Art Basel and BMW announced Astha Butail(represented by GALLERYSKE, New Delhi, Bangalore) as the next BMW Art Journey winner. The international jury selected her unanimously from a shortlist of three artists whose works were exhibited in the Discoveries sector at this year’s Art Basel show in Hong Kong.

Her winning project titled “In the Absence of Writing”, is concerned with memory and living traditions that are passed down through teaching and oral poetry. It, in the artist’s words, will be “a homage to the intangible oral traditions that are still alive today.” Butail’s research on systems of cultures started in 2009, when she began learning Sanskrit and memorized a collection of hymns.

For the BMW Art Journey, Butail plans to investigate the Zoroastrian Avesta, Jewish Oral Torah and Indian Veda traditions by observing and recording their different memory techniques and interviewing scholars and practitioners of each tradition. The journey will lead through the cities of Yazd (Iran), Jerusalem (Israel), London (United Kingdom), Varanasi, Pune,New Delhi and Mumbai (India).

The international experts awarding Butail’s proposal were Claire Hsu, Director, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi-Muziris Biennale,India; Matthias Mühling, Director, Städtische Galerieim Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich; Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Pauline J.Yao, Curator Visual Art, M+, Hong Kong.