Events of the Week

Relic of a lost era

What: Samira Rathod Design Atelier is a design practice since 2000 that delves in the space in-between art and architecture. In an exhibition titled ‘In Presence of Absence’ they take a look at the quiet town of Bhadran, a timeworn and weary hamlet on the outskirts of Baroda. They use this town in the process of dying as ground zero for a visual experiment. The argument put forward is that Bhadran, our testing ground, has to be preserved but not simply as a physical entity. Seemingly unrelated objects, these manufactured realities pay homage to the time that was, while looking to the future that can be. Found objects manifesting as relics of a time long gone, they worked to transform and reinterpret them to convey a more contemporary narrative through mixed media collage drawings. New queer objects were made from relics found in the houses of Bhadran — tobacco, quills, cups, nibs combined with wax, wood, thread, paints and more. Memorabilia of moments. A new architecture assembled from the death of another architecture. The process of this exploration as a metaphor and its abstraction has led to making new forms – spaces in- between the presence of an absence.

When: July 7 – September 19

Where: Art In Touch website

Screen time

What: For all film fanatics here’s a wide selection of feature films, documentaries and webinars curated by the Federation of Film Societies of India for free, without any registration. Featuring films of different languages, Irumbu (Malayalam), Unto the Dusk (Malayalam), Hrid Majharey (Bengali), are some of the films being screened.

When: August 17 – 23

Where: Website of India Habitat Centre

Psyche of pandemics

What: Amidst the pandemic, here’s a discussion between mental health professionals, looking at histories of earlier pandemics and disasters, data from the present pandemic and means of societal coping. In this conversation, mental health professionals from across the

country bring to the table lenses of mental health and illness, homelessness, care needs and issues of development and disruption. Also explored are possible opportunities for change and the imagining of possible futures keeping in mind the needs of social equity and

shared humanity. Titled ‘Pandemic Musings: History, Mental Health and Marginalisation’, it features conversations with Alok Sarin, Clinical Psychiatrist, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi; Sanjeev Jain, Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bengaluru to name a few.

When: August 21 (4 pm – 5 pm)

Where: Website of India International Centre