Mithu Sen, in collaboration with Sanyasi Lohar and young collaborators of pearson pally brings the Santali script to life within the landscape of a Santal village, as murals that goes beyond decoration to reclaim and reaffirm cultural identity in a world where linguistic invisibility quietly erodes heritage.
This mural draws from a tradition reminiscent of Santiniketan’s vision of art as public, communal, and transformative. Yet, it speaks with a unique and deeply personal voice. The work features the Ol Chiki script, the writing system for the Santali language created by Raghunath Murmu. These symbols, painted on the village's mud walls, are a form of public installation that has the ability to open spaces of dialogue and new connection amidst a time where communities are growing distant from each other.
Visuals: Animikh And Sandipan Chatterjee
#MithuSen #Santali #Santiniketan #Santalvillage #Santal #BengalBiennale #WestBengal
This mural draws from a tradition reminiscent of Santiniketan’s vision of art as public, communal, and transformative. Yet, it speaks with a unique and deeply personal voice. The work features the Ol Chiki script, the writing system for the Santali language created by Raghunath Murmu. These symbols, painted on the village's mud walls, are a form of public installation that has the ability to open spaces of dialogue and new connection amidst a time where communities are growing distant from each other.
Visuals: Animikh And Sandipan Chatterjee
#MithuSen #Santali #Santiniketan #Santalvillage #Santal #BengalBiennale #WestBengal
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm Mithu Sen. I'm a visual artist. I try to conceptualize each of my projects and then
00:09execute in some kind of visual art form or performative form.
00:14I am Olchiki. It's kind of a declaration and reclaiming of the Santali script Olchiki.
00:37Here I try to kind of create with my team like my collaborative artist Sonnashi Lohar
00:46and the research assistant Bodhi Baske with this community. I try to kind of explore my
00:55long-term journey with language and also with the lingual politics over decades.
01:03So when I was invited by the Bengal Biennale, of course I was overexcited and then I was given
01:12freedom and therefore I was also given some venues which are like very art venues like
01:20you know kind of Swad or Gaba or different art spaces. But somehow I had a dream in my mind that
01:29because Biennale means Biennale is a movement and Biennale means you know to spread
01:34art over everyone like you know like it is a public event. So I was dreaming that I get to
01:43work in a village especially the Santal village nearby the university Shantiniketan and our
01:51department Kalabhavan and I approached the curator Siddharth and he said absolutely it is possible
01:58and he got permission of some houses from here. The people here are extremely kind and their
02:05welcoming was heart-warming like I cannot tell how it is like last couple of weeks and days.
02:12And about Olchiki is like I personally experienced the power dynamics through
02:18language and the lingual politics and confronting with like Hindi or English was not very smooth.
02:26So I had to experience the dominant power of hierarchies and dominant languages
02:37especially English and I literally started thinking about the language and exploring
02:44language and language to me is like a poetry, the sound, the script, the you know that basic
02:51you know the fundamental meaning of language. It all to me is like poetry and through poetry
02:59we can communicate with anybody and everybody. So I took language on like as poetry and poetry
03:05as my mother tongue and therefore I started researching and exploring language in my
03:11my own way. I tried to intervene you know like you know different parts of the world
03:16and how the communication is possible. I tried to even deconstruct the idea the monolith of
03:24the dominant languages and I call them in my own way un-languaging or non-language.
03:33Some language they imposed you know on us and how we feel the breathlessness and that
03:40discomfort and the struggle. The same way I see the Santali language which is an existing language
03:48over you know like maybe thousand and thousand years since they this tribe belongs to this
03:54earth and their script was invented by Pandit Raghunath more than hundred years ago
04:01or like nearly hundred years ago like next year it will be the centenary 1925.
04:08But still after hundred years we cannot really see these people have their own script they can
04:14write in this script all cheeky but they still speak. It was a oral language and it is
04:20continuing as oral language in their home and in their you know like the locals but they don't
04:26really know how to write this language and it is a very emotional kind of you know feeling
04:32than when you see that kind of unfamiliarity with their own thing that is
04:40belong to them. So I just thought of bringing the script which are beautifully you know like
04:48with a beautiful calligraphy and graphic with 30 letters the whole alphabet to bring back to their
04:54own space and it looks like a decorative but it is not really decorative it's more like a declarative.
05:00So it is their own voice it is saying that we are here and this is our language and we belong to
05:06this soil and this is who we are and that kind of you know like you see that you know that the
05:12cultural loss and that the erase memory is everything how passes by for over 100 years
05:19but still what is what remain is like their soul and their passion and their
05:24their desire to have their language. Sometimes it was ignorant that they did not really know
05:31that they have their own language. When we proposed this project and got the permission to paint a
05:38couple of houses in this village we are very excited and we took some local artists and
05:44villagers and research assistants and we started making a team so that we can start like working
05:51with them and spread that you know like what is going to happen among the villagers much before
05:57the project started working and we are using like all local materials like organic materials there
06:04is nothing like no chemicals we have used and so we have Sannashi Lohar for that he's technically
06:12very sound because he comes from this community. We are always engaged and I was making the design
06:17of each houses which are you know like becoming like a blackboard in the school under the sky
06:25like how usually we used to get classes like 30 years ago in Shantiniketan that very romantic
06:32idea of getting classes in the nature. I hope like they will celebrate things because they already
06:37started feeling and my most joyful thing is like working with them for last couple of days
06:42and the whole village is like engaged because they are trying to read them even not knowing
06:49sometimes a single letter so they are asking the young kids who started going to the school
06:55and who still can read a little bit because it's very very foreign to them it's their own language
07:01but it's very foreign to them and so that that kind of trying and then that kind of joy and then
07:07making fun on each other with the with the script and you know that it's becoming very playful
07:14but also celebratory. Along with this script like the Olchiki script I also tried to extend this
07:21project in two different parts like one is like introducing some digital image and icons like
07:29smileys and QR codes because that is like one of the most universally accepted language and another
07:36is a little booklet it's called I am Olchiki and to distribute it among the villagers we are doing
07:46a very simple book with all the letters in it each page has the letters and the numbers
07:55with a hope that it will become like a part of the educational it will become an educational tool
08:01I painted each letters with the blood red the passion of love and labor this time it is just
08:08the letters you know very straightforward alphabets on the wall but the young kids like girls and the
08:16boys who worked with me they even promised the next time I will come they will write poetry
08:21instead of just the alphabets so that is a dream and I hope that dream will come true.