Curator: Michaela Richter

For over two decades, Shilpa Gupta has been examining situations in which the definitional power of state apparatuses and other structures that shape individual and social life come into play. In her extensive œuvre, she uses technically complex installations, sculptures, interactive video projections, and sound works. As an artist who works across multiple media, Gupta also focuses in particular on participatory formats, allowing viewers to become part of the artwork.

The exhibition at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein includes the installations Words Come From Ears (2018), on view for the first time in Germany and a new version of the work Untitled (Spoken poem in a bottle, 2018–ongoing) along with a new work that addresses the legacy of poet Nâzım Hikmet. Poetry, the politics of language, as well as notions of legality and illegality, security and censorship, and belonging and isolation, recur in Gupta’s works. Her newest work is dedicated to poet Nâzım Hikmet who was imprisoned for his beliefs and died in exile in 1963. Inspired by Hikmet’s poem in which he speaks of his wish to be buried under a plane tree in his village in Anatolia, Turkey, Gupta has invited visitors to contribute to the completion of a work contemplating politics and resistance, shattered memory and remembrance.

The work Untitled (Spoken poem in a bottle) captures the evocative potential of words through the voices of poets who have been persecuted for their beliefs and their writings. In an ongoing research process, Gupta has been registering instances of imprisonment in the present and past (going as far back as the 8th century), in which regimes have set out to undermine poets by socially and politically limiting their agency. In her installation, she presents poems that are spoken and then sealed into glass bottles, expressing an adamant belief in individual voice through the perseverance of poetry. They subvert the claimed ownership and dominance of language by the powers that be, returning it to the individual, fostering reflections on the scope of imagination, the possibility of dreams, and the privacy of the body. The installation includes work by poets Nesimi, Irina Ratushinskaya, Yannis Ritsos, Wole Soyinka, Malay Roy Choudhury, Zeb-Un-Nissa, among others, as well as by recently imprisoned poets Dareen Tatour and Saw Wai. According to the artist, “The work stems from the changing situation under current governments that are becoming increasingly restrictive, with critical thinkers being imprisoned and fear used as a tool to silence those who speak what might not want to be heard.” The pieces on display in the exhibition are part of the ongoing body of work, For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit: 100 Jailed Poets, which explores attempts to contain words by restricting the mobility of writers.

Words Come From Ears (2018) uses a large-format flapboard display, like those found in airport transit zones. But instead of timetables and destinations, it reveals a poetic text by Shilpa Gupta, which gradually changes over time. Alluding to the limbo state of precarious waiting, to imposed limits, and the will to transgress them, it reveals the subversive potential of the movement of bodies and ideas. Gupta’s text touches on related processes of longing, departure, and change, as well as the relationship between speaking, hearing, seeing, and being observed. By skillfully questioning the concept of illegibility, Gupta’s work challenges viewers with its ephemeral words and phrases to question their own assumptions and expectations, to investigate the complexity of supposedly familiar narratives, and to view their own knowledge and perceptions as situated and mutable. Gupta thus initiates a change in subject positions, even if temporarily, spurring on an empathetic understanding of the other by pulling her audience out of an assumed, objective distance from political apparatuses and their functioning.

Shilpa Gupta (*1976 in Mumbai) lives and works in Mumbai, where she studied sculpture at the Sir J. J. School of Fine Arts from 1992 to 1997. Solo exhibitions of her work at a.o.: M HKA, Antwerp (2021); Yarat Contemporary Art Center, Baku (2018); Kiosk, Ghent (2017); Kunstnemes Hus, Oslo (2014); Műcsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest (2013); Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem (2012); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2010); Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi (2009). Gupta’s work has also been shown in group exhibitions at international institutions and museums, including: Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2020); Copenhagen Contemporary (2020); ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe (2019); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek (2019; 2016; 2009); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2018); Hamburger Kunsthalle (2015); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2012); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011); Serpentine Gallery, London (2008); Tate Modern, London (2001; 2003). Shilpa Gupta participated a.o. in the Venice Biennale (2019), Kochi Muziris Biennale (2018), Berlin Biennale (2014), New Museum Triennale (2009), Sharjah Biennale (2013), Gwangju Biennale (2008).