India Foundation for the Arts is delighted to present Soumya Sankar Bose’s Interactive Multimedia Exhibition “Jatra”. The work and the exhibition has been made possible with a grant from India Foundation for the Arts under the Arts Practice Programme.

Photographer Soumya Sankar Bose was born in an extended family of Jatra actors and has closely witnessed the private lives of the artists, as the industry crumbled and shifted. His current work has a deep connection with his personal and family history and its connection to Jatra. Over a period of last eighteen months Soumya has been photographing erstwhile Jatra artistes and their present surroundings. In this exhibition for the first time ever a unique selection of this particular collection of photographs will be displayed. It will be accompanied by video and audio installations. The presence of the Jatra artists in the venue for public interaction will be a special part of this exhibition. The photographer will be present at the venue. The exhibition will preview at 5 pm on 20th May. It will remain open to public at Chitrabani (76 Rafi Ahmed Kidwai road, Kolkata-16), Kolkata between 3:00-7:00 pm from 21st-25th May, 2016.

The idea of ‘staged portraits’ is not entirely new to the photography or art world and this forms the crux of Soumya’s current work on Jatra artistes. Taking this into further consideration Soumya’s work addresses the issue of the dwindling practice of Jatra, while it questions through photography the fate of the artists and their inability to sustain themselves via the artform by itself. In terms of both photography and documentation Soumya’s project is pushing the boundaries, blurring the real and the staged. He has found creatively engaging ways to photograph the artists and also document their past taking the present circumstances of their existence into account.


Please visit : http://www.soumyasankarbose.in