Contemporary artists take over an 17^th century fort in Jaipur for a year-long exhibit

Recreating the interior of a middle class domestic home space, with the nylon strung folding cots, a collection of the clay painted pots, dour hanging the curtains, colourful cloth tents, gigantic globular sculptures of doors, windows and other architectural elements balled into one another, other domestic bric-a-brac dangling from metal armatures or supported off the ground, the sculpture park that features site-specific art annually at Madhavendra Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur, took off in its evocation that brings the interiors into the exterior.

Curated by artist and curator Peter Nagy, it features contemporary artists such as Andrea Anastasio (Italy), Rui Chafes (Portugal), Mario d’Souza (France/India), Henrik Eiben (Germany), Bene Fonteles (Brazil), Martand Khosla (India), Rahul Kumar (India), Ottonella Mocelin & Nicola Pellegrini (Italy), Karim Noureldin (Switzerland), Pietro Pasolini (Italy), Swapnaa Tamhane (Canada), Lorenzo Vitturi (Italy), and Daisy Xavier (Brazil).

The Saat Saath Arts Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Rajasthan, are the forces behind the venture. “The mix of artists is more international this year, with only two Indian artists from India—Martand Khosla and Rahul Kumar. I don't count Mario d'Souza as he has been based in Paris for 25 years. Most of the projects are now site-specific installations created in response to the spaces and using locally sourced materials and fabricators. In the process, a sort of leitmotif of textiles came about,” says Nagy. No doubt the project was made more challenging by the COVID-19 lockdowns and the fact that the palace itself was shut for almost two years. However, the group managed to bring it together and while some sculptures could have definitely done with more onsite work, one understands the inability to do so was purely circumstantial.

The nine artists—Anastasio, Fonteles, Khosla, Kumar, Mocelin & Pellegrini, Noureldin, Pasolini and Xavier have created new site-specific works inspired by and responding to the architecture of the palace and the context of Jaipur. The remaining five artists chose to display the works within the elaborately decorated spaces of the palace to bring ‘new perspectives’ to their creations, which are most usually displayed in the white box spaces of museums and art galleries. In all cases, a dialogue is created between a historical structure, being its own hybridised confection, and contemporary art, enriching the experiences of all visitors to Nahargarh Fort while promoting the reinvigoration of India’s heritage culture.

The Italian artist, Anastasio refers to the ‘inner landscapes’, inhabited by ever-changing emotions and feelings. Inspired by Sandro Penna, the Italian poet, the work refers to how the outer landscape and the world outside, is interlaced with our interior emotions.

Anastasio refers to the empty space and the ‘ornamental character’ of the building and how that is transformed by the installation, with the aim of generating an impactful physical and psychological experience. He works with the nylon straps of a typical folding camping cot, used in Indian cities, often in many middle-class residencies as well in a make-shift manner. The nylon strips have been hung in the courtyard to create a kind of rain-like feeling, housed in doorways and niches…the material carries with it a delicate sense of support and it brings to the space a dialogue about the external props we create with our lives to support ourselves, even temporarily.   

Chafes’ abstract sculpture Unshelter V is made from iron and has the duality of a protective enclosure but also has the deceptive sense of being an environment that is dangerous since flames may ‘erupt and consume’ the occupants.

Extremely simple and concise, Mario d’Souza’s work consists of five large panels, each two-sided, with a single colour on one side and a complex print on the other.

Artist Bené Fontele’s work is divided into five parts, and it evokes Between Heaven and Earth, an installation/ritual inspired by two similar cultures—Brazil and India. It is brought together by several elements and affinities from poetry and music to visual arts, dance and theater. The work also reflects a deep admiration for and influence by Mahatma Gandhi. Fontele’s work aims to reflect and honour the strength and inspiration that emanates from an ancient culture, which is both India with touches from the artist's own Brazilian culture. 

Also on view are three works by Fontele from the series Sudariums-Self Portraits. This body of work emerged from the artist’s personal, painful, and transforming experience when his own body was accidentally burnt. The artist calls these works Shrouds, to make references to religious garments and the wrappings for a deceased body. 

Swiss visual artist Karim Noureldin took over an apartment in the Madhavendra Palace to combine a number of forms and materials which he has been exploring over time he has spent in India, especially Jaipur itself. The predominant elements are two large dhurrie carpets, hand-woven using the traditional Panza technique of Jatwara, a town near Jaipur, and designed especially for these rooms.

The exhibit consists of a work titled Des, that functions as large fields of colour on the floors of two rooms, complementing the richly decorated walls and ceilings and completing a three-dimensional space of lush ornamentation. Diw is the title the artist gives to the metallic sculpture that hangs from the ceiling. A colourful geometrical object with harmonious proportions, this acts as a focal point for the entire installation. Completing the project are what the artist calls Naq; these being locally sourced ceramic vessels which the artist has painted. Placed in the existing niches and on pedestals in the apartment, these both bring a sense of utility to the space but also further complicate its ornamentation.

Rahul Kumar’s installation, Body City II, resides in two rooms and appears to be an abstract rendition of an aerial view of a city. The grid-like structure, criss-crossing lines, patches and undulations resemble a town plan; however, on a closer inspection the work also evokes a sense of microscopic vision of veins and muscles, tissues and cells. It presents the concept of the body as a city, and the city as a living being: the evocative work juxtaposes geometric forms with organic ones, the man-made with the industrial, in the same way that a city does. The work is a manifestation of his ongoing interest in the city as a living being, metaphorically, it is a concept that has intrigued him in many of his artwork where he has created architectural blocks in clay with a diptych element, they may be viewed as a flat city map or three-dimensionally as they are in this particular work handing from the ceiling with the city carved onto its surface and within its structure.

Henrik Eiben approaches sculpture to investigate three-dimensions but also materials and asks the question if, ‘Sculpture can also be like painting?' He uses painted surfaces to bring in colour but also exploits the found colours and properties of materials that are grafted on to the form.

Martand Khosla is both a sculpture artist and a practicing architect, and this reflects amply in his work. He is deeply involved with the built environment and sees his artistic practice as an “exploration of the continual regeneration of our cities.” There is a constant, churning violence to our urban environments and Khosla’s wood sculptures capture these processes of turbulence, picturing their physical, temporal, and psychological manifestations.

The clouds are gentler forms while the bursting aspect brings in their more volatile nature where the forms appear to protrude and rush toward the viewer, where they almost rain down on the viewer but stop only to revive that sense of safety and satisfaction that allows us to go on with our lives.

Lorenzo Vitturi creates hybrid containers of artisanal narratives and unexpected encounters of materials. The base of much work is fibers of wool and silk, traditional methods of weaving, shearing, and layering are combined with others. Then distinctly different materials, such as glass, wood, and straw are added. All elements are sourced and combined by Vitturi following a specific process that takes place in the artist’s places of origin, Venice and Peru, and emerges from moments of exchange with local communities of artisans in India.

Pietro Pasolini’s large sculptural art in the courtyard design of the Madhavendra Palace explores the basic principles of geometry and physics to foreground the interrelations that exist among all entities in the universe. The viewer’s point of viewing the work often leads to the multiple interpretation.

This in fact may be said of many of the works and the sculpture court is a site to be viewed and interacted with. The exhibit is open till December 2023 and hopefully will attract many who would interact with and interpret the work. The works may be seen as an encouragement to get back to nature and to art in the physical and to meander through the palace as one discovers the works of art on display.

Rahul Kumar is the Editor (Arts), STIR and an established ceramic artist. His works are part of the third edition of The Sculpture Park, curated by Peter Nagy.

The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace is on view at the Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur, India, till December 1, 2023.