Facing India

de Uta Ruhkamp, Ralf Beil, Urvashi Butalia, Roobina Karode

How do female Indian artists position themselves today? How do they deal with their responsibilities to society, as well as with the legacy of their feminist predecessors? What kind of language do they invent to express that which has been unarticulated? In Facing India, six female Indian artists devote themselves not only to the history and future of India, but also to their country in the present day. Torn between tradition and the modern world, India's patriarchal society is in the midst of a socio-cultural transformation. In their multimedia works Vibha Galhotra (*1978), Bharti Kher (*1969), Prajakta Potnis (*1980), Reena Saini Kallat (*1973), Mithu Sen (*1971), and Tejal Shah (*1979) examine boundaries--a central theme in Indian society, whether they are gender-related limitations, or political, territorial, ecological, or religious boundaries. This richly illustrated publication accompanies the first thematic exhibition of Indian women artists in Germany.