a much needed space especially in a place like Kashmir.

The centre was thrown open in the presence of Director Tourism Kashmir for artists and art lovers.

Gallerie One constitutes of five inter-disciplinary wings, unified in a single-access space spread over 7500 sq.ft.

1) Art Gallery

2) Archiving & Cataloging Centre.

3) Digital Media Lab.

4) Research Centre

5) Library and Leisure Space.

We recognize the need and urgency for the centre for contemporary arts and research in Kashmir which will cater to national and international tourists, local residents, businesses and corporates, institutions, artists and art lovers around the world. We are creating a new, distinct and a world class offering for the people of Kashmir, and national and international audiences alike - also a much needed space in any tourist destination. We will take Kashmiri artists to international Fairs, Biennials, Conferences, Seminars, Events, and Exhibitions, and welcome the art fraternities around the world with open arms. At the same time the centre will bring in fresh perspectives on promotion of Brand Kashmir and cater much of their advertising, marketing and design needs. We will develop strategies with assistance from world leading experts and produce measurable recommendations based on proven science of consumer psychology, brand management, and psychology of advertising and marketing. The centre will link up with institutions around the world to boost the arts, creative and cultural entrepreneurship, tourism, and promotion of brand Kashmir around the world. The Gallery will have curated shows throughout the year.

File Photo all copy right by Gallerie One

The project was conceived, formulated and implemented by Syed Mujtaba Rizvi who is also the Founder and Managing Director of Kashmir Art Quest. Mujtaba Rizvi heads Gallerie One as its Chief Executive Officer. 

Fasal Dar is the Chief Operating Officer at Gallerie One who ensures the right implementation of the project. This project has been possible after years of hard work, and now by the support received from J&K Department of Tourism, who own the space. They prepared the space -  at 1st Floor, Tourist Reception Centre, Srinagar - for this path-breaking initiative (J&K Department of Tourism retains the ownership of the space).

The gallery opened with the inaugral show, 'Contemporary Practices and new Media," curated by Syed Mujtaba Rizvi,  showcasing works by 36  leading and emerging artists. The exhibition explores the bold and challenging practice by Kashmiri artists today. It showcases the shift from traditional practices, and how this practices manifests in contemporary culture. The current show ends on 31 March 2015, and will be accompanied by artist talks, workshops, and seminars.

PHOTO CREDITS: GALLERIE ONE

For More information visit: www.gallerie1.com

If you require any further information, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Regards,

Syed Mujtaba Rizvi
Founder, CEO, Gallerie One.
Founder, MD, Kashmir Art Quest.

www.gallerie1.com

www.kashmirartquest.org

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Twitter: @KashmirArtQuest

1st Floor, Tourist Reception Centre,

TRC Road,

Srinagar - 190001

Jammu & Kashmir.

+91 - 9596 355 455

('Gallerie One' and 'Centre for Contemporary Arts and Research' are under the auspices of Kashmir Art Quest)

First project of MOG. ‘Janela’ is an exhibition that intends to stir up histories- Subodh Kerkar

Art is not just my profession but the very breath of my life. My life is inseparable from the creative quests which have nurtured me for the last three decades. Creativity is immensely a private activity, yet Art needs company. Art craves for an audience. Art cannot sing in a desert. I felt the need of going beyond my personal artistic adventures and work towards creating a vibrant art scene in Goa.  The idea of the ‘Museum Of Goa’, ‘MOG’ was born out of this pursuit. An endeavor to create a unique space for Arts, MOG will bring together artists, curators, collectors, art enthusiasts, educationists, students and audiences from all walks of life. It will not only be a space for exhibitions, but also organize workshops, residencies, lectures, talks and art courses. 

MOG will embrace a universal perspective and provide a platform to Indian contemporary artists to showcase their works and connect them with international art milieus. MOG is envisioned less as a repository of objects and more as a laboratory of ideas, where various art forms – painting, sculpture, photography, music, theatre, design, video art, films, installations and many others are in constant dialogue with each other. Housed in a 1038 square meters space, designed by Architect Dean D’Cruz, MOG is situated on the Pilerne Plateau in North Goa, not too far from Calangute. ‘Janela – Migrating Forms and Migrating Gods’ is the first project of MOG.  ‘Janela’ is an exhibition that intends to stir up histories. To dig into the recesses of historical archives, memory and celebrate the ‘connectedness’ of cultures. The waves that wash the shores of the west coast of India have not only carved and shaped rocks, but also ideas, dreams and narratives. The ocean has acted as a medium of intercontinental cultural diffusions.  The word for a window in both Konkani and in Malayalam is adopted from the Portuguese language. It is ‘Janela’. The two languages share hundreds of Portuguese and Arabic words.  ‘Janela’ is an attempt to peep into the shared histories of Goa and Kerala and also explore what historians A. G. Hopkins and Christopher Bayly described as Proto-globalization.  It is also an endeavor to narrate history through the contemporary idiom.

I am grateful to Valentina Gioia Levy for agreeing to curate the exhibition. She has worked hard to give a real international perspective to the show.  

I must thank Yudhishthir Raj Isar (Professor of Cultural Policy Studies – The American University of Paris) and Els Reijnders of The Van Gogh Museum for their valuable advice and guidance.                                                

                                                                                                    

I am thankful to the Kochi Biennale Foundation for giving us a collateral status.

Subodh Kerkar
Director
MOG, Museum of Goa                                                                                                                                         

      

Recent work ‘Janela’ is an exhibition at  Kochi Biennale Foundation

When I met Subodh Kerkar for the first time, last summer, he had already begun to work in the exhibition ‘Janela’ that wanted to bring together mainly Goans but also some international artists. He invited them to reflect on some issues, which revolved around the history of the state of Goa and its relationship with Kochi. When he asked me to curate this exhibition, my first curatorial concern has been now to take up a project already started, respecting its original philosophy, but at the same time, by giving to it my own curatorial cut. I liked the idea that the started point with which Kerkar had challenged the artists was a linguistic element, the Portuguese word ‘Janela’ that means window.

I had already dealt with the question of the message as an expressive medium in artistic practice of Yoko Ono and previously I had explored the relation between the linguistic and the pictorial sign, and the act of writing as performative act in the work of the Canadian artist Carl Trahan. Personally, I have considered the word ‘Janela’ as a starting point with a strong potentiality for exploring new perspectives in the relationship between art and language, image and sign, visual representation and meaning.

Recent work by Sweety Joshi ‘Janela’ is an exhibition at  Kochi Biennale Foundation

After that, the first step has been to analyze Goa’s art scene and understand how to relate to the wider context of international artistic practices.I didn’t know the most part of the artist to whom Subodh Kerkar asked to send a proposal. In many cases, it was extremely difficult to find some information about their works and sometimes I had nothing but few biographical elements for evaluate the proposals they submitted to me. In some cases I found myself in the very uncomfortable position of having to judge an artist on the basis of a single as I already said, my concern was primarily to find common threads that could have been able to open a direct dialogue between local and international artistic practices and researches. That is why, although I certainly took into account local specificities, my selection is the result of what can be considered as a necessary adherence to current global trends.

Considering Subodh Kerkar’s input, I thought that one of the most interesting topics to explore was the issue of ‘migration of visual forms’ seen as the recycling of figurative archetypes in different cultural contexts. This theme has its roots in the history of the past and links with the migration of people and ideas across space and time. In particular, I wanted to pay a special attention to the images connected with the transcendent, that have always had a great importance in European and Indian past art. I particularly concentrated on the question of the sacred image in contemporary times, and questioned its redefinition and the role that it might have today in the context of artistic research, focusing of identity, historical, socio-political and / or anthropological issues.

In my opinion, after the geo-political and socio-economical changes that have characterized the last decade – called by some experts as the third globalization period – was however interesting to face such an issue and try to understand if whether art today could still bind not only the sacredness, but also its visual representation.

Curatorial Note 

Valentina Gioia Levy

All Copyright  by MOG Project