1. I
received a letter inviting me to participate in 'Back to Collage’ exhibition in
the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda.
2. Most
artists, including the curators, know that I will not participate in the
VadFest exhibition at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA); but I have refrained from
making a public statement so as not to hurt friends who are organizing the
event. It now seems wrong not to speak up as the implications of this event go
beyond friendship.
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3. During the
last days, I have been in dialogue with several artists over the multiple
issues involved in the FFA/ VadFest exhibitions. The inception, organization
and sponsorship of the exhibitions taking place under the banner of Vadfest
remain hazy. There is mention of something called VIACF Trust; there is mention
of 200 Baroda citizens backing the event at the FFA; there is also mention of
MS University giving financial support for infrastructural improvements to the
FFA on the occasion of the VadFest (though the university is under UGC and not
the State Government). There is also the odd fact of the University/FFA
suspending pedagogic responsibility during the VadFest exhibitions--as a
result, students will be deprived of their work-space for 2 months before the
final exams.
4. Vadfest’s
fancily designed website (and recent newspaper advertisements) carry the logo
of the BJP Government/ photographs of the Chief Minister and the Tourism
Minister of Gujarat. No other organization is mentioned.
5. It seems
now that the initiatives of our friends in the FFA, planned I believe in good
faith, have been taken over. The VadFest has been appropriated by the
shamefully tainted Gujarat Government. With this extravagant event, the BJP is
‘thanking’ Baroda for giving Mr Modi his triumphant status; in turn the
corporate citizenry of Baroda is making a rightwing alliance within Vibrant
Gujarat for its own profit in business, including the art sector.
6. The
VadFest, profiled as a ‘secular’ celebration of the arts, endorses the
developmental agenda of Mr Modi; it helps mask recent memory of a massacre in
this city and of persecution of students and staff by the same outfits in the
Fine Arts Faculty itself. To induct the free-minded and resistant space of the
FFA under their banner will count as a great gain for the BJP/Gujarat
Government.
7. The
relationship between the artist, arts institutions/university, civic life, the
government and the state is always difficult to define and negotiate. SAHMAT
(one of the most visible cultural organization to have opposed the RSS/BJP
agendas since the beginning of the 1990s) has rallied artists to make common
cause of our citizen commitments. (I mention this because some of the FFA
curators and a large number of artists invited to VadFest have regularly
exhibited on the oppositional platform of SAHMAT in the past years and until
very recently.)
9. RSS/ BJP
have a defined agenda of Hindutva and are up-scaling their cultural ambitions
to penetrate modern institutions of knowledge, including history, humanities,
science and the arts. This is a time for extra alertness as the terms of
negotiation are being set by right-wing outfits that are now part of the ruling
party and command government support..
10. It is a
sad day for me to send an official ‘Refusal’ to my own Fine Arts Faculty which
has stood at the forefront of radical thinking and creativity and has been well
known to have opposed the politics of divisive communalism for over half a
century.
11. But
perhaps it is important to let this occasion become not one of hostility and
censor within the artist community, but of critical understanding of where we
are situated and what kind of culture and society we endorse.
Vivan
Sundaram
Delhi 11th January 2015
Delhi 11th January 2015
