Conferences
Beyond Theory: Imagining Infrastructure
Our instinctive understanding of infrastructure is almost always associated with a certain bureaucratic blandness–of concrete, roads, money, and other material traces. Infrastructure as a spatial proposition derives from the word infra, as in something under or below–in the arts, a highly blurry plane that meets us with questions on how it came to be at multiple registers and over time. An interest in understanding infrastructure in this context, on one hand, leaves us with very precise numbers and on the other, with ghosts–why does the art sector of South Asia have its specific temporalities? How do artists and art workers move within this sector? How do we sustain ourselves? And what instances standardise infrastructure and what challenges it? In this fairly unstoried framework, the second iteration of Beyond Theory attempts to locate the experiences of marginalised genders and sexualities in shaping arts infrastructure – how have these built networks specifically influenced, discouraged, questioned, and promoted new ideas around feminist solidarities and action in our communities.
The conference will be a gathering of artists, art workers, collectives, art institutions, and representatives from grant-making bodies who will be in conversation with each other, sharing learnings and doubts on how they work with and reimagine infrastructure in the region. These conversations will hopefully reveal moments of success, but also of breakdown, of calls for systems to be relooked at and fixed. The panels will touch upon various concerns including but not limited to, the inception of arts infrastructure in the region, material and immaterial shifts that are discernible in artistic practice, instances that have led to innovation and more enduring models, changing curatorial and discursive frameworks, and more. Above all, we hope that in coming together and sharing knowledge, access, and time, this platform serves as its own infrastructure for the community.
The Beyond Theory conference is programmed in conjunction with our permanent exhibition VISIBLE/INVISIBLE: Representation of Women in Art through the MAP Collection. Drawing from the various thematic threads of the collection, the exhibition highlights, questions and frameworks in order to broaden the arguments within feminist discourse. Showcasing almost a hundred and thirty artworks, the exhibition is divided into four sections, following the exhibition narratives: Goddess and Mortal, Sexuality and Desire, Power and Violence, and Struggle and Resistance. You can check out the first iteration of the conference here.
The second iteration of the conference will take place on April 12th and 13th, 2024. We would like to invite you to take part and join us in having these conversations.
Speakers: Aarti Sunder, Anuja Ghosalkar, Arnika Ahldag, Arshad Hakim, Arundhati Ghosh, Donskobar Junisha Khongwir, Harshita Bathwal, Imaad Majeed, Iram Ghufran, Ishwari Arambam, Karen L Donoghue, Mallika Taneja, Millo Ankha, Mridu Rai, Navjot Altaf, Nisha Mathew Ghosh, Pallavi Paul, Ruchira Das, Sadia Marium, Shraddha Jadhav, Shreyasi Pathak, Sneha Joshi, Srajana Kaikini, Suvani Suri, Vidya Shivadas, Vikramaditya Sahai, YSK Prerana
You can RSVP now via this link.
Programme Schedule
Day 1: Friday, April 12, 2024
10:00 am – 10:10 am
Welcome Address
Kamini Sawhney
10:10 am – 10:20 am
Introductory Remarks
Arnika Ahldag and Mehreen Yousaf
10:25 am – 10:55 am
Keynote
Arundhati Ghosh
11:15 am – 12:30 pm
Session 01: Enduring Forms of Institution Building
A conversation between Vidya Shivadas and YSK Prerana, moderated by Arnika Ahldag
01:30 pm – 02:30 pm
Session 02: All That Blue: Infrastructure in Publishing
A conversation between Siddhesh Gautam and Bhumika Saraswati, moderated by Nihira
02:45 pm – 03:45 pm
Session 03: Visible Cities, Invisible Infra
A panel discussion moderated by Shraddha Jadav. Speakers include Harshita Bathwal, Ruchira Das and Nisha Mathew Ghosh
04:00 pm – 05:00 pm
Session 04: Spectral Undergrowths
A conversation between artists Suvani Suri and Aarti Sunder
05:15 pm – 06:15 pm
Session 04: Documentary Forms
A conversation between Iram Ghufran and Pallavi Paul, moderated by arshad hakim
06:30 pm – 07:00 pm
Film Screening: There is Something in the Air
28 mins | Hindi-Urdu with English subtitles
A film by Iram Ghufran
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Day 2: Saturday, April 13, 2024
10:00 am – 10:30 am
Keynote
Vikramaditya Sahai
10:45 am – 11:45 am
Session 01: Mostly, in Friendship
A panel discussion with Imaad Majeed (The Packet) , Sadia Marium (Kaali Collective) and Millo Ankha (Aama Collective), moderated by Mehreen Yousaf
12:00 pm – 01:00 pm
Session 02: Including Rest
A conversation between Mallika Taneja and Shreyasi Pathak, moderated by Sneha Joshi
02:30 pm – 03:30 pm
Session 03: Don’t Wait for the Archive
A panel discussion with Mridu Thulung Rai, Karen Lalrindiki Donoghue and Donskobar Junisha Khongwir, moderated by Ishwari Arambam
03:45 pm – 04:45 pm
Session 04: Ways of World Making
A conversation between Navjot Altaf and Srajana Kaikini
05:00 pm – 05:15 pm
Closing Remarks
Shilpa Vijayakrishnan
06:30 pm–07:30 pm
Performance: I Promise the Bearer…
A performance by Anuja Ghosalkar
