Events of the week

Multi-layered

What: Previewed with a selection of works on Nature Morte’s viewing room last year, ‘The Sapper’ is back as a full series, and a new sculptural installation as well. Bharat Sikka’s The Sapper is as multi-layered as the relationship that it narrates between a father and an adult son. Through photography, Sikka creates the possibilities for observation, recollection, close comparison, and collaboration, and gives this long-term project a title that both describes and belies its substance. The Sapper is an entitling that offers up a cue for the viewer: an explanation of the circumstances, behaviours and predilections that we can read into the portrayal of this former “sapper” of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers.

When: February 20 – March 21 (11 am – 7 pm)

Where: Nature Morte, Dhan Mill

A hero’s fate

What: In the early 1970s, Sixto Rodriguez was a Detroit folksinger who had a short-lived recording career with only two well received but non-selling albums. Unknown to Rodriguez, his musical story continued in South Africa where he became a pop music icon and inspiration for generations. Long rumoured there to be dead by suicide, a few fans in the 1990s decided to seek out the truth of their hero’s fate. What follows is a bizarrely heartening story in which they found far more in their quest than they ever hoped, while a Detroit construction labourer discovered that his lost artistic dreams came true after all.

This 86 minute multiple award winner documentary ‘Searching for Sugar Man’, is being screened right now.

Where: Website of India International Centre

Dutta’s lens

What: Meandering at a restful pace through the vastness of artistic forms and expressions, Amit Dutta’s roving eye cajoles the viewer to accompany him on his search for luminosity. The aural and visual narrative of Dutta weaves together a unique style of research. He documents themes of art of historical relevance that may be niche in form but are also extremely personal and exploratory in nature. Dutta very subtly excavates the nuances of the subject matter, artistic work/genre, right from films like ‘Nainsukh’ (2010) to ‘How Not to Do Philosophy’ (2020) – one of his most recent works. It would not be hyperbolic to deem Dutta as a legatee of the acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker Mani Kaul while pioneering his own distinct grammar in alternative cinema. Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is proud to present Amit Dutta’s films to its diverse set of audiences through the medium of online screenings. ‘An Auteur’s Palette’ hopes to unfold the complex layers, textures and shades of looking at art and art-making through Dutta’s lens.

When: February 20 – 27

Where: Website of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art