Kiran Nadar Museum of Art presents Hangar for the Passerby; an exhibition about artist collectives – collaborative and participatory art practices – in India. Curated by Akansha Rastogi, the exhibition showcases the wide ranging creative output of more than 45 artist groups, collectives, cooperatives, contexts and individuals, covering a vast geographical and historical span between artists and art institutions from the 1930’s to 2017.
Hangar for the Passerby marks moments of transference of ideas across generations and artistic practices through the juxtaposition of different models of collaboration as proposed by different artists. In examining and mapping emotional investments, challenges, failures and schematics of negotiations in artistic collaborations, the exhibition becomes a playground to discuss the ideas of and around ‘work’, and what is ‘artistic work’. Hangar for the Passerby revisits certain historical moments, speculating and re-enacting spatial dynamics of collectivity; it presents instances of formal and informal pedagogical exercises, workshops and participatory acts facilitated by many artists in institutional spaces.
A large proportion of the works presented in the exhibition are on public display for the first time, having been loaned from the archives of public institutions and personal estates of artists; this includes batiks by artists from Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Chennai, toys made for the Baroda Fine Arts Fair by various artists, CAMP Roof, Rajeev Sethi’s unpublished manuscript ‘Three Stones’ on Anandgram and Bhule Bisre Kalakar Samiti.
