Installation / Exhibition
Moon Walk

By Madhuja Mukherjee and Avik Mukhopadhyay

Mon, 16.09.2019 -
Sat, 28.09.2019
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata

This multi-media installation will conjure the complexities of 'manned' moon landing during 1969, which was preceded by a series of (failed) attempts through that decade, and followed thereafter. This show, in the context of Five Million Incidents, however, is not about an or any incident, rather, it allows us to think through, and think about, popular perceptions and fantasies regarding the moon (love songs, rituals, sci-fi narratives, imageries), and emphasizes upon the political tussles which lace trips to the moon.

The exhibition will be opened on Monday, 23 September 2019 at 6 pm and remain on view till Saturday, 28 September from 10 am to 6:30 pm daily (except on Sundays and Public holidays)

Moon Walk, by Madhuja Mukherjee in collaboration with Avik Mukhopadhyay, explores the ironic interplay between a series of failed and successful attempts of ‘moon landings’, and popular cultural imageries of the moon. This playfulness underscores the erasure of specific cultural modes – songs, poems, calendar art, for instance, – and throws light on the war over the moon, which is becoming more and more intense; just as, an increasingly “scientized” moon strikes us every passing day. Such scientism erases ethno-histories, and undermines the history of scientific imaginings. We are responding to contemporary debates around ‘Anthropocene’. Our political histories have pushed us to re-imagine moon as an Indic phenomenon, making our diverse cultural and poetic experiences into a predominantly event oriented movement. Therefore, we hope to find ways, through a large-scale multi-media installation, to “re-enchant” the moon, and speak to the allure of science-fiction genres to which the many facets of the moon belongs.

Actants

Madhuja Mukherjee is an artist, filmmaker and teacher. She teaches Film Studies at Jadavpur University, and is author of books and scholarly papers. She brings research-based knowledge into art-practice, and moulds her studies on cultural-history into art projects. She is an ARThinkSouthAsia Fellow (2013-2014), and has presented her solo media installations at various international programmes and venues. Films written (Qissa, 2013) and directed (Carnival, 2012) by her have received international recognition. Presently, Madhuja is working on her second graphic-novel, The Dog Star, supported by India Foundation for the Arts. She is the director of TENT ‘Little Cinema International Festival’, Kolkata.

Avik Mukhopadhayay is an ace cinematographer and filmmaker well known for films like Patalghar (2003), Chokher Bali (2003), Bunty aur Babli (2005), Chitrangada (2012), Bhooter Bhobishyat (2012), Pink (2016), October (2018), Badla (2019) etc. Avik has a Diploma in Cinematography (1993) from Film & TV Institute of India, Pune; Ekti Tarar Khonje (Bengali, 2010) was his first directorial venture. He has received the ‘National Award for Best Cinematography’ thrice. He is making an experimental stop-motion animation film, LUBDHAK supported by India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore and is a founder-member of TENT (theatre for experiments in new technologies, Kolkata).