April 23, Sunday | 5:30 pm
C 13, Pamposh Enclave, New Delhi - 110048

Given FICA Reading Room’s mobile library structure which is debuting at C 13, we thought it would be befitting to begin our series of discussions with a conversation on the Library on the Move. 

The speakers Sneha Raghavan and Chandan Gomes will focus on two projects that they have closely been involved with – Asia Art Archive’s Mobile Library initiative which has taken place in different Asian countries and the Rang Open Library, an artists’ initiative to provide access to photo books to young art practitioners. We will also share notes on the library as a space for exchange and discussions.
 
About the Speakers: 

Sneha Raghavan is a Researcher for Asia Art Archive and is based in New Delhi. She has a PhD in Cultural Studies on the history of twentieth century modernist architecture in India from the Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She will present on the Mobile Library, a periodic initiative organised by Asia Art Archive in partnership with cultural collaborators in different countries throughout Asia, to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas. By co-organising events and enabling the circulation of printed matter, this programme activates new possibilities to engage with art as a form of knowledge.
 
Chandan Gomes studied Philosophy at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (2009). Themes of beauty, imitation and abandonment interest him as an artist. Chandan won the India Habitat Centre Fellowship for Photography in 2011, Oslo University Scholarship to participate in Chobi Mela in 2012, Neel Dongre Award in Photography in 2013 and the Foto Visura Spotlight Grant in 2014. He was nominated for the Prix Pictet Award in 2015 and the Joop Swart Masterclass in 2016. He co-founded Rang Open Library, with Vicky Roy, in 2011. Rang is a Delhi based community of artists working towards creating an open and a democratic space for the study and practice of visual arts.

About C 13

The event was a part of the programming of C 13, an exhibition which is a collaboration between FICA and artist Priyanka Choudhary. Between 2010-17, Priyanka used C 13 as a studio space and has now extended an invitation to other practitioners to rethink the possibilities of a studio space. The FICA Reading Room was also housed in the building for the period of three weeks. We invited Susanta Mandal to respond to this project of inhabiting C 13 - a home, a studio, an abandoned site that is being interpreted and experienced differently by each of the exhibiting artists and to come up with a structure for the Reading Room. He designed a self-contained unit, a mobile structure with all the architectural elements of a building. FICA Reading Room is a space for discussions and over the next three weeks we will hold many informal conversations in this room.