Forelesning

MAPS TALK: Raqs Media Collective

With ‘The Double Act of Flower Time: Memory, Forgetfulness and Public Space’ Raqs Media Collective mine their notes and archive to think about how memorials and amnesia can sometimes have a close relationship, and about how the maintenance of memory sometimes goes hand in hand with the cultivation of forgetting. What does this mean for structures that stand as intentions about time, in space, and the imagination, especially in public space? Raqs exercise their concepts and their curiosities in search of responses to this question.

Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi & Shuddhabrata Sengupta) is a contemporary art practice and curatorial configuration based in New Delhi. Raqs was founded in New Delhi in 1992 at a turbulent moment, and since then, has never stopped thinking about, with and in time. The word “raqs” in several languages denotes an intensification of awareness and presence attained by whirling, turning, being in a state of revolution. Raqs Media Collective take this sense to mean ‘kinetic contemplation’ and a restless and energetic entanglement with the world, and with time.

Raqs makes art, thinks, teaches, listens and acts to discover cognitive and affective resources for a changing world, and creates, nurtures and develops infrastructures of contemporary cultural conversation at a proximate as well as planetary scale. Raqs acts in time, altering rhythms, changing directions, accelerating, deepening or stretching temporal experience with images, works, situations and processes that deal with the toxic energies as well as the caring imperatives of the current moment and the many histories that lead up to it. Their work and conversations range across several media, pursuing curiosities, playing with words, images and concepts, thinking the unthought, sensing and feeling new ways of life in a changing world.

Raqs has shown at various international exhibitions, including Documenta and the Venice, Istanbul, Sao Paolo, Sydney, Taipei, and Liverpool Biennales.

Significant solo exhibitions of the Raqs Media Collective include Still More World at the Mathaf Museum, Doha, Qatar (2019), Twilight Language at Manchester Art Gallery (2017-2018); Everything Else is Ordinary at K21 Museum for 21st Century Art, Dusseldorf (2018); If It’s Possible, It’s Possible, MUAC, Mexico City (2015) and Untimely Calendar at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi (2014-2015).

Exhibitions curated by Raqs include Hungry for Time, (Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 2021-2-22), Afterglow (Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2020), In The Open or in Stealth (MACBA, Barcelona, 2018-19); Why Not Ask Again (Shamghai Biennale 2016-17), INSERT2014 (New Delhi, 2014) and The Rest of Now & Scenarios (Manifesta 7, Bolzano, 2008).

Raqs Media Collective are amongst the three finalists of the international competition hosted by KORO for the July 22nd Memorial in Oslo.

MAPS TALK, initiated by the Master Program in Art and Public Space (MAPS), is a forum that invites the public to engage in critical dialogue, share, and push the boundaries of interdisciplinary practices. MAPS TALK explores transformative approaches to Art in Public Space by inviting artists and scholars to nurture collaboration and exchange. Merete Røstad, the Head of the Master's Program, curates MAPS TALK.