Through a spectacular lineup of multimedia artworks, the third edition of the Chennai Photo Biennale will represent and showcase various ecological, social, political, cultural and technological themes.
Organised by the CPB Foundation, in cooperation with Goethe- Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai Photo Biennale is back with its third edition. As a result of the pandemic, the festival is being launched in Hybrid formats with virtual and physical exhibits, and programs.
This year, the theme is Maps of Disquiet, curated by Arko Datto, Boaz Levin, Bhooma Padmanabhan, and Kerstin Meincke. The exhibitions will be held between 9 December to 6 February. Alongside the showcases, there will also be talks, film screenings, student exhibitions, an international university collaboration project, an online journal, and a print publication of the Biennale. These works are also exhibited on the digital platform and can be accessed at www.chennaiphotobiennale.
Saranraj V
Even as the Keeladi excavations make headlines for having re-shaped the ancient history of Tamils in the subcontinent, Saranraj shifts the lens from the larger narrative to re-imagining the site as the historical inheritance of the local communities, whose lands hold within them stories of their ancestors. Employed as labour at the sites, they are the first witnesses to the unearthing of history, yet remain largely invisible in the historical framing of the site. This work is as much a tribute to them as it is a commentary on the blind spots in archaeological knowledge. This work is being shown at the Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai.
Photograph/Saranraj V
Siva Sai Jeevanantham
He is a visual artist based in Chennai. Through the series, In The Same River, Siva Sai sheds light on how the azadi movement in Kashmir is not only a struggle for justice, but also of fading memories. He has collected archival family photographs and investigative documents of the victims of enforced disappearances in the Valley. This archive aims to understand the ways in which remembering becomes resistance. This work is on display at Forum Art Gallery, Chennai.
Photograph/Siva Sai Jeevanantham
Photograph/Siva Sai Jeevanantham
CPB III Journal
To explore fundamental questions of relevance and form, the curators of CPB have introduced an online journal. Two editions namely—Through the Glass, Darkly and Maps of Disquiet are presented in a website format. Each issue will feature an editorial by the curators, commissioned works, theoretical contributions, podcasts, photoworks and interviews. The first issue is live and can be viewed on www.journal.chennaiphotobiennale.com. The second issue will be launched shortly.
Andreas Langfeld/Sarabhi Ravichandran
In Excavating an Imagination, Sarabhi (India) and Andreas (Germany) seek to examine the relationship between archaeology and photography within the processes of shaping and negotiating cultural identity. The work focuses on the ongoing Keeladi excavation, a part of the larger Vaigai Civilisation in Tamil Nadu. It is an ongoing artistic research project mediated through photography, film, historic material and conversations with experts in different fields related to the subject. It surveys how photographs form the historical narrative of a place in the public imagination today, where the production, circulation of images and accessibility are faster and more democratic than the methods of the past, creating notions of evidence. This work is being shown at the Forum Art Gallery, Chennai.
Photograph/Andreas Langfeld and Sarabhi Ravichandran
Photograph/Andreas Langfeld and Sarabhi Ravichandran
Carolina Caycedo
A multimedia artist based in Los Angeles, United States, Carolina’s project, the Serpent River Book, speaks about the Colombian, Brazilian, and Mexican communities affected by the industrialisation and privatisation of river systems. The project is a 72-page accordion-fold artist book that combines archival images, maps, poems, lyrics, satellite photos, with photographs shot by her, and texts on river bio-cultural diversity, in a long and meandering collage that is presented as a physical showcase on a serpent-shaped table at Ashvita’s, Chennai.
Photograph/Carolina Caycedo
Photograph/Carolina Caycedo
Yuvan Aves
His series, Living Coasts, prompts individual and collective reimagination of urban spaces and contemporary counter-hegemonic practices that are sustained through photography. The project aims to assess the status of Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Areas (ICMBAs) and other biodiversity hotspots along the Tamil Nadu coast. Developed through close interactions with various communities, the project actively uses tools and platforms of ‘citizen science’ to collect, collate and disseminate information on ICMBAs, and to develop conservation efforts.
Photograph/Yuvan Aves
Photograph/Yuvan Aves
Jane Jin Kaisen
For her film, In Sweeping the Forest Floor, Jane followed numerous activists working to detect and clear away mines in South Korea, which is farmed by civilians. In the second film, Community of Parting, she traces the ancient shamanic myth of the Abandoned Princess Bari, resonating with Korean and diasporic women, who negotiate how gender bias along with colonialism, modernity, and war have resulted in radical ruptures while unfinished histories continue to linger.
Photograph/Jane Jin Kaisen
Photograph/Jane Jin Kaisen
CPB Photo Awards
The CPB Photo Awards are back and aim to recognise the efforts and talent of photojournalists and social documentary photographers from across the country. Entrants can submit their work in three categories— News and Current Affairs, Climate Change, and Conservation and Social Documentary.
The winners of the Photo of the Year and the Photo Story of the Year will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh. Winners in the News and Current Affairs and Climate Change categories will be awarded Rs. 50,000 each. Two winners in the Social Documentary category will be awarded Rs. 15,000 and vlogging kits worth Rs. 20,000, each. The last date of submission is 15 December. To know more, visit, www.chennaiphotobiennale.com/ updates/24/CPBPhotoAwards
Parvathi Nayar, Nayantara Nayar
The series Chicken Run investigates the artists’ history that mixes fresh imagery and archival photos. The fictional photo-narrative traces Mr H’s history from his humble beginnings in rural Korea, through imprisonment as a Korean prisoner of war, to life in the demilitarised zone, to setting up a chicken farm in Madras in the late 1950s.
Photograph/Parvathi Nayar, Nayantara Nayar
Harun Farocki
In his documentary essay, Workers Leaving the Factory, Harun Farocki explores the movie right through the history of film. The result of this effort is a fascinating cinematographic analysis in the medium of cinematography itself, ranging in scope from Chaplin’s Modern Times to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone. Farocki’s film shows that the Lumière brothers’ sequence already carries within itself the germ of a foreseeable social development: the eventual disappearance of this form of industrial labour.
Save the Date!
10 December: Virtual curator’s tour with CPB III cocurators Boaz Levin and Kerstin Meincke | 2:30pm
Curator’s tour | 5pm | Ashvita’s
11 December: Curator’s tour | 11am | Forum Art Gallery
Hybrid artist talk and discussion: Jane Jin Kaisen in conversation with Bhooma Padmanabhan | 5pm | Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan and Zoom
18 December: Hybrid conversation with Parvathi and Nayantara Nayar with co-curator of CPB III, Bhooma Padmanabhan
19 December: Photo Kadai, an entire day of live cyanotype print workshop, student’s activity corner, photobooks and print sale and more | Foley-Amethyst
29 January: Unveiling and felicitating the winners of the CPB Photo Awards in an online ceremony
8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 26, and 29 December | 15, 16, 19, 22, 26, and 29 January | 2 and 5 February: Video Screenings by Vasudha Thozhur, Katja Stuke, Oliver Sieber, Nico Joana Weber, Parvathi Nayar and Nayantara Nayar, Lisa Rave, Ruth Patir, Harun Farocki, Rory Pilgrim, Mohini Chandra, Rohini Devasher, and Jane Jin Kaisen | 11am onwards | The films will also be accessible upon registration with time sensitive password-protected links to audiences outside Chennai
Sridhar Balasubramanium
Space Between Us explores the bond between the body, the land, and the innumerable ways where they become one. He believes it is not a constant or singular entity, but keeps shifting, animating itself through rituals and performances. Even as the space seems to grow, new vocabularies are born to help us recognise the intimacy we share with the land we live in.
Photograph/Sridhar Balasubramanium
Anaïs Tondeur
Research-based artist Anaïs Tondeur created her series Carbon Black during a 15-day expedition to Fair Isle, Scotland. She aims to highlight the consequences of black carbon on the environment and humans. The series was created with the aid of atmospheric scientists Rita Van Dingenen and Jean-Philipe Putaud, who shared their expertise during the creation of the project. She also utilised black carbon particles that she collected during her journey, which was transformed into ink that printed the images.
Photograph/Anaïs Tondeur
Photograph/Anaïs Tondeur
Senthil Kumaran
An independent storyteller, Senthil’s series Tamed Tuskers explores the relationship between elephants and tamed Tuskers from the Kurumba tribe in Tamil Nadu. The elephants, often harassed by humans, were relocated to taming camps to be tamed through the tribe’s traditional techniques. So far, the Kurumbas have ensured a reduction in human-elephant conflict and poaching. This work is being shown at Forum Art Gallery, Chennai.
Photograph/Senthil Kumaran
Rory Pilgrim
Hailing from Bristol, Rory asks how we can collectively deal with the climate crisis in his movie, The Undercurrent. Filmed in Boise, USA, the project was made with ten youth climate activists who explored how climate change interconnects with family, religion, friendship, gender equality and the essential need of a home. It is the first chapter of a wider body of work that will continue to deal with the constant action needed to deal with the climate crisis, using film as a means not to record or document loss but as an agent to stop it.
Photograph/Rory Pilgrim
Photograph/Rory Pilgrim
Urban Imageries Students’ Workshop
The international workshop brings together students from Indian and German architecture universities who study art history/education or photography. They will explore the topic of urban imaginaries through close readings of architectural manifestations, both in India and in Germany. The objective is to compare their function as symbols for the new society after WWII or in the aftermath of colonialism. They will also learn more about mapping strategies and exploring transcultural avenues of thought. The idea of mapping will be explored beyond its practical purpose, to allow researchers to think about it as part of a larger discourse that addresses questions of representation, equity, and the idea of counter-mapping. The students will present their work in January.
Lisa Rave
Using various imagery, the film Europium by Lisa Rave draws connections between Papua New Guinea’s colonial past and the planned excavation of raw materials from the Bismarck Sea. The film weaves a narrative around the rare earth element, Europium, used for creating colour images on screens and to authenticate European notes. The film describes this seemingly mundane fact as a return and repetition of history, pointing to the complexity of human culture, and exposing the invisible ghosts of the past as they appear in modern objects.
Photograph/Lisa Rave
Photograph/Lisa Rave
Arthur Crestani
Arthur Crestani is a French photographer with a background in social sciences and urban planning. His series, Aranya, is based on a neighbourhood created in 1983 by architect Balkrishna Doshi, a low-cost housing project for the urban poor. The series explores this mixed-income locality and its everyday challenges. Through architectural views, mundane details and portraits of men caught in contemplative postures, Crestani questions the condition of socially inclusive urban spaces in India, and his work is being showcased at the Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai.
Photograph/Arthur Crestani