Breaching Frontiers

A meeting place for artists, art collectors and many celebrities from the art scene Art Basel 2024 showcased various art forms, with both works by modern masters and art by emerging talents. Started 1970, by three gallery owners from Basel -- Trudl Bruckner, Ernst Beyeler and Balz Hilt, the event has grown immensely over the years achieving cult status. This year saw nearly 250 gallerists feature 4,000 artists from different countries and genres showcasing the highest quality work across all media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and digital artworks. The Indian presence was also felt with three galleries from the country participating alongside the best of the art world.

Different Strokes

Reena Kallat, Artist says that throughout history, the colonization of the mind has persisted as an invisible thread, subtly weaving through our perceptions and shaping our understanding of the world. It is to highlight these inherent biases that she showcased a map that appears uncanny in its orientation and scale. As an exercise in counter-cartography, it subverts normalised perceptions of the world, and invites viewers to carefully reconsider the tacit structures governing us. In the work, viewers confront an image that flips standard orientations, placing what is typically considered the ‘South’ above the equator. This reversal compels audiences to reckon with an unfamiliar, yet evocative perspective. It draws attention to the politically charged nature of cartographic practices, which often reflect the intentions and biases of map makers. “This work destabilises what we might consider ‘normal’ and prompts us to re-examine the commonplace yet powerful structures we take for granted,” she says.

Quilting Stories

As a printmaker, Jayeeta Chatterjee, artist used Nakshi Kantha, the traditional Bengali quilting technique to revive the communal practice currently facing the threat

of extinction. After preparing large woodworks, she printed her compositions on used sarees collected from the women portrayed in the artwork. Through this technique, she wove anecdotes, floral motifs, and the domestic everydayness of women. Her work that was showcased at Art Basel, When a Child Itself is a Mother, a woodblock print and Nakshi Kantha stitch on a recycled cotton saree, tells the story of child marriage, highlighting its prevalence in both rural villages and urban areas. With a focus on Karnataka, where an increasingly high incidence of child marriages fall under the radar, the work tells the story of a neighbouring household. The man was 32 and the girl 16. At 17, she was a mother and now has a two-year-old to raise. In front, is an image of her attempting to rest, one hand on her baby and in the other, its toy. In the back, is a stark contrast- the image of a schoolgirl caught between backs bent from the weight of domestic responsibility. In the corner, a shrub of buds refuses to bloom. Jayeeta explains, “To flower, they require care of their own- fresh air, sunlight, and water. Without household support, the young mother is thrust into an abrupt transition where she must care for her child before getting to be one herself. The architectural elements in the background, depict the intergenerational cycle of child marriage that continues to persist.”

Roshini Vadehra, Director, Vadehra Art Gallery says they showed a very special body of vintage photographs by artist Sunil Gupta from the 1980s. The booth garnered incredible interest from both private collectors and institutions. Sunil has been widely exhibited internationally and is also a part of most museums’ permanent collections. So there was great interest from curators and museums and we were able to place his works in new collections as well.

Throughout history, the colonization of the mind has persisted as an invisible thread, subtly weaving through our perceptions and shaping our understanding of the world.” — Reena Kallat, Artist

When a Child Itself is a Mother, a woodblock print and Nakshi Kantha stitch on a recycled cotton saree, tells the story of child marriage.” — Jayeeta Chatterjee, artist