The twentieth century evolved with a rebellion thrust in the art movement in Europe with Surrealism and Dada as Breton referred “like two waves overtaking one another in turn.” Dada predated Surrealism, and Surrealism survived Dada but both at one point of historical conjecture co-existed in a continuum of shared energy and excitement. A complete mock and a direct attack on reason and rational way of being had been established through these movements that brought about an upheaval in the pre-determined and safe structure of practicing and executing art. This was for the first time when the whole system of patronage that was supposed to be the real feeder and breeder of art and cultural constitution of the society was put at stake because artists gave a damn about these conventional procedures and turned their back to the galleries – the prime patrons. That became more prominent when installation was totally conceived as an anti-gallery art movement. Well, when all these movements in Modern Art were taking place in the European continent that also sprouted in America with a bit of difference, somehow Indian art stayed away from these influences because of its strong Oriental background and moreover it was at that historical moment when Indian art through Bengal School was touching a height of countering European/ colonial trends for the establishment of its own language in art both in respect of content, form and use of technique. But this didn't remain long because the impact of these European movements started spreading out among the artists in the later half of the twentieth century. Finally a process of amalgamation began and reasons behind the inception of such genres through the art movements got diluted in the Indian subcontinent because they were perceived both by the artists and the patrons according to their contextual realities. And is this why now in the first decade of the twenty-first century, all these art forms including installations have made a dominant space in the Indian galleries as the prime initiative to promote art and its creators is being justifiably reasoned and exposed by the galleries largely? Well, that's true and thus ideas like ‘GenNext' are being conceived and conceptualized to give a novel direction to art practice as a whole.
The evolution of GenNext as an art exhibition was for the first time conceived by Aakriti Art Gallery as its annual show on the occasion of its first anniversary. The sole motivation was to promote the creative potential of young talents below forty years of age and the first year held it at a very regional level encompassing the artists mainly from Kolkata and the astern fringe of India. But it was on the selection basis from the entries received. The second GenNext extended to the national level and now in the GenNext III, out of eight hundred entries received from young contemporary artists below forty across the globe, only forty could finally make into this show after their works went through an arduous process of selection. It is a coming together of the multiplicity of thoughts, plurality of perspectives and dynamism in concepts in the third GenNext through the exclusively wide range of works of art breaking conventional parameters where Serena Scapagnini, a young Italian painter's symbolic depiction of the subconscious mind trapped in the whirlpool of desires be drawn in comparison to the works of a young Indian painter, Priyanka Lahiri who has attempted to portray the interplay of various instinctual desires of human existence on the canvas or be put together with Dionne Simpson's interpretation and critical statement on the frivolous nature of human predicament, who lives in Canada but is actually from Jamaica. In a similar way Sanhita Banerjee from India who sculpts the hidden aspirations of a creative mind with a mock can be seen together with Sanhita Ghosh's works who is also from India and etches self-images in the mundane process of human life though elevating the essence to the existential predicament that we thrive in and with the works of I V Toshain from Austria who attempts to discover the nature of human existence to be garbed with camouflaged cravings. Well is this the onset of a comparative study of art and artists to decipher how do young contemporary artists from different corners of the globe interact and intercept on a common platform both with similarities and differences and how their contextual realities meet as well as deviate due to the difference in their dwelling space and background that reflects in their work? Yes, it is! This is exactly the crux of the concept behind GenNext III, the show that has rocked the art world with a revolutionary instinct. Apart from paintings, sculptures and printmaking, video art, textile and installations have been introduced this time. GenNext III is also not limited to just an exhibition this year but has been set up in an exuberant wrap up in the form of exhibition, open interactive sessions, workshop etc that forms a complete circuit of creativity.
The idea of GenNext was conceptualized as an initiative to pave the path for a fresh discourse and to gear an art movement where the pathfinders would be the new generation. And this is for the first time that young contemporary artists not from one corner of the world but across the globe have been united on the same dais to trigger the change and wipe out the stagnation in thoughts, objective, attitude, approach and execution in the art and cultural history of the world. Vikram Bachhawat, the owner of Aakriti Art Gallery and the Director of Emami Chisel Auction House made a clear statement, “GenNext is not just the hunt for fresh talents but it is a conscientious attempt to instigate that stimulus where talents can rejuvenate and enlighten the whole world with their creative revelation”, Art Historian Professor Sovon Som set a connection between the GenNext and the annual show of the Indian Society of Oriental Art a century ago in which artists from Asian countries including Japan and China participated. With the third Gen Next show being shaped with a global portfolio, Professor Som has associated the essence of the endeavours historically stating, “It is heartening to learn that the ensuing GenNext 2008 has gone global. Artists from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Italy, Jamica, Brazil, Poland, France, Austria and USA sharing the exhibition space with the Indian new generation artists. Thus by opening up its frontiers to the world, this GenNext will be replaying history in the context of the Society's centenary year. Gallery Aakriti will be following the footsteps of the Tagores of Calcutta who did not believe in geographical segmentation of art.”
The inauguration of GenNext III took place on October 1, 2008 (and continued till October 29, 2008) with grandeur and became an enlightening experience for the sensitive and vibrant art lovers breaking all geographical contours. The show was inaugurated by Ms Beth A. Payne (Consul General of the United States of America). Mr. Simon CH Wilson (British High Commissioner) graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and eminent artist Jogen Chowdhury gave an exclusive view on the entire concept of Generation Next also extending his heartiest congratulations to Aakriti Art Gallery for its initiative and endeavour of taking this event to an international stature. The occasion was also graced by the German consulate, the Japanese consulate, the Italian consulate, the Mayor of Calcutta Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee and famous film personalities Sergio Scapagnini, Gautam Ghosh and Oscar Aschan of the Swedish Ministry of Culture. On October 2, 2008, the art camp along with the workshop to come on a common platform where established artists Aditya Basak, Amitava Dhar, Chandra Bhattacharya, Chattrapati Dutta, Manish Pushkale, Partha Pratim Deb, Samindranath Majumdar, Sekhar Roy, Sunil De, Tapas Konar and Yogender Tripathi met and worked together with the participants of the third Gen Next. The same day in the evening, there was an intellectual proliferation when the crew gathered for an Interactive Session at the Emami Chisel Art with a discussion session on the topic “The Trends/Tendencies De-contextualizing Art Today”. Prayag Shukla presided the session. The issue was be initiated by Amit Mukhopadhyay and the excitement reached its zenith when each speaker took his/her turn to pop up with their pulsating arguments. The speakers for the day were Abha Seth, Abhijit Gupta, Anooradha Ghose, Anshuman Dasgupta, Arpan Mukherjee, H.A.Anil Kumar, Nanak Ganguly, Nivedita Deshpande, Sharmila Samant, Shukla Sawant, Sujoy Mukherjee, Vivan Sundaram and Jagannath Panda. The session was concluded by Ashok Vajpeyi.
GenNext III can be justifiably regarded as the vivacious tryst where creative minds of with various diversities came together to ignite the common cause for the onset of the new generation art movement and here the gateway was of course a gallery. The ideology behind ‘GenNext' shows has already sown the seeds to breed the neo-cultural generation of tomorrow. So can this be perceived as the U-turn in history where stepping back to galleries also bears the spirit to bring about a change and revive the venerable denomination to the basic attitude of an art movement? Or is it a larger entrapment of capital hegemony that actually determines the direction of cultural makeover? Let time decide upon it!
GenNext III
October 1-29, 2008
Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata
Amit Kalla (India), Anirban Dasmahapatra (India), Ashraful Hasan (Bangladesh), Banatanwi Dasmahapatra (India), Bhabotosh Sutar (India), Chandan Bhandary (India), Hemraj (India), Jayanta Bhattacharya (India), Justin Tyler Tate (USA), K Prasun Roy (India), Ketan N Amin (India), Korou KH (India), Moutushi Chakraborty (India), Muktinath Mondal (India), Nantu Behari Das (India), P Bardhan (India), Prandeep Kalita (India), Prithwiraj Mali (India), Priyanka Lahiri (India), Rajen Mondal (India), Sanhita Banerjee (India), Sanhita Ghosh (India), Sanjoy Das (India), Santosh D Andrade (India), Saptarshi Naskar (India), Serena Scapagnini (Italy), Snehashish Maity (India), Suman Kabiraj (India), Sutanuka Giri (India), Tisha Mondal (India), Mathew Tom (U.S.A) and Vijay D Kadam (India), IV Toshain (Austria), Maciej Gador (Poland), Asim Amjad (Pakistan), Dionne Simpson (Jamaica), Gregory Chenu Vidal (France), Joarez Filho (Brazil), Sian Amoy (USA), Tushar Waghela (India) |
