By Belinder Dhanoa
20 November 2024, 5.40 pm
Arthshila Santiniketan
The book on the Kasauli Art Centre, located at Ivy Lodge, Kasauli – which functioned as a centre for the arts and was actively engaged in numerous art activities for a decade and a half, from 1976 to 1991 – contextualizes the events held there within the broader framework of the cultural scene in India. Developments in the visual arts, experiments in performance, seminars held at the Kasauli Art Centre, and the inception of the Journal of Arts & Ideas are among the subjects discussed. Given the paucity of written documentation, the author’s research is partly reliant on interviews and conversations with participants and her analytical readings of these narratives. The text is written in brief sections in several registers, and includes the use of devices from fiction writing, including the mediating of time between an event and its recall. The publication also has valuable contributions from several artists and scholars who participated in the events, and a detailed timeline of the many art camps, performances, seminars and discussions held at Kasauli.
This is part of the closing programme of ‘Kasauli Art Centre 1976–1991: An exhibition of artworks, prints and archival documents’, curated and produced by SSAF, on display at Arthshila Santiniketan until 20 November 2024.
Belinder Dhanoa is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her latest publication is the Kasauli Art Centre 1976–1991, from Tulika Books and the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation.