05/07/2018 VHMOR
TAXI is an artist collective founded by Suman Samajpati & Sourav Roy Chowdury in 2007. The idea of this name is related to the movement, to the journey that the artist goes in the process of creating art, to the ideas that boost the movement, that come and are modified, returning to the starting point. Their art practice is based on the observation and on how a situation can affect the human being. The Taxi collective started with hand-painted photography, and gradually stretched into different mediums, such as photography, video, sound and installation.
Let’s talk about the movies…
“Swimming Around” (2009) is their first video work. In this movie, its directors [Suman & Sourav] try to explore the feelings of a life in the metropolis, which, although apparently promises to offer an infinity variety of diverse choices, brings feelings such as claustrophobia, monotony, alienation and stagnancy .
180 seconds Kolkata (2015) is a short documentary work which was created by Goethe Institut Munich and Goethe Institut India. In this documentary, they focused on construction labourers working in our city. The idea is to show the migration of this labourers and how they build your city with all the difficulties they face. Its directors [Suman & Sourav] seek to spread this workers ‘reflections’ about the city they help to built– the way they perceive it, what and how they see it
Exist
(2016) is a site-specific video and sound installation created in an
abandoned burnt movie theater in Kolkata. The impression that the
pitch-black darkness of that place had upon the directors and the
thoughts that followed them is expressed below:
“This place has an
overwhelming significance in its blackness, not merely in the way it
exists as a material site but also in our perceptions of such place. It
lies in a state that is taken with a keen sense of finality, which
presume a certain demise of the place, in all its varied aspects, as if
it has no life of its own, or without the possibility to continue to
exist in a different state, which perhaps moves beyond our immediate
understanding. In a strange way, it reminds us of our myriad theories of
the Black Hole, first as the definite end of everything, where no life
can come to pass,totally incapable of leading to newer forms of
existence, but then also gradually shifting towards more accommodating
perspectives. In light of this, as we come to think about it, a
different perspective emerges in the very space itself, if someone is
willing to see. (…) The place has a peculiar history. This way, a
newer understanding emerges just as newer theories regarding the Black
Hole have emerged, and continue to do so. It reminds us that a space
always remains in a state of transition. (…) What is understood as
final, as an impasse, might just be a passage to another space, another
set of possibilities.
Through the video art,the collective Taxi brings meaning and discussions about the occupation of space. Art is a tool that transforms public space and provokes reflections on it. It is now known that most people have a preference for video-produced content and artists have taken advantage of this to expose their thoughts in this contemporary language, but this is a subject to be better explored in a future article.
And you, reader, do you like to watch video art? Do you have interested in watching the videos of the collective? Share with us what you think! If you have any indication of artists that approach your art through this language, we’d love to meet too 🙂
