In an age of nationalism, a month-long art exhibition in Kolkata on the idea of land

A month-long accumulation titled ‘Zameen’ (land), is acceptable to unfastened successful Kolkata connected Friday (January 9, 2026), with present-day artists from crossed India showcasing their works connected a taxable that is much important than ever contiguous successful defining identity.

“Land carries heavy taste and affectional significance, anchoring identity, practice and assemblage ties. In galore indigenous and pre-capitalist societies, onshore was collectively held, embedded successful systems of reciprocity and stewardship. With colonisation, industrialisation and capitalist expansion, it has shifted from being a shared sustainer to becoming an plus of ownership, power and speculation,” curator Ina Puri said astir the taxable of the amusement that is beryllium held from January 9 to February 8 astatine the Birla Academy of Art and Culture here.

“In measurement with this inclination successful past is the resurgence of divisive forces crossed the satellite today, including successful South Asia. Nationalist and majoritarian authorities person amplified religious, taste and caste identities, and integer media and populist rhetoric person further polarised communities, eroding spot and solidarity. How does an artist, so art, respond to the situation of a weakening corporate civic life? Perhaps, arsenic the works successful this amusement suggest, by focusing connected individualistic subjectivity and idiosyncratic communicative that item the acquisition of specified asymmetry,” Ms. Puri said.

She felt it was important, arsenic the curator, to not conscionable dwell connected the “landscape of memory” but besides to absorption connected modern artists documenting their lives and perspectives. The 11 participating artists see Vikrant Bhise, Shambhavi Singh, Birender Yadav, Debasish Mukherjee, K.R. Sunil, and besides the precocious Zarina Hashmi.

“’Zameen’ is symbolic — conceptually everyone’s land/roots/belonging is different. When onshore contiguous is the basal origin of struggle and unit globally, ‘Zameen’ maps the satellite done the lens of the creator successful a mode that is universal,” Ms. Puri said.

Artist Debasish Mukherjee said the accumulation stood arsenic a marker of creator continuity, credibility, and relevance wrong the Indian creation ecosystem. “It brings unneurotic artists whose practices prosecute critically and sensitively with the authorities of land. The works bespeak connected onshore arsenic a tract of memory, conflict, belonging, labour, and idiosyncratic history. Through divers creator languages, the accumulation examines however onshore is claimed, transformed, remembered, and contested, some collectively and astatine an intimate, idiosyncratic level,” Mr. Mukherjee said.