Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art & Yamuna Elbe Public Art Initiative invite you to

Artist Presentations by Atul Bhalla & Nana Petzet

Moderated by Ravi Agarwal

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 | 5:30 pm onwards

FICA Reading Room | D42 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024

The artists are part of PROJECT Y: A Yamuna-Elbe Public Art and Outreach Project initiated by “Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities”; Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi; GIZ; & The City of Hamburg. Curated by Ravi Agarwal in Delhi and Till Krause with Nina Kalenbach in Hamburg it is to be held in Hamburg from 16th – 23rd October 2011 and in Delhi from 9th – 23rd November, 2011. The collaborative project is centred on the idea of creating ecological and sustainable rivers in cities. The key component of the project will be public art projects on the banks of the river Yamuna in Delhi and the river Elbe in Hamburg. It is in this context that artists Atul Bhalla and Nana Petzet will talk about their artistic practice.

To know more about PROJECT Y click here.
 
Atul Bhalla (b.1964-) lives and works in New Delhi, India. Having studied Fine Art at Delhi University, India and Northern Illinois University, USA, Bhalla is known for his photographic work, although his interdisciplinary practice also includes paintings, sculptures, installations, photo performances and videos. His sustained preoccupation with the eco-politics of water forms the basis for his diverse practice. Questioning the distribution, regulation, commodification and pollution of water, Bhalla has over the years explored its physical, historical, spiritual and political significance in relation to the population of New Delhi. Some describe Bhalla as an environmental activist, however his work may be considered not overtly political, instead socially concerned, engaging a poetic style of presentation. Bhalla describes his practice as an attempt to understand water, the way he perceives it, feels it, drinks it, swims in it and sinks in it. His personal negotiation of water provides a stage from which to address larger political issues concerning bodies of water and the urban environment. Bhalla has exhibited internationally, most recently in ‘Paris-Delhi-Bombay: India through the eyes of Indian and French artists’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and ‘Water’, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, USA. Bhalla’s exhibition On the Edge is also currently on view at Vadehra Art Gallery, D178, Okhla Phase I, New Delhi 110020

Nana Petzet (b.1962-) was born in Munich and studied at the Art Academy in Munich and the Art College in Hamburg (HfbK, Masters 1991). Since her Performance ‘Rational Scientific Art’ at the Academy in Munich (1987) – a lecture on a fictitious physician’s theory of gravitation – the focus of her artistic practice is the examination of various scientific disciplines. In 1995 Petzet started dealing with the issue of domestic waste and developed the ‘SBF-System’ (short for ‘Collecting Conserving Researching’, Sprengel Museum Hannover, 2000), as an alternative model to the national German recycling system ‘Grüner Punkt’. In an experimental setting for a period of six months she collected all waste produced by her four person household and investigated it‘s recyclability (‘Endurvinnslustöth – nei takk’, Reykjavik 1998). On the occasion of the exhibition ‘einräumen’ (Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2000) she created an inventory of her comprehensive domestic waste collection with HIDA MIDAS, an elaborate program for museum inventories. In her most recent works Petzet turns to the world of animals, plants and ethology