Shruti Ramlingaiah

2018 Getty Foundation. Shruti Ramlingaiah, Curator Kochi Biennale Foundation, Mumbai, India

The CIMAM 2018 Annual Conference in Stockholm was a great learning experience. Three days added immensely to me learning from visits to exhibition, its making and thinking significance of localness. The term ‘local’ imbued and shifting in relation to global issues and its relevance to region/ regional was predominantly addressed by Victoria Noorthoorn. Interestingly, Katya Garcia-Anton pointed ‘inclusivity’ turning a buzz word in today’s art institutional practices. How does one navigate between modern and colonial framework while addressing indigenous practices? Katya pointed to ‘listening’ as a tool be practiced and a sound piece during her presentation was an exercise to begin, I feel. Day one concluded with performance (unconventional mix of materials used in instruments) by Tarek Atoui with his group at Moderna Museet.

Ho Tzu Nyen’s art practice foregrounding Southeast Asia was intriguing chapter to day 2 of conference, where his collections of motifs and imageries from archives, references to art history, past histories montage were to question relationship of landscape as part of colonization. His work probes to sensitize, he adds- ‘to rethink our habits of experience’. Followed by Yuk Hui’s suggestions that instigates new ways to understanding human intelligence against artificial to overcome obscure ideas of modernity of past decades and technological associations with it.

The workshops were an immense space for exchange among practitioners, curators and directors of art institutions. We could discuss policy, governance and learn regulations of many museum and gallery spaces with specifics to context and collections. I could learn ways to finding solutions via these discussions and about CIMAM’s attempts to intervene in institutions to certain extent. It opened up to share varied perspectives and limitations led on curators in the process of making exhibitions, administrative or committee structures of museum, choosing artists and art works in the process.

As an independent curator with my interests in ‘materiality’ and ‘space’ and for someone working currently on a project with Students’ Biennale, Kochi it was a great learning from curators and practitioners on the process and collaborations went in the exhibition, New Materialism at Bonniers Konsthall. I am grateful to the Getty Foundation and CIMAM committee to have given me this opportunity to be part of this enriching conference, The Museum in Transition.