Galerie im Taxispalais

Shilpa Gupta

will we ever be able to mark enough?

In the exhibition will we ever be able to mark enough? by Shilpa Gupta, the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, presents a comprehensive display of works by one of India’s most significant contemporary artists. Shilpa Gupta’s works – known internationally since the late 1990ies – unite a wide variety of media, including video, photography, installations and objects. Influenced by the politics and by the cultural reality of her country, Gupta’s works address the modern-day globalized world, revealing how daily life is permeated by and influenced by historical events, religion, terror, social inequality, power, gender, the media and local and international developments. Her early works in particular are frequently participation pieces, in which she addresses herself directly to the viewers, calling upon them to precisely observe and to critically question certain forms of behavior within society.

In her new works, which were created especially for the exhibition will we ever be able to mark enough?, Shilpa Gupta addresses the climate of fear that is a part of life in many parts of the world due to threats of various kinds. Territorial borders, the confiscation of objects at airports, the unexplained disappearance of people in war are themes that she sensitively interprets and incorporates into her work. Based upon everyday objects and familiar experiences, Gupta investigates the spaces of personal and global consciousness – spaces that drift somewhere between fear and yearning, thoughts of control and thoughts of freedom. In the process, the borders lose their fixed forms – definitions are disrupted, meanings become concrete and are expanded. In responding to these questions, the sculptural objects, installations, video works and photographs take a personal, intimate tone, getting us involved and prompting us to come up with our own individual associations and reflections. In spite of all this, the borders that Gupta makes visible do not solidify. Instead, her works always contain within them a quality of transgression.

Curator: Renee Baert, Montreal
Production of exhibition: Cargo Curatorial Group, Montreal
Further exhibition venues: Fonderie Darling, Montreal; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Arnhem; Cultuurcentrum, Bruges