Multidisciplinary exhibition to reimagine act of viewing cinema within gallery context

New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) A new multidisciplinary exhibition, built around three experimental films by filmmaker Purandar Chaudhuri, will aim to reimagine the act of viewing cinema within a gallery context.

"A Voyage to Permanence", curated by gallerist Jooby Yohannan and art historian Johny ML, will open at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, on March 10 with film screenings, alternative photographic prints, a live installation-performance, and a book release, creating a layered dialogue between moving image, still image, sound, text, and performance, the organisers said.

At the core of the exhibition will be Chaudhuri’s three films -- "Dhushor", "Tremors", and "Impressions of Mingling" -- works that traverse memory, migration, erasure, and survival through a deeply contemplative visual language. “Purandar’s films are not created to flag out the issues of migration or self-degeneration and regeneration caused by various forces. They are aesthetic contemplations using the medium of film, where the memories of traditional analogue movie making are evoked along with their digital possibilities. Letting this cinematic language oscillate between abstraction and figuration, Purandar attempts to give a new dimension to contemporary visual aesthetics using film as a medium," Johny ML said in his curatorial note.

The films are customised for "immersive viewing, supported by state-of-the-art audio-visual design, allowing audiences to encounter them not as conventional narratives but as aesthetic meditations" oscillating between abstraction and figuration.

The works evoke the memories of analogue filmmaking while embracing digital possibilities, forging a contemporary cinematic vocabulary.

Chaudhuri described his practice as "an attempt to reimagine the grammar of cinema".

“I make films that break the conventional rules of movie-making. My films are like memory catchers. They are there, but you need a different sensibility to see and feel the memories. Each of my films is a tribute to the human exodus and survival. I look at the alchemy of turning the human body into labour; the very cruel alchemy,” the filmmaker said.

Accompanying the screenings will be alternative photographic prints by Prakash Braggs, extending the visual grammar of the films into tactile, material forms.

A panel discussion on "Moving Focus of Film Making and Photography" will also accompany the screenings.

On March 11, a live installation-performance by Dr Bhoominathan, actor, director and tutor at the National School of Drama, will respond to and reinterpret the cinematic universe of Chaudhuri’s works.

The exhibition will come to an end on March 14. PTI MAH MAH MAH