solo show 1shanthiroad studio - gallery - Bangalore - August 2009

A while ago, I left France to live abroad.  India has been my first destination. After a few months of solo wanderings, I surprised myself when I stopped with my suitcases in Bangalore.

Parisian I was, weary by the so-called western modernity.
Bangalorean I became for more than a year; in mutation and looking for a new balance, like this urban chaos in the middle of a metamorphosis process.

Bangalorean youth, also in a transformation process, like the city itself, gave me the sensation that it was possible to combine individual aspirations with modernity, going hand in hand with cultural heritage.  A cultural heritage handed down by the family as well as by spiritual beliefs. In other words, one can create a composite, tailor-made identity for oneself. All of a sudden there is a sense of belonging and connectedness while remaining faithful to one’s individuality.
Was my foreigner’s vision a romantic one or was it close to the reality? Has the life of the chameleon, with its kit forming an impressive array, ended for good? Could a split-personality go hand in hand with harmony?
Were re these young Bangaloreans for good in the process of reconciling artha – one of the main principles of hindouism- with Gandhi principles, one the of the fathers of ecology ?

Today, as the indian development is crucial for the future of humanity *, will these young creators of the new Indian identity avoid the fatal trap of market economy illusions and “holy” growth politics?

This is how my overwhelming desire emerged to know more about those I was in close contact with day after day.
As I carried out creations with some of these young Bangaloreans, I have been exploring the question of the composite identity and freedom. At the same time I have been able to take up the subject of the individual while attempting to widen the limits of a new form of modernity.

* The planet doesn’t have enough natural resources to provide to more than one billion Indians a standard of living equivalent to that of Westerners (Americans and Europeans).  So the question of the Indian footprint’s exponential increase has became essential.

anger sutra bitter

video

3 minutes

2009

based on a poem by Aporup Acharya

with Aporup Acharya

voice Aporup Acharya

music Didier Couly

bangaloreans - anger sutra bitter from barret clemence on Vimeo.