Peintures de glaise

Au nord de Bombay, dans l'État du Maharashtra, vivent les Warli : 300 000 Indiens affranchis du système de castes, qui possèdent leurs propres croyances religieuses et une langue qui ne s'écrit pas. Leurs peintures reflètent le culte rendu à la terre-mère ainsi que le cycle des saisons. Le vocabulaire iconographique est minimaliste : un fond rouge en terre glaise orné de cercles, lignes, polygones et autres motifs géométriques d'un blanc éclatant. Traditionnellement véhiculée par des conteurs ambulants, la signification de ces oeuvres est aujourd'hui transmise par des artistes dans le monde entier.
(présentation extraite du site d'ARTE)

Peinture de glaise (43 minutes - Inde - 2012)

En accès gratuit jusqu'au 24 décembre 2012:

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/peintures-de-glaise--7134440.html

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

"I Love My India" (2003) by Tejal Shah

This remarkable, shivering and bone-chilling installation by Tejal Shah is based on the impact (or not) of the so-called "communal riot" in Gujarat (India) of February 2002 on the mindsets of a sample of Indians randomly chosen by Tejal Shah.

This so-called "communal riot" was mostly (if not uniquely) triggered and carried out by the then (and still is) chief Minister of Gujarat Narendr Modi, his party (BJP) leaders, activists and its allies (VHP and RSS and other local outfits).

She also questions how India, as the largest "democracy" (a concept that needs to be defined unambiguously!) of the world, has dealt with this horrendous event since February 2002 since no major Indian political leaders (neither national nor local) and since no local administrative heads of the state security, state police and state judiciary departments have been held accountable for what they did during this so-called "communal riot" and what they did not to prevent this modern-style horrendous pogrom targeted at thousands and thousands of Muslims in Gujarat.

Several inquiries were made, either by NGOs or the Indian government, but, nobody (or almost) has since been convicted and jailed and thousands and thousands of Indians, most of whom are Muslims, are still waiting for long due rehabilitation and justice by the government of this so-called "largest democracy" of the world.

This is of course not the first incidence of Indian government's (in the largest sense of the word) cowardice, failure, and its corrupt and mean behaviour against its own people and, to make things worse, this concerns the weakest sections of its people. One only needs to remember the Bhopal gas tragedy and the recent gross corruption cases over the Commonwealth Games and 3G scam and so many other corruption incidences that have led to next to zero remedial measures nor any indictment nor any prosecution, which again question the very idea of "democracy" in present-day India.

Shame, shame, shame on all of us Indians!

Mounir

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Tejal Shah: I Love My India (2003)

from http://www.womanifesto.com/ILoveMyIndia.html)

Other links:

"India asks Beijing gallery to censor art show over Gujarat video" (The Hindu - July 23, 2012)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3679583.ece

Interview with Tejal Shah:

http://vimeo.com/40390427

Tejal SHAH's website:

http://tejalshah.in/home/

http://tejalshah.in/project/under-the-shade-of-the-sword/i-love-my-india/