Artist Presentations by Nidhi Khurana & Ruchin Soni
FICA – R.A.T. Residencias Artísticas por Intercambio, Mexico
Thursday | 13 June 2013 | 5:30 pm
At the FICA Reading Room
D42, Defence Colony, New Delhi
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art's first collaboration with R.A.T. Residencias Artísticas por Intercambio in Mexico City took place during the month of May in Mexico City at the residency space managed by our Mexican partner R.A.T. This collaborative project was brought to FICA through the initiative of Julia Villaseñor Bell, a Mexican curator living in Delhi.
New Delhi-based artists Nidhi Khurana and Ruchin Soni initiated the residency program for Indian artists in Mexico City. This residency program aims to ignite the Indian curiosity for the Mexican artistic scene through programs that put Indian and Mexican creative practitioners directly in touch with one another and their environments.
It is with great pleasure we invite you to the presentation by our two artists Nidhi Khurana and Ruchin Soni, who will be speaking of their projects and their overall experience in Mexico and in the residency space. We will also be joined by Sergio Gonzalez, director and founder of R.A.T during the presentation.
R.A.T. Residencias Artísticas por Intercambio is a trans-disciplinary research project designed to create spaces for the development of proposals, discussion and dialogue between local communities, artists, curators and cultural managers from Mexico and abroad through an artist residency program that operates based on logic of exchange. Since 2003 R.A.T. has encouraged and facilitated the exchange of ideas creating alternative spaces for project development, reflection and dialogue.
Nidhi Khurana is a practicing artist and educator based in New Delhi. She completed her post-grad in Arts and Aesthetics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Before this she has studied Sculpture from M.S.University of Baroda, and has taught art at Welham Girls School, Dehradun. Her practice engages with the aesthetic and formal possibilities of mixed media combined with acts of breaking the surface of the painting by stitching, sticking, riveting and painting on un-stretched canvas combining additive techniques of layering with cloth, and deductive techniques of punching tearing and cutting. These acts of constant rupture and mending provide a nuanced understanding of creativity as a process of doing and undoing, making and remaking.
Ruchin Soni hails from the family of traditional painters in Gujarat, and was initiated into the world of art during his early childhood when he learnt traditional painting techniques from his parents. It is at this time he developed a serious interest in portraiture, a feature that strongly influences his works until now. He received his formal education in Painting from the M.S.University of Baroda, and specialised in mural painting. While his works depict scenes of people engaged in various mundane activities, the gender of the subjects is always kept anonymous. His compositions often recall scenes from myths and legends though with no identifiable reference; this allows for new narratives to be derived with their own symbolism and meanings. Ruchin Soni currently he stays and works in Delhi.
This residency received the kind support of ICCR for travel expenses. We wish to thank all the people involved in this great adventure and we hope many more such experiences will develop.
