Artists, curators condemn disruption of artwork at India Art Fair

 Several artists on Sunday condemned Indian Art Fair for t standing with artists whose work was interrupted during an event here, saying its attitude was "absolutely unethical and prejudiced".

In a statement, artists and curators, including Puneet Kaushik, Shukla Sawant, Annapurna Garimella, Shefalee Jain, Lokesh Khodke and Sindhura, demanded that India Art Fair (IAF) apologise to artists.

"We, undersigned, express solidarity with young artists who were subjected to intimidation and discrimination at and by India Art Fair (IAF) on February 2, 2020. We strongly condemn absolutely unethical and prejudiced attitude displayed by Fair manment towards se artists," statement said.

On February 2, a performative art piece curated by Myna Mukherjee at fair's Italian Embassy Culture Centre booth was interrupted abruptly by police following an anymous complaint that some paintings against Citizenship (Amendment) Act were being exhibited.

art featured paintings as well as songs including Faiz Ahmad Faiz's "Hum Dekhenge", and poetry recitations talking about love, beauty, tenderness and strength of women across country.

statement ted that while police intimidated participating artists and proceeded to shut down performance entirely, officials at IAF did t intervene.

" officials at fair, instead of stepping in and listening to artists and examining situation fully, abdicated ir responsibilities and left artists and curator to reason and negotiate with police," it said.

" key question remains why IAF t only failed to stand by artists but were also active participants in harassment meted out to m," charitable trust said in statement.

It furr added that IAF's behaviour was "absolutely discriminatory" considering police complaint was based on fact that artwork was being prepared by "someone wearing clos resembling women sitting in Shaheen Bagh".

"It is t acceptable to allow artists' expression to be curtailed on account of an anymous complaint, especially when that complaint reeks of thing but deep seated and reprehensible Islamophobia.

" fact that art fair has tried to insulate itself from ongoing movement against CAA, NRC, and NPR by creating a 'zero-tolerance' policy against banners and sloganeering is a troubling violation of right to dissent," it said.

It also ted that IAF's policy framed in terms of safety is igrant and misleading given that "those participating in this n-violent movement have actually been at receiving end of brutal violence in form of lathi charge, beating, and even bullets at hands of security forces and law-enforcement ncies".

"That same ncies were allowed to target and intimidate young artists on basis of an Islamophobic complaint is an unacceptable lack of sensitivity towards vulnerability of marginalized peoples in this current political milieu," artists said.

y said "ideologies of bigotry" cant be allowed to determine who can create art, where y can create it, what its content can be or what artists can wear while making it.

artists also criticised fair manment's claim that y were unaware of details of art programme in question.

"y have furr later claimed to police and public that y had kwledge that event was happening, which has since been proved to be false as artists leading programme have publicly shared invitation in which event is listed. This invitation had been widely circulated at and prior to fair. Or artists at fair have even attested to this," CWST statement read.

invitations as well as fair schedule, available and circulated among visitors, described performative project " Wall" as a community art building mural led by Post Art Project.

During commotion at fair, one of artworks has also allegedly been misplaced, regarding which Italian Embassy as well as IAF released a joint statement on Saturday.

"We have come to a common understanding on requirements and procedures that need to be carried out for installation of exhibition booth within fair. We regret to learn about a missing artwork from booth and we consider this to be an unfortunate incident," it read.

" Embassy of Italy would like to thank India Art Fair for ir support in all sts related to Italy's contribution to India Art Fair and is looking forward to participating in next edition in 2021," statement added. 

(Representative Im) Im Credit: Pixabay