Right to Dissent

"if constructing the future and settling everything for all times are not our affair, it is all the more clear what we have to accomplish at present: I am referring to ruthless criticism of all that exists, ruthless both in the sense of not being afraid of the results it arrives at and in the sense of being just as little afraid of conflict with the powers that be."

- Karl Marx (in a letter written to Arnold Ruge, September 1843)

Radical Art Practice: Nature and Possibilities

Radical art practices intend to show atypical practices used in contemporary art context, and artists directly acting in processes in societies dealing with fundamental issues. Their works intersect, crossing traditional borders of collaborations and professions while relating it with collective action for a sustainable society on social, cultural and economical level. It acts on the world rather than merely representing it as it not only includes ‘politics’ as content or subject of the work but also acts on and intervenes into the conditions of its discipline. At the same time it is significant to consider how art practice engages with the different discourses of radicality - its histories and subversions. Radicality refers specifically to going to the root or origin of something. Art’s radicality requires a rethinking of both, the aesthetic and the social and through this two pronged revision that art may exhibit a certain political force. The radical form of the initiative titled ‘Right to Dissent’ convened by artist Tushar Joag leads to the politicization of his individual art practice as well as the art practice of the group of artists participated in this exhibition. The week-long initiative consisting of an art exhibition, film screenings, a panel discussion and performance in Mumbai from May 24 to May 30, 2011 was organized in partnership with the Committee for the Release of Binayak Sen, Clark House and the Mohile Parikh Center.

Do such projects address the criticality of art and theory? Can we look at it as an attempt to redefine and reconstitute the premises of art in today’s times? Is it an alternate way? If yes, then is it in terms of the institution of art or in terms of visual language?

Prisoners of Conscience by Anand Patwardhan

 

The Art of Dissent

Dissent is to disagree, a refusal to confirm to the authority and is itself a special expression of democratic and humanistic principles. The act of dissent invariably takes a critical stance towards the existing social system and imperious acts of the governmental agencies. There are numerous evidences where artists, activists, journalists have been charged with and convicted under rigorous laws all over the world for using their right to dissent; the recent examples are Ai Wei Wei in China or Kopa Kumjam in Chattisgarh and many others languishing in jails. Nevertheless, the idea of dissent is being universalized here with the specificity of the issue in the context of Indian state and judiciary. Here, it is also important to see what credence is given to the role of art(s) in the praxis of protest action and dissent and how imaginative art forms could help communicate ideas and information, both within and outside the movements. Tracing the boundaries of art of dissent has long been an area of discursive engagements in the history of modern artists voicing against the suppressions of various kinds in different parts of the world. Art of dissent, one of the radical forms of the arts, engages socially to bring about a change while pushing the boundaries in order to break monocles and making use of symbolic references to critique the anti-democratic attitudes. It portrays the injustice, making evident the dismay of these acts and their condemnation while interfacing with the surrounding material conditions.

Dr. Binayak Sen, a public health activist and human rights advocate, was erroneously convicted for supporting the Maoist struggle in the region and as a ‘fake’ doctor. The unwarranted arrest of Dr. Sen under the Sedition law followed by the sentence of life imprisonment by the government of Chattisgarh stimulated the social activists, students, artists, academicians, writers globally to come together to protest against this act of suppression in the largest democracy of the world today. As a continuation of this invocation worldwide, ‘Right to Dissent’ initiative occupies an important space in the contemporary art and culture as it bridges multiple disciplines while foregrounding various radical aspects through this process of intertwining of spaces between art and activism.

 

The Exhibition Route:

 
Right to Dissent exhibition at the Clark House in Colaba was a radical departure from the white cubical exhibition spaces where the meanings of the art works proliferate in the space in terms of - spatial/geographical as well as temporal/historical – the exhibition space is spatially grounded in the art district of Mumbai served as an old shipping office and a pharmaceutical research office. This two storied office space with worn out walls, muted rooms, and precarious staircases defies convention where the art works are intermingled with the already existing functional objects. Ilina Sen made a poignant comment after seeing the exhibition, ‘the emotion of indignation that is normally expressed in words gets distilled here in these works of art.’

Tushar Joag

Once you enter the narrow Nathlal Parekh Marg which is diagonally opposite the Regal Cinema in Colaba, you realize that the exhibition does not confine inside the architectural purlieus of Clark House. The pavement outside Clark House which would be normally occupied by street vendors is covered with a mat with multiple objects on it. The work titled ‘Walk Through’ by Justin Ponmany is a collection of found objects including torches, doll, spiderman, a stuffed hand with a broken voting finger, postcards and mugs with photographs of Ai Wei Wei and Binayak Sen on them, vehicle indicator light indicating ‘left’ turn. There is a handwritten note that says ‘dekhane ke liye paisa nahi lagata’ (To see, doesn't cost a rupee). Though the artist has freed himself from the physical restrictions of place through this act where the people passing by would stop and interact with him, the arbitrariness of these objects is unsettling.

The office space-turned-exhibition space without any air-conditioning facilities in the highly humid conditions of South Bombay creates a feeling of discomfort within you. This feeling keeps on growing with every art work that you come across as it talks about violence, state atrocities, and ineffective systems. Sharmila Samant’s etched brass plaque and a box of glass hammers at the entrance gives definitions of words like art, disaster, terrorism, revolution, Maoists in the form of mathematical equations. This set of definitions on the wall and the wooden box with broken glass hammers becomes a metaphor for the disillusionment towards the state and its policies. Atul Dodiya’s ‘No’ and Anju Dodiya’s ‘White Flag’, two watercolour drawings on paper placed on opposite walls are almost identical in nature and comment on the inequality, injustice and prejudice prevalent in the society. A wooden table with one crippled leg and an exhaust pipe impaling a brain is placed in the middle of the room. ‘Farm Land’ by Riyas Komu symbolizes the issue of farmers’ suicides, inactive policy makers and redundant systems. In Bose Krishnamachari’s ‘Long Live…!’, his self portrait juxtaposing with that of Mahatma Gandhi, one assumes the subtext is that the leader is no more and the follower is waiting expectantly, but the piece is too impetuous to give a serious thought and too besmirched to dismiss as trivial.

In the narrow corridor next to that room, there is a computer screen running a video in loop ‘About Body Borders’ made by Desire Machine Collective. This powerful video work is about the protests against the brutal rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama in Imphal allegedly done by army personnel. The audio-visual presentation showing women outside the Assam Rifles headquarters in Imphal holding placards that read ‘Indian Army Rape Us’ does point out the legal system that closes in on certain sections of society and clutches them. On the opposite wall, there are words like justice, freedom, representation, equity in the shape of a butterfly. At the end of the corridor, Tushar Joag is sitting behind the mesh of strings in a 5’x3’ room and filling up school notebooks with a one-liner, ‘I will not lose my faith in the Indian judiciary and democracy’. The 168 hour-long performance is evocative of a solitary confinement while creating a multi-layered reading of it including the physical incarceration of the artist, the idea of constriction of spaces, experiencing austerity like many others who believed in democratic values and principles. 

Shilpa Gupta

 

Reena Kallat

The inside room which was the main cabin previously has two rusty metal cages within a cage hanging from the ceiling made by Shilpa Gupta. The captivating shadow casts of the cages in that dimly lit room lock you up creating a feeling of uneasiness and suffocation. The room opposite Gupta’s work has another large work of the show, Reena Kallat’s ‘Preface’. It is a gigantic book placed on a prayer stand on which the constitution of India is projected in Braille. As a result the text is reduced to various unreadable dots that emerge on the page like a drop of ink, start spreading all over and then disappear and reappear… The use of Braille emphasizes the inability of the people to read the constitutional provisions that would empower them and make them aware of their rights.

One has to climb a precarious ladder to reach to the mezzanine floor. The floor is covered with green carpet; the room has old wooden cabinets, tables and also old photographs and certificates handing on the walls. Then you suddenly notice the green moss engulfing the walls is this room. Prajakta Potnis’ ‘Suffocate/humid/stagnant/law’ is a site specific work that evolves from the fact that she was not allowed to remove the carpet by the owner. The layers of moss creeping onto the walls comment on the dormant government, law makers and inactive representatives of the people. A corridor on the right had side has shelves stacked with the files and documents of the shipping company. In the midst of those heaps, there are two screens showing two videos from Kashmir Archives created by Majlis. This archive was built up as they realized the need to preserve, negotiate and re-define the contemporary images of pain, loss, betrayal, dissent and subversion in spaces beyond the 24 x 7 media inflow. ‘Rahi Zindagi Toh Phir Milenge’ talks about the intimidating presence of the armed forces in the valley which has been responsible for distorting the natural course of things in Kashmir. The other video is about an old man who has archived the deaths of young men in his area after his son was killed by the Indian army. This was created out of the fear that people would disbelieve them in course of time, these films gives us disheartening details of the victimization of common people in one of the most volatile regions of the country.

Collapsing the boundaries:

On one hand the exhibition rejected the commodification and isolation of the art works and on the other hand it involved competing forms of political activism that kindled the efforts of both organizers and participants to shape viewers' experiences. This initiative has enabled people from various fields and backgrounds to crossover and be part of the other, the alternate. There were lawyers, sociologists and activists who visited the art exhibition and there were artists, art students and filmmakers who attended the public lectures on the last day of the event.

On May 27, two documentary films were screened at the M.C. Ghia Hall at Kala Ghoda. ‘A Doctor to Defend: The Binayak Sen Story’ made by Minnie Vaid is based on her own book published this year. As a human rights activist Binayak was amongst the first to voice his concern against the state backed vigilante armed force, Salwa Judum which was created to counter the Naxalite Movement in the region. The narrative built up around his work in Chattisgarh displays his views interspersed with the events around him including formation of Rupantar Trust, clandestinely shot footage of Salwa Judum camps, closing down of his clinic in Chattisgarh, villagers demanding the release of the only medical doctor in their area. It captures the essence of his ideology, his belief in the work he and his colleagues have undertaken in the field of public health sector and human rights. As Minnie added later, the idea was to tell the story which was not taken up by the mainstream media at that point of time. ‘Prisoners of Conscience’, the term used for political prisoners, a film made by political activist and documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, captures the arbitrary imprisonments without any trial during the emergency in 1975-1977. The film secretly takes us inside the jails where the political prisoners were confined for raising their voices against the authoritative regime of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It is an account of the footage of civil liberties movement born out of the emergency period, interviews of the political activists and students who were captured during that period.

The initiative concluded on May 30 with a panel discussion and a performance at Kala Ghoda. The discussion was moderated by Jyoti Punwani, a senior journalist from Mumbai. Mihir Desai, a lawyer and human rights advocate, gave a historical overview of the colonial laws like Sedition law. He further added that it’s a restriction on the fundamental rights and has the potential of misuse for keeping the activists behind the bars for several years and demoralizing people who are in support of right to dissent. Flavia Agnes, a women’s movement activist, stated how the state can use power within the realm of law that suspends people’s democratic rights while taking note of the emotional and mental trauma endured by the family and friends during this period. Ilina Sen talked about the different perspective that was brought out by the artists participated in the exhibition in terms of democratic rights, violation of these rights, the way in which the idea of a nation and citizenship is conceived. Binayak Sen’s presentation was mainly focused around the problem of hunger, malnourishment in our society and ongoing campaign for Right to Food. He also criticized the ‘legitimate’ way in which the state hands over the commonly shared resources of certain communities to the national and multinational corporations in the name of development. 

Dastan-e-Sedition

 

On the evening of May 30, the audience was enthralled by the performance of Dastangoi, a revived tradition of storytelling in Urdu, performed by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain. Dastan-e-Sedition, the tale of a ‘hakeem’ (doctor) narrated by the dastangos replaces the traditional stories of adventurous heroes, magic, romance and warfare. It encapsulates the important incidences from Dr. Binayak Sen’s life as he negotiates the rough terrains of the state of Chattisgarh while weaving in the details of his activism, his arrest, the role of Salwa Judum and his trial in the Chattisgarh courts. The layered and nuanced story of the hakeem told in a satirical and humoristic manner takes us into a magical land of fantasy, the ‘tilism’ of our times, while sharply cutting through the issue of undemocratic acts in a democratic nation.

This entire initiative received overwhelming response from the people and media and turned out as an answer to the constraints of government and the “powers that be” from around the globe. It contained an element of discord, an appeal to justice and an attempt to liberate some truth that lies beneath the surface of public discourse. While I am writing this piece, a couple of more activists are being arrested and perhaps trialed under the unlawful act or under the sedition law. The voice is being suppressed. This jarring insertion of extreme prejudice and brute force is being applied on to certain sections of the civil society. Subsequently, it becomes important to find a space for meaning political and cultural dissent that brings tangible results to people outside periphery of the gallery space. The role of the cultural practitioners becomes direct and confrontational. I believe that the political engagement of the cultural practitioners will eventually upset the paradigms of conventional art world and help them carve out a space for continued vigorous dialogue and dissent. 

Published in Art Etc, July 2011

Photo Courtesy: Chirodeep Choudhuri