Wah pahuchne ki
dasha - That state of arrival
An Exhibition
in response to Kahe Gaile Bidesia Gallery,
GB Pant
Institute of Social Sciences, Allahabad
A reflecion on the question, Kahe
Gaile Bides? forms the essence of this exhibition that mirrors the Bidesia
gallery of the GBPSSI by responding and abstracting certain objects and
archival photographs in its collection. The unstable
ocean surface leads to a migration story constituted between a place of deport
and a place of arrival. In between the fast movement of oceans a timeles
exchange of cultures connects various geographical locations. The ocean takes
its own course or time to do so. Waves and circular movements of the sea become
a mirror through which our visions transforms, distorts and reshapes. On the Indian
shore a bottle was found that once belonged to a migrant who travelled to
Surinam. Someone said that it was trown in the sea, the sea brought back the
bottle through the movements and its currents. It contained a cutlass to cut
sugarcane, an old sari of a lonely woman, Khadau
(footwear), a letter of a missing girl, photographs of an old family house
in Bihar, a flying saw, a black cloth with a hole made by a surgical blade, a
parrot that repeated the words from the letter of the missing migrant. The
bottle resambled a surrealist shape, a transition of gathri once taken by a
migrant during a three month boat journey.
This response is dedicated to a
specific history of migration: the stories and journeys of the diaspora
Bhojpuri community, and its focus on indentured labour migration to Surinam
(1873 - 1917). The Bidesiya gallery part of Manav Vikas Sangrahalaya Museum is
an exciting instance in museology history of India because of its focus on the
labour migration in the colonial period while also giving the perspective from
the women and families who were left behind in the villages, and the complex
history of several generations of Bhojpuri diaspora connecting from Bihar to
Surinam to Netherlands and vice versa. The gallery was developed through a
collaborative research between three institutions: GB Pant Social Science
Institute in Allahabad, India, the KIT Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands,
and the Research Institute of the Anton de Kom University of Surinam (IMWO) in
Paramaribo, Surinam.
Visualising a
collective response that accesses, constitutes and interprets psychonanalytical
readings of archives that reshapes the nature of knowledge. New relationships and meetings between
people of multiple backgrounds was commonplace on the boat journeys that took
place more than 100 years ago. This exhibition of contemporary art will be hosted in
the foyer gallery of Manav Vikas Sangrahalaya and mirrors relationships and
response of 8 artists from different backgrounds working collectively to
produce new currents and potentions of reading the permanent collection of the
Bidesiya Gallery and the history of indentured labour migration.
Artists that conceptualised the
exhibition; Preeti Singh, Akansha Rastogi, Paribartana Mohanty, Sudheer Rajbar,
Birender Yadav, Naresh Kumar, Ranjeeta Kumari.
Curated by Sarojini Lewis.
In Collaboration with Clark House.
Opening Speech by Sunil Gupta
director of Allahabad Museum
Project initiated by Badri Narayan
director of the GBPSSI
Allahabad Museum / That State of Arrival
GB Pant Social Science Institute Allahabad
That State of Arrival