Artist: Arijit Bhattacharyya
Exhibition title: From Forets We Are And Forests We Will Be
Curated by: Nuno de Brito Rocha
Venue: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Date: March 11 – May 21, 2023
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig
Note: Exhibition’s booklet is available here
Arijit Bhattacharyya is an Indian artist who works with installation, textile works, drawing and painting, film, performance and cooking. Most of his works emphasize the collective as well as the experience and the search for interaction and dialogue. The works are collaborative projects involving various local communities from the artist’s social environment in Germany and his native India. In this sense, the resulting artistic works are collective works and are usually experienced together during talks, lectures, performances or workshops and thus activated.
Interpersonal exchange and the process of making are always at the centre of his practice. Through social engagement, design interventions in urban and rural spaces, large murals, lecture performances, and cooking sessions, Arijit Bhattacharyya explores different narratives of resistance and disobedience, socio-political history and marginalization, and their impact on our cultural practices.
From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be is Arijit Bhattacharyya’s first institutional solo exhibition. New works by the artist will be exhibited in the Remise of the Kunstverein, serving as a starting point for a series of workshops and lecture-performances, conceived and carried out together with the artist.
The project is conceived in collaboration with Binita Limbani, Shibayan Halder, Suvojit Roy, Soumik Ghosh, Swagata Bhattacharyya, Santanu Dey, Sourav Das, Sk Atiar Rahaman, Joydip Bagui, Prosenjit Ghosh Arijit Achariya, Arup Halder, Subradip Ojha, Sujon Ojha, Sumon Ojha, Somansu Ghosh, Joy Malik and Mokai Ali Mallick.
Arijit Bhattacharyya was born in 1994 in Bally, India, and lives and works in Weimar. He currently teaches at the Bauhaus University, Weimar’s international masters degree program Public Art and New Artistic Strategies. Bhattacharyya holds a master’s degree in fine arts from the same university as well as another master’s degree in visual arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Current group exhibitions include dhak dhak ho-hum ah eekff iii ie, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg (2022); Owned by Others – Part 2, Berlin (2021), Manifesto for Clay, Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2021) and Owned by Others, Berlin (2020). Bhattacharyya has also participated in exhibitions and curatorial projects at Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; Index Berlin; Arts for the Working Class, Berlin; Goethe Institut Thailand; Serendipity Arts Festival, India; Khoj International Artists Association, India; Photo Kathmandu, Nepal; and Haus der Statistik, Berlin. He had a solo presentation at ChertLüdde, Berlin’s “Bungalow” (2021).
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly
Arijit Bhattacharyya, From Forests We Are And Forests We Will Be, 2023. Exhibition view at Kunstverein Braunschweig 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Kunstverein Braunschweig. Photo: Martin Ly