Amar Kanwar, The Scene of Crime (2011). Installation View of The Sovereign Forest, dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). Photo Credit: Henrik Stromberg. Courtesy of the artist.
The NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) presents the debut showing in Southeast Asia of The Sovereign Forest by New Delhi based artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar.The Sovereign Forest initiates a creative response to our understanding of crime, politics, human rights and ecology. The validity of poetry as evidence in a trial, the discourse on seeing, on compassion, justice and the determination of the self, all come together as a constellation of films, texts, books, photographs, objects, seeds and processes. Focused on the exhaustive struggles over the resource-rich land of Odisha in east India and the issue of its ownership, this internationally acclaimed project has been presented in various expanding iterations including at dOCUMENTA (13)(2012), the 11th Sharjah Biennial (2013), and the 1st Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012-2013).
Recognised for his filmic works, and installations that interrogate the politics of power, violence and justice, The Sovereign Forest is a long-term commitment of Amar Kanwar in collaboration with media activist Sudhir Pattnaik, and designer and filmmaker Sherna Dastur. For over a decade, Kanwar has been filming the industrial interventions that have reshaped and permanently destroyed parts of Odisha’s landscape – a battleground on issues of development and displacement since the 1990s. The resulting conflicts between local communities, the government, and corporations over the use of agricultural lands, forests, rivers, and minerals, have led to an ongoing regimen of violence that is often unpredictable and invisible.
The Sovereign Forest is produced with the support of Samadrusti, Odisha, India; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom; Public Press, New Delhi, India; and dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany.
The exhibition at NTU CCA Singapore and its public programmes are curated by Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Khim Ong, and Magdalena Magiera, in collaboration with Amar Kanwar, Sudhir Pattnaik and Sherna Dastur.
Tour: Friday, 5 August 2016, 7.00 – 7.30pm
Exhibition Dates: 30 July – 9 October, 2016
Venue: The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109443
When: 5 Aug 2016, 7pm - 7.30pm
By: NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore)
