Transitory Body
2023
Performed at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Museum (K21), Dusseldorf
Photographed by Linda Inconi
On May 25, artist Arpita Akhanda presents, “The Transitory Body,” a performance and, “The Memory Collector,” a lecture as part of our monthly public program K21 Encounters. Premiering in Düsseldorf, she unveils her practice at the interface between shared memory and performative experience. Akhanda works across various media, including paper weavings, photography, performance, installations, drawings, and video. With her paper works, she weaves the warp of memories with the weft of present situations to create a fabric that questions identity and existence and, thus, maps the connections between past and present. The artist explores intergenerational memories drawing on the migration and displacement experiences of her ancestors during the partition of India in 1947. Digging into archival photographic collections and family archives, Akhanda investigates the aftermath of a collective history interwoven by colonialism and migration. The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen acquired her large-format paper weaving, “আমি উদ্বাস্তু নই (I am not a refugee) II” (2022), this year.
In Transitory Body, Akhanda adopts the action of stamping dates (relevant to both her family and the country) on her body, resonating it with the action of stamping as an official procedure connected with the body in transit. As the performance unfolds the performer's body becomes a collection of memories. The artist equates herself with a memory collector inviting viewers to share their memories of loss involved in any kind of partition- separation- division- dissection-detachment with her by offering her body as a site to collect the lost narratives.
