Ranjit Hoskote: "Everyone agrees it's about to explode" (5. 8. 2011)

Curatorial Reflections on the India Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale

For the first time in the 117-year history of the Venice Biennale, India has been represented this year by a professionally curated national pavilion. Organised by poet, cultural theorist and curator Ranjit Hoskote, and titled ‘Everyone Agrees: It’s About To Explode’, the pavilion brings together works by Zarina Hashmi, Praneet Soi, Gigi Scaria, and the Desire Machine Collective. Hoskote announced his explicit intention to “break with the established tenor of the conversation about contemporary Indian art” in his concept and selection, and to “draw attention to the multiple locations from which value is created” in the complex and entangled Indian art situation. Confronting the contested notion of representing the nation-state, Hoskote shifted the emphasis of the pavilion from nationality to cultural citizenship, from official culture to transcultural practice. In this lecture, Hoskote will address the contexts and outcomes of his India pavilion experiment, which he describes as being in equal parts “laboratory, stage and school”.

Time:

August 5th, 2011, 6 p.m.

Venue:

Historisches Kolleg
Bibliothek
Kaulbachstr. 15
80539 München