Exhibition
Regarding the City

by bangaloREsidents Matthias Beckmann and Sandra Havlicek

Wed, 07.12.2022 -
Fri, 09.12.2022
7:00 PM 1Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery

Matthias Beckmann and Sandra Havlicek see and experience Bangalore from different perspectives. While Matthias Beckmann documents everyday situations in the immediate neighbourhood with his watercolour drawings created on site, Sandra Havlicek is interested in the higher-level structures and concepts of the metropolis, which she translates into a complex sculptural work.

Matthias Beckmann - How to cross a road in Bangalore

1Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery is located in the heart of Shanthinagar. Every morning, the Berlin-based draughtsman Matthias Beckmann goes out and explores the district and the immediate neighbourhood.
In front of the motif, he draws and watercolours what he sees: Temples, motor scooters, street scenes, demolished street signs, cows, dogs, goats, a mosque, the cemeteries in Cemetery Road, the butchers in Johnson Market, the baskets of flowers in KR Market, all the little things and oddities of everyday life.
Children surround him as he paints in watercolours, many observers stay with him from the beginning to the end of the painting process and ask many questions. In the meantime, he has also learned how to cross a road.

A richly illustrated catalogue with texts by Suresh Jayaram and Matthias Beckmann is published to accompany the exhibition.

Sandra Havlicek - Promise Build Collapse / After MASTERPLANS

A complex urban structure can be expressed by everyday materials and how we engage with these. They are connected with different associations. Sandra Havlicek describes a condition of the metropolis with these materials.

The Snake Stones (Nagas), the multi-headed serpent representation, are directly linked to the worship of trees. From an urban design perspective, worshiping the trees informally generates community spaces at the neighborhood level - public space is defined by citizens and occupied by the snake stones.

Another multi-headed representation are the unique advertising media for motorcycle helmets. They flank the streets like memorials, reminding one of how public space is replaced by streets. Every citizen one vehicle.

The two representations are the starting point for Sandra Havlicek's sculptural examination of the metropolis as a place of perverted conditions, loving gestures and contradictory feelings.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, December 7 at 7 p.m. and is on view til December 9 from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.