Raqs Media Collective is a group created in1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi
(1966), Monica Narula (1969) and Shuddhabrata Sengupta (1968).
Based in New Delhi, Raqs is a thinking laboratory that proposes
aesthetics as a starting point for social and political reflection. Playing a
plurality of roles, the members of Raqs act as artists, curators and as
«provocateurs philosophical agents».
Raqs Media Collective analyzes the past, thinks the present and
imagines the future in an open challenge to the logic that operates in
the world, as if it were predestined, closed and expended, just because
we live in a seemingly triumphant system. It’s Possible Because it’s
Possible is an exhortation, a forceful affirmation, almost an imperative
on moving from the potentiality to the act, proposed from the
perspective of what the collective calls "political contemplation."
Entrance
Meanwhile/Elsewhere(Luminous Will), 2014
bill board print
Courtesy of RaqsMC
Room 1
Now, Elsewhere(Escapement), 2009-2014
Aluminium and glass clocks
Spanish edition, 2014
Courtesy of RaqsMC& Frith Street Gallery, London
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Now, Elsewhere explores a division of the day according to hours of affection and desire, and leave the subordination of our organic and emotional lives to a time segmented by mechanical and abstract measures on hold.
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However Incongruous, 2011
Fiberglass, painting
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal
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In 1514, Alfonso de Albuquerque, second viceroy of Portuguese India, tried tostrengthen his diplomatic relations with Muzafar II, Sultan of Gujarat.The mission was a moot success, but he got an interesting gift, a rhino namedGanda, who was quickly sent to Lisbon, where he arrived after a journey of aboutfour months. It was the first rhino that set foot on European soil since ancienttimes, where they were known only by the stories of Pliny the Elder. Theexpectations from this event were huge and had many misfortunes. Raqs recreatesthe animal story by republishing his trip to Lisbon. To do this, Raqs uses theengraving Albrecht Dürer mades. The artist never saw the animal, instead based iton an anonymous drawing, on various written descriptions and on Pliny, plus hisown imagination. The success of this engraving was unprecedented: it may be oneof the engravings whit most impact in history. For at least 150 years, it was the onlycredible description of a rhinoceros.
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Blackboard Economy, 2012
Chalk on blackboard
Courtesy of RaqsMC
Room 2
Auto Measure, 2011-2014
Triptych: Light boxes with photographs
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Experimenter Gallery, Calcuta
The Bureau of RAQS and FAQS, 2014
Information unit for RAQS and FAQS
Wooden desks, chairs, paper cards
Courtesy of RaqsMC
Explore Depth, 2014
Diver suit
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Frith Street Gallery, London
Reverse Engineering the Euphoria Machine, 2008
Multimedia Installation
Courtesy of RaqsMC& Nature Morte, Berlin
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World War II brought a profound change in the collective psychology. For the first
time in history, an armed conflict was motivated by ideals rather than specific
purposes such as fighting for territory or dynastic successions. The Allies used the
ideals of democracy, peace and prosperity to take the youth to their side. A similar
change occurred whit the commercial propaganda: the most important thing wasn’t
to sell “what you need" but "what will make you happy " linked to ideas like beauty,
health, delight, family harmony, love. Thus, the capitalism foundations are
assimilated as personal impulses.Reverse Engineering the Euphoria Machine takes
the form of a table, which shows the diagram of the conceptual engine of desire, of
perpetual energy and of the endless economic growth, very visible today in Asian
countries like India and China. The global phenomenon of the disappearance of
bees appears here like an accurate index of the degradation of our environment and
an alarming sign of a system reaching its limit.
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Marks, 2012
LED lamps, golden panel
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The title of this piece creates a pun between the marks (punctuation marks) and the
name of Karl Marx, which pronunciation is similar in English. The work was originally
made for the building designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, as the
headquarters of the French Communist Party. Raqs used the inversion technic
again, as well as the irony to give a new meaning to one of the most used and
abused symbols in history: the hammer and sickle, converted into surprise and
interrogation.
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Revoltage, 2010
Triptych: Light bulbs, electric wires, acrylic plate
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Project 88, Mumbai
Room 3
An Unfinished Correspondence, 2014
Acrylic plate, light
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Frith Street Gallery, London
Assets and Debts, 2014
Wooden panels, printed papers
Producers: Elena Blázquez, Beatriz Botas,Miriam Fernández,
Andrés Montes,Anja Schneider y Alberto Vallejo
Technical team: El intruso
Collection CA2M, Comunidad de Madrid
Lemniscate Pantone, 2012
Print on canvas
Courtesy of RaqsMC
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In 1872, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed to move the First International of
workers to New York City. In 2013, as part of the Performa 13 festival, Raqs recovers
the idea to present "The last international".
This fabric was included as their flag. The lemniscate, a curve frequently used to
represent the infinity, is used to refer to a precise neutral color to the pantone
range, along with the required instructions for it’s reproduction without limit.
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Ask the person who sits next to you, 2012
Multimedia installation
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Frith Street Gallery, Londres
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The first presentation of this work took place in four carriages of the Gwangju city
subway (South Korea). There, a number of actors addressed the travelers through
texts inspired by the "Praise of Folly" by Erasmus of Rotterdam, a publication that,
in the sixteenth century, played an important role in encouraging people to think for
themselves. Through quotes concerning the relationship between citizens and
power structures, Raqs interprets what is, or what Raqs thinks, should be freedom.
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The Capital of Accumulation, 2010
Video Projections with Sound, 50 minutes
Courtesy of RaqsMC, Project 88, Mumbai& Frith Street Gallery, London
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In 1913, Rosa Luxemburg published her main work, The Accumulation of Capital. A
century later, Raqs reverses the order of the words in the title and rethinks the
relationship between the former metropolis and their colonies, as part of a that
expands on an ongoing basis. The video is a journey through the turbulent history of
the twentieth century, throughout the urban landscape of Warsaw, the city where
Rosa Luxemburg grew; Berlin, where she tried to define the young German
democracy and then died murdered; and Bombay, where Raqs closes this loop.
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The Accumulation of Capital, 2014
Black and white photograph
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Project 88, Mumbai
En todas las salas
Chairs, 2014
19 chairs, text, fabric
Courtesy of RaqsMC & Frith Street Gallery, Londres
Stairs (to Room 4)
The Diarist, 2014
Sound Installation: 6 performative lectures
Courtesy of RaqsMC
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The Diarist has its origins in the workshop that took place in the CA2M in September 2013 as a part of the preliminary discussions of the exhibition. This sound piece is based on the personal diary that was left by Heeraprasad −a Delhi’s laborer, beforehe took his own life− and was recovered by the collective Cybermohalla Ensemble; agroup of proletarian artists that Raqs had worked with for over a decade. The textrelates in detail his normal life as well as those singular moments that, asHeeraprasad says, make "everything else ordinary". The Diarist is a good example ofhow Raqs works: a complex production in which many agents are involved, mixingreality and fiction, as well as several languages.
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