A visual arts exhibition, ME WE, curated by Engendered and presented by the American Center, breaks through dominant ideas that limit and marginalize queer art by creating a new concept of queer as a wider platform for excellence in arts, capable of tracking, discovering, and interpreting new trends while daring to speak openly about the norms that constitute society and art.
This exhibition, on from today till July 8, is free to the public and amplifies the continued joint efforts of the 34 Delhi-based embassies towards the universality of Human Rights without discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, and in support of the LGBTQIA community on the occasion of International Pride month.
ME WE
Celebrating the Individual Within the Movement. Helping the Movement out of Stasis, Out of Status Quo,
26 June – 8 July
American Center
24 Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi 110001
Artists Aamir Rabbani, Adil Kalim, Aditya Raj, Balbir Krishan, Baishali Chetia, Dhritabrata Bhattacharjya Tato, Dinesh Solanki, Manmeet, Gopa Trivedi, Inder Salim, Krishna Roy, Ram Rahman, Renu Sharma, Sonia Khurana, Jenny T.S, Nikhil Bansal, Ipshita Thakur, Indira Lakshmi Prasad, Oddbench, Pulkit Mogha, Saawan KR Taank, Satadru Sovan, Mohan Jangid, Gargi Chandola of Post Art Project, Valay Gada.
Curated by Myna Mukherjee, the exhibition celebrates the unconfinable and unflinching individualism of 25 artist voices, self identified as queer. The artists featured in the exhibition are working at the intersections of identity and life experience, genre and process. The works are a diverse cross-section of paintings and photographs, sculptures & videos, sci-fi fantasia, comic-book graphic art and even digital new age media appropriations from Instagram and GIF platforms. Shattering mythologies of desire and intimacies, the works range from polished and seasoned to raw and sometimes even incomplete, exposed as they are to the vulnerability of love and loss that is immediate and personal. Sometimes fearless, sometimes furtive, sometimes in the exploration of anticipation, they evoke presence, touch, comfort, absence, rage and despair like a shared infinite pole dance in space but with the spatial awareness of material and scale. They illuminate the complex landscape of gender, pleasure, fantasy and desire here, today, now.
The artists span iconic photographers like Ram Rahman, Sonia Khurana, established artists like Balbir Krishan, Valay Gada, and Inder Salim, Satadru Sovan, emerging art feminists like Gopa Trivedi, Manmeet Devgun and Gargi Chandola (Post-art project), radical youth voices like Indira Lakshmi Prasad and Aditya Raj, Mohan Jangid, fearless new artists working at the intersection of religion and sexuality like Aaamir Rabbani & Adil Kalim, fierce young women artists from the North East like Jenny TS & Baishali Chetia; classical and renaissance painters like Saawan Taank, and Nikhil Bansal, the new millennial sketchers, illustrators and graphic artists, sci-fi fantasy makers and new media warriors like Ipshita Thakur, Pulkit Mogha, Oddbench and Renu Sharma and even art historians like Dhritabrata Bhattacharjya Tato.
Along with the exhibition there will also be for the first time in Delhi a launch of a community library for LGBTQ young adults named “Resonance through Reading”. This collection explores important themes and issues ranging from LGBTQI representation in children’s literature to narratives by bi, gay, lesbian and trans people about their lives, desires and identities. The mini library of 80 books, brought together by the Bi Collective of Delhi, will also be housed at the American Center for the entire duration of the exhibition.
Opening Night, 26th June includes a panel discussion followed by a reception. Program and invited guests are detailed below.
5pm – 5.30pm Exhibition Doors Open
5.30pm – 6pm
- Opening Remarks by Program Director, American Center
- Special Note by Thibault Devanlay, Counsellor European Union Delegation on the combined efforts of the 34 Delhi Based Embassies on the occasion of International Pride Month
- Note about the ‘Resonance through reading – a community library for LGBTQ young adults’ by Navdeep Sharma
6pm Panel ‘But, What is Queer Art exactly?’
- Moderator Anuradha Mukherjee, Editor, India Today Group
- Sonia Khurana, Artist
- Aseem Chabbra, Film Curator NYIFF
- John Connolly, Former Chef, Creative Head Ravish Kapoor Design Studio
- Ram Rahman, Photographer, Curator, Cultural Activist and Founding member of SAHMAT
- Myna Mukherjee, Curator & Cultural Producer Visual Arts/Performance/Film, Director Engendered
- Sumiran Kabir Sharma, Fashion Designer Label Anaam, Silhouette Generation Artist
7pm-8pm Reception
