WILL THE DOVES NESTLE ON THE MOON?
Embassy of Switzerland, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
February 9th, 2018
Swiss Indian Art Collective
Katja Loher, Satish Gupta, Sumakshi Singh
Embassy of Switzerland
Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
Swiss Indian Art Collective
Katja Loher, Satish Gupta, Sumakshi Singh
Embassy of Switzerland
Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi
This celebration commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Swiss-Indian Treaty of Friendship signed in New Delhi on August 14, 1948 bringing together a Swiss-Indian Art Collective composed by Katja Loher, Sumakshi Sing and Satish Gupta, who are exhibiting their works at the Swiss Embassy in New Delhi during Art India 2018.
Swiss artist Katja Loher’s beautiful and magical approach to sculpture and video art, merges technology and spirituality to raise awareness about our terrestrial dwelling. Her work is a call to action to protect the beauty of nature and peripheral cultures from ecological dangers such as air pollution, water contamination, industrial and human waste…
Loher’s work coexists with Singh’s Living Gardens of Light, a sparking transparent forest interlaced with skeletal embroideries, and with Satish Gupta's versatile sequences of meditative art, which gives substance to divinity and makes palpable the eternal flow of life represented by the mandala.
In her work, Loher seeks to find answers to questions like the one that gives the title to this exhibition:Will the doves nestle on the moon?. It is in fact through poetry that Loher guides her audience to face a cruder reality: the deterioration of our own habitat on Earth. In her videos, choreographed dances of reinvented and imaginary creatures are projected on spherical sculptures and create hypnotic mind and eye-bending mandalas. The experience of Loher's fabulous universe is enhanced by live performers. Guests will be welcomed at the entrance by the Bubblelady —Master of Air— who will introduce them to one of Loher’s signature installations, Videoplanets, hovering over the pool in the central courtyard.
Her video installations include a new series choreographed with Buoyant Performing Arts group realized during Loher‘s residency at Basu Foundation in Kolkata. In this video, mandalas based on five elements —Air, Water, Fire, Earth, and Love —along with Indian dances, colorful traditional costumes, and the music composed by audio designer Asako Fujimoto (1977, Osaka, Japan) create a powerful and captivating fractal universe.
Fascinated by the tree roots invading Indian temples and buildings, Loher created a third installation for the hall of the Embassy. It is a diptych made of two bird nests which contain egg-like videos. The seamless fusion of organic elements and technology represents the complex balance between humans and nature that Loher explores in the fantastic worlds she creates. In them she acts as a demiurge, who unbinds chaos, while nurturing order and rhythm. These Miniverses, as Loher refers to them, inspire into the visitor a renewed appreciation for the splendor and complexity of nature, and the desire to preserve its beauty for generations to come.
This exhibition was conceived with her long-term collaborator, architect and artist Andrea Liberni (1971, Milan, Italy) and produced in collaboration with painter, performing artist and stylist, Robayo (1971, Ibaque, Colombia), who also contributed a series of Mandalas based upon the 5 elements: collages of natural elements and acrylic paints presented in the exhibition. Each of Loher’s pieces is in fact the result of a complex production, which includes writing by poet Gian Maria Annovi (1978, Reggio Emilia, Italy), choreographic work in a green room studio in collaboration with dancer Azumi Oe (1982, Kyoto, Japan), and on site filming in remote natural locations that serve as a background to her videos. The productions often include unique artifacts, like a centennial tree salvaged from a storm, or a specially designed semi-hemispheric screen to display her videos.
