The Bangalore/Bengaluru experiments with “Solidarity Economies”
It often comes as a revelation to art observers, who are searching for an alternative to the commercially driven contemporary art worlds of Mumbai and Delhi, with their imposing art spaces and booming auction houses, that quite unusual and interesting work can be found in Bangalore, a city known internationally as a thriving information technology hub and far removed from the world of spectacular art fairs and large-scale exhibitions. This surprise is unsurprising. As an artist and academic who has been involved for several years in putting together collective manifestations within the university, and as a working group member of KHOJ International Artists’ Association for seven years, I am only too familiar with the conservatism of a market-driven economy of art – where size, spectacle, and rarity form the currency of artistic worth – which is even more potent when large, warehouse-size spaces have to be filled and the growing demand for speculative collectables has to be met.