This exhibition brings together stories of tradition and memory that are often overlooked. Instead of focusing on professional artisans, it highlights the women of Birbhum—mothers, daughters, and wives—who, though not formally trained in weaving or embroidery, create beautiful pieces of art at home. These women have always made kanthas not to sell, but as personal gifts for their families, stitching care and warmth into everyday items.
The project goes beyond just looking at the craft; it explores memory and presence. Artists Himangshu Sarma, Rabiul Khan, Ritushree Mondal, and Surajit Mudi work alongside these women as partners, creating a ‘pedagogical site’ a place of shared learning. Here, the process of making becomes a conversation, connecting the past and the present, and linking the individual with the community.
#HimangshuSarma #RabiulKhan #RitushreeMondal #SurajitMudi #BengalBiennale #WestBengal #Shantiniketan #Art #Culture #Bengali #Heritage
Visuals: Animikh and Sandipan Chatterjee
Editor: Sudhanshu
The project goes beyond just looking at the craft; it explores memory and presence. Artists Himangshu Sarma, Rabiul Khan, Ritushree Mondal, and Surajit Mudi work alongside these women as partners, creating a ‘pedagogical site’ a place of shared learning. Here, the process of making becomes a conversation, connecting the past and the present, and linking the individual with the community.
#HimangshuSarma #RabiulKhan #RitushreeMondal #SurajitMudi #BengalBiennale #WestBengal #Shantiniketan #Art #Culture #Bengali #Heritage
Visuals: Animikh and Sandipan Chatterjee
Editor: Sudhanshu
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I don't know who lives near this house, I don't know who lives in this house
00:14Four of us are in Gaba, me, Dimanshu, Ritu Sridhi, Raviul Khan and Subhashik Modi.
00:32Currently we are building and it's in the process of making, we are making a space named
00:40The Bengal Biennale for the first time is happening, so it's in Shantiniketan right
00:44now, later it will be in Kolkata.
00:47Particularly this project, the Kathar Ghor, we are collaborating with nearly 100 women
00:52Katha makers of Birbhum.
00:54They are home makers and these women have a long tradition and history of knowing Katha
01:01from their memories of their grandmothers, mothers and generational knowledge that they
01:07have.
01:08The basic intention was to create a space, a platform where these collective voices of
01:16artists and artisans coexisting in a space that can come together in a more louder approach.
01:23It is also a gesture of giving care to something, so we totally covered up our entire house
01:34from the outside with the Kathas made by these women, where they have stitched their
01:39own narrations, own stories and autobiographies.
01:42Also, we were looking at the constant question that how this ownership of these houses or
01:50the ownership of land is changing and how the locals are being limited to accessing
02:01the lands that they previously had a lot more access to.
02:06So, basically it is a question of the ownership.
02:09We are staying in this place as a rent.
02:12They are also looking at it from another perspective.
02:16So, whose is the house?
02:18So, basically we have covered it up with a question of the ownership.
02:23So, everyone can come and interpret it according to them.
02:27So, the basic idea is to build up a pedagogical site where throughout this term of this binalay
02:33we will have different types of engagements like workshops and presentations.
02:39So, we are up to a platform where mutual learning is the main purpose.
02:47You can also see different fragments in this house as five of us stay in here.
02:54So, you might see that things are kept as it is.
02:57So, how to share our living space within this limited access?
03:02Actually, the work that you have seen right now might change after 20 days or might not.
03:10We have initiated this process since April.
03:15So, we are continuously thinking about why Shantiniketan?
03:21Why not another place?
03:23So, we have seen that from the term of Rabindranath and after Vishwavarti.
03:28So, we have many different aspects to deal with Vishwavarti or we can engage with
03:35or we can find many resources from there or we can collaborate with everyone.
03:40So, actually the Bengal binalay is also happening in Shantiniketan.
03:44It also adds to that culture of you said about the tourism or the other side.
03:54As Rabindranath said that the world, Vishwavarti is a nest where the world comes together.
04:02So, we believe in that idea and we are also open up globally.
04:11Katha is a tool.
04:13We are not talking about the history of katha or the process of katha making.
04:18Katha is a tool where a conversation can be made.
04:21Where women can speak about themselves in a sharing space.
04:25I thought that there can be a story in katha making.
04:28So, I started studying a landscape from there.
04:31How can I know a landscape through a voice or an autobiography?
04:36As you mentioned the idea of preservation.
04:39So, I think before preservation something has to be shared first.
04:43After sharing and after its existence out there,
04:49then it is something that needs to be preserved for the later generation to access it or see it.
04:56So, from that note we were going into this idea.
05:02And along with that we were also going into the gesture that someone asks to tell something about yourself.
05:11That question remains always something that is not very comforting from very fast.
05:18Even if someone asks me right now, I will not be very prompt about it.
05:23So, that question was something that led them to take a moment and think that what is it.