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Slavoj Zizek mentioned in his book “the Parallax View” about a theatre like structure in the South Korean border where 'a large screen like window opens out into the North Korean part' and asked:
“Is this not a pure case of the symbolic efficiency of the frame as such? a barren zone is given a fantasmatic status ,elevated into a spectacle solely by being enframed. Nothing substantially changes here it is merely that ,viewed through the frame , reality turns into its own appearance ……it is not enough to display the mechanism behind the frame ,the stage effect within the frame acquires an autonomy of its own.”
How does one read our present condition? have we entered into a new world order which some designate as post capitalist, post-global, post-political? If there is positive participation in the public sphere then perhaps we can witness a “consensual world “ or if we face more hostile conflict then we will be forced to reframe the world into a mechanism void of the self without any identity ,without a world of multilayered reality.
The challenges of the GenNext artists as well as the director of Aakriti art gallery , Mr. Vikram Bachhawat who has been hosting this event for the last three years are just not enormous but invites realistic as well as speculative adventures in terms representations, art form /frames, mechanisms, the working process and the end product that appears in the show. Mr. Bachhawat deserves to be congratulated for the courage he has shown to showcase young artists' works as an annual event which no other gallery has done so far.
Another interesting factor to this event is that it is coincided with a symposium inviting young art critics ,art historians and curators from all over the country and abroad to interact ,share and deliberate on various issues related to art, the nature of the seminar is “Radicalizing thoughts renovating structures-ground plan for battle of two ways of life :global and Romani “ the symposium will deal with question of globalization and its effects on our life system including issues of declarations of public cultural institutions, law, justice, ethics etc. The other issue which is important in the symposium is the new theory that we have a new phase of history, that of post globalization, post capitalism and post politics.
If this position is accepted then the young artists and critics face a huge task to build a completely new mode of representation of life forms hitherto unknown to mankind. A number of issues have already cropped up which are diasplacement, uncertainities, multidimensional conflicts and dehoming, so the GenNext artists have a definitive task at hand .they ought to take up such issues in their work and justify the very project which Mr. Vikram Bachhawat has undertaken so seriously.
An artist normally matures late. But one can always spot a talent when he is in late 20's and 30's,and nurture him over a period of time so that he grows in confidence believing that he is supported by a gallery who has faith with his talent. I am sure GenNext IV will be a huge success and will set precedence in our art scene by undertaking and pursuing such a project in the time of recession.
- Amit Mukhopadhyay
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