‘Elephant in the Room’
Project Note: ‘Elephant in the Room’ is a project by Conflictorium – Museum of Conflict (India) in collaboration with contemporary art center Stroom Den Haag in The Hague (NL) that attempts to initiate conversations on art infrastructures.
Towards producing a publication in response to the fissures and anxieties in the structuring of the arts – framed as the ‘Elephant in the Room’, the project asked: what are the elephants in the rooms you occupy or are denied in the arts? Who are these elephants tethered to? Do they make noise? Can you touch them? Why do they exist? How can we free them from the confines of the rooms?
Towards this, we invited critical and honest representations by artists and art writers in India for the prompt of ‘Elephant in the Room’. The attempt was to move away from a merit-based aesthetical discourse and pave way for assertive and self-representational aesthetics of the multitudes of Indian experiences with/in the existent arts infrastructures.
Publication Blurb: Is an open call in the Arts truly open or is it challenged by its own protocols and prejudices? Are these protocols symptoms of deeper biases that restrict the democratization of the Arts and Culture? Why are some Art workers a recurring presence and others utterly absent from the conversations of Contemporary Arts? Is Culture only produced on archival paper? Where can we locate Culture?
Signaling – or gesticulating – in aesthetics, language, and geography is a quotidian method for constructing a network in the Arts.
This publication is a gathering of experiences of signals, across vantage points – center, periphery, siteless, that collectively offer themselves as artefact, manual, complaint, invitation, and disobedience.
Publication Contributors’ Contact Details: Details:
| Abin Sreedharan K P | abinsreedhar@gmail.com |
| Aditi Premkumar | aditipremkumar1499@gmail.com |
| Aishwarya Sultania | tahproject1@gmail.com |
| Akbar Ali Sunasara | akbar.vvac@gmail.com |
| Akhila GN | akhilagn0499@gmail.com |
| Ali Akbar P N | aliakbarn347@gmail.com |
| Alpesh Patel | alpeshnadiyad@gmail.com |
| Ankur Yadav | ankuryaadav00000@gmail.com |
| Anuj Madan | whereisanuj@gmail.com |
| Anupam Roy | anupamerid@gmail.com |
| Anupam Saikia | anupam.saikia87@gmail.com |
| Arti Kadam | artivijayk@gmail.com |
| Arundhati Chauhan | aru.chau@gmail.com |
| Chetan Mevada | chetanmevada27@gmail.com |
| Chetna Mehrotra | chetna@chetnamehrotra.com |
| Chitra Chandrashekhar | mographies@gmail.com |
| Clinton C George | ccgblack337@gmail.com |
| Dakshayani Chippada | dakshayanich5@gmail.com |
| Dhannjay Kumar | dhannjay.next@gmail.com |
| Dhrubajit Sarma | dhrubajitsarma56@gmail.com |
| Divya Varigonda | bavishavarigonda@gmail.com |
| Dr. Nirmala Biluka | bilukanirmala@gmail.com |
| Gavara Satyanarayana | gsngrb@gmail.com |
| Hasanali M. Kadiwala | Id-hasanalikadiwala1336@gmail.com |
| Hozefa Ujjaini | hozefa09@gmail.com |
| Jaisingh Nageswaran | jaisinghnageswaran@gmail.com |
| kapil Jangid | Kapiljangid0506@gmail.com |
| Kingkar Sarkar | kingkarsarkar04@gmail.com |
| Lekshmi Sudarsanan | lekshmiss27@gmail.com |
| Mahesha G | deburmahesh@gmail.com |
| Midhun T V | midhuntvmigo@gmail.com |
| Mitali Das | mitalidas2895@gmail.com |
| Narendran Nair | rnair.narendran@gmail.com |
| Nitesh Chaudhari | chaudharinitesh954@gmail.com |
| Nitheen Ramalingam | nitheeramalingam@gmail.com |
| Obedient Student Off Duty | @obedient.student.offduty (Instagram) |
| Prajapati utpal | Utpalprajaps@gmail.com |
| Pramod kumar | pramod17aug@gmail.com |
| Pravakar Ghosh | pravakarghosh1988@gmail.com |
| Raju Patel | rajubhinar73@gmail.com |
| Rakesh Kumar | rakeshkumar.artist@gmail.com |
| Ritesh khowal | khowaldritesh@gmail.com |
| Rituparna Pal | rituparna2410@gmail.com |
| Rounak Maiti | maitirounak@gmail.com |
| Rutvi Vakharia | vibgyor.rutvi@gmail.com |
| Samya Raha | samya.raha@gmail.com |
| Sanjib Mondal | 26sanjib@gmail.com |
| Saroj Kumar Badatya | sarojkumarbadatya21@gmail.com |
| Shaon Basu | shaonbasu5884@gmail.com |
| Shashikanta Mohanty | shashikantmohanty12@gmail.com |
| Sheshadev sagria | sheshadevsagria28@gmail.com |
| Sonal Mithal | sonalmithal@gmail.com |
| Soura Chatterjee | 150souro1996@gmail.com |
| Stuti Jain | stuti.art@gmail.com |
| Subodh Kunwer | subodhkunwer22@gmail.com |
| Sumeshan K | sumeshanmadikai@gmail.com |
| Sumitha O.K | sumithabineesh@gmail.com |
| Sunnykumar Patani | sunnykumar36324@gmail.com |
| Tanya Maheshwari | tanya.0205@outlook.com |
| Tapas Malik | tapasmalik2590@gmail.com |
| Thasil Suhara Backer | thasil.xplor@yahoo.com |
| Ujwal kc | ujwalkc53@gmail.com |
| Venkatesh P | Venkateshp0726@gmail.com |
| Vijay Kadam | vijaykadam75@gmail.com |
| Vishnu Kumar K K | vishnukumar.vishnu8@gmail.com |
| Vivek Das M.M | vivekdasmm@gmail.com |
| Yadhu | anitchaofknowing@gmail.com |
| Yallaling Chalawadi | lingachalawadi@gmail.com |
| Yash Vyas | yashvyas.art@gmail.com |
| zeropowercut.com | zeropowercut@gmail.com |
Selection Open Call:
FAQS before you begin:
Q1) What is a ‘closed call’ that is public? How is it different from an open call?
We ask instead: what is an “open” call that is inherently limited by its own protocols, politics and prejudices? Can there be an open call that goes beyond its networks? How can we – as art and culture organisations – be more honest with the culture of “open” calls?
Q2) What does ‘Elephant in the Room’ mean?
The phrase ‘elephant in the room’ is a metaphorical idiom in English for an obvious conversation that is actively being denied its presence and time. It is based on the idea that something massive like an elephant can be invisibilized in an attempt to repress or dismiss certain conversations.
Q3) Who can apply?
Any Indian artist and art-writer that has applied to, but not received (m)any organisational support, either in finance or kind, in the last four years will be eligible to apply. Preference will be given to applications from non-metropolitan locations.
Q4) When is the last date to apply?
31st December 2021
Q5) Do I have to send in any works along with the application form?
No, it’s a simple application form requiring your name, contact details and past rejection letters. You will only be expected to share a piece of work upon hearing from us.
Q6) When do I hear from you?
Between 1st January 2022 to 10th January 2022
Upon selection:
1. You will be required to respond to the thematic ‘Elephant in the Room’ , which can be either:
A non-textual work (open to any medium: painting, image, performance, illustration, puppeting, sonic, textile, etc.)
A writing upto 1000 words (open to any Indian language) accompanied by an English translation* of the same. Conflictorium may be equipped to support translations of Hindi and Gujarati essays.
2. If your response / work is not static, it will make its way to the publication in the form of QR codes, links, and other interesting design methods which can be thought through collectively so feel free to send us non-image based works!
3. You will have between 11th January 2022 to 25th January 2022 to share your work with us
Additional details:
1. About 75 artists and 25 art-writers will be selected by the jury.
2. The selected applicants will receive a honorarium of Rs.10,000/-
you may write to dialogue@conflictorium.org for more details.