Thaindian News

New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS) Forty leading Indian contemporary artists have donated their art works to resuscitate and expand the Khoj International Artist’s Association - one of South Asia’s leading public and community art engagement projects.

The artworks under the umbrella, “Gift For Khoj”, which will go on sale Nov 6 at the Nature Morte Gallery in the capital, will help generate resources for bigger space for the project at Khirkee extension, a neighbourhood across the spiffy Select City Mall in Saket inhabited by the not-so-affluent migrant population of the capital.

Former Khoj artists like Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Manu Parekh, Reena Saini Kallat, Sarnath Banerjee, Anita Dube, Sumedh Rajendran, Gigi Scaria, Manisha Parekh and Anjum Singh have voluntarily donated art work for Khoj revival, said director of Khoj International Artists’ Association Pooja Sood.

The sale is also being supported by progressive and public art veterans like Vivan Sundaram, Raqs Media Collective and Ram Rahman, who have contributed to the project with their art, Sood said.

The new space, funded by proceeds from the sale, will be used to enhance the facilities for practitioners of public art working at the Khoj Studios. The association engages with the residents of the Khirkee extension as part of its public outreach programme.

The new space will have a small hostel for artists, a cutting edge media lab for sound and editing, a library, an experimental space theatre and a cafeteria to be designed by Ambrish Arora of Lotus Design.

“In the last 14 years, Khoj has invited artists from Europe, America (North and South) and Asia to interact with artists from across India. Over 300 Indian and 400 artists from Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, South Korea, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Germany, France, Thailand, Iran, Iraq and Palestine have worked for Khoj projects facilitating international understanding of art practices within artists in India. Now we need to consolidate our work premises for an even larger artist-to-artist contact within Khoj,” Sood said.

Khoj has conducted 14 international residencies to foster artist-to-artist contact between India and the rest of the world as part of its commitment to fostering better understanding of contemporary cultures, the association said.