Architecture of Remembering art exhibition in Thiruvananthapuram traces the dynamics of urban existence

The Architecture of Remembering art exhibition, currently on display at the Alliance Française de Trivandrum, explores the impressions left by people when they interact with each other on “sites, objects and structures”. Curated by Tak Contemporary, the exhibition, which includes works by Bengaluru-based artists Philip Callia and Supriyo Manna, portrays the ever-evolving tapestry of urban existence.

This showcase combines the work of Supriyo, whose pieces are primarily made from found materials, and Philip, who uses technology to document his observations.

The exhibition begins with Cloud Atlas by Philippe, a series of satellite images of mining sites around the world, presented as cyanotypes, a type of photographic printing that does not use cameras. There are snapshots from Australia, Tanzania, the US, South Africa and Armenia.

Philippe Callia Photo Courtesy: Gokul P Dev

The artist created this work during the lockdown. “I couldn’t go out to make drawings. I was forced to work with what was available. It was convenient to browse the planet on Google Earth. I was interested in these ponds near mining sites, which are man-made structures where waste accumulates. In the beginning, I didn’t know what they were, and was amazed by their shapes and colors.”

Another of his works, Praxis du Souvenir, is a diptych displayed in a dark room. One part of the installation is a photograph of Philippe’s brother with his mother on a beach in France in 1977, and the other is a set of photographs of the same location taken between 2016 and 2019. For the exhibition, he destroyed the photographs with chemicals and recorded their degradation and dismantling. These pictures were then stitched in reverse order. When one forms a clear shape, the contents of the other disappear. “I’m interested in that moment where an image stops representing something you can recognize,” he says.

Praxis du Souvenir in the Architecture of Remembering. Photo Credit: Philip Callia

In The Bodyguard Lane album, Philippe documents the migrant residents of the eponymous street in Mumbai. “The family had come from Gujarat in the early 50s. It was heart-touching to see those family photographs in the background of the road where Bodyguard Lane had become a house. We were on the streets and cars were passing us; it felt like we were in someone’s living room”

In Nest of an Urban Placidity, Supriyo looks at the lives of migrant workers in Bengaluru. The artist labels them as agents of change in the city, yet they have no place to live. “They form informal settlements in the city. I tried to create a memoir or recollection of those informal structures through this work.” The nest… is made of white acid-free paper that is cut into thin strips woven into a chamber. “This delicate exhibit is a reminder of how we can build a fragile nest from the space that these informal settlements inhabit.”

Supriyo Manna Photo Courtesy: Gokul P Dev

An urban Plocidae’s nest in the architecture of remembering. Photo Credit: Philip Callia

Another of Supriyo’s works, Anatomy of a Dead Garden, presents “the skeletal remains of a vanished garden wiped out by urban development”. This exhibit represents the garden that was destroyed to build a bus station in Bengaluru. “I collected a cut down tree, made a mold of it and cast it onto tracing papers, which are materials found in blueprint shops. I simply took discarded negatives that have actual data of structures built around the city.”

Anatomy of a Dead Garden in the Architecture of Remembering Photo Credit: Philip Callia

The papers are stitched together with hair, reflecting the fragility of man-made structures. He further added, “From our development point of view, it is very solid but at the same time, from a philosophical point of view, we are changing this ecology, and making it more fragile day by day.”

Field Notes also features in Supriyo’s list of site-specific exhibitions, which include sketches of construction sites. The work includes latitude and longitude, labeled by the artist as man-made boundaries. “I tried to echo it with my work, where I’m also documenting some of the limitations or man-made restrictions.”

The exhibition continues till 7 February at the Alliance Française de Trivandrum. Timings: 10 am to 5 pm.