The starting point of the exhibition is formed by two distinct conceptual and spatial constructs located in India: Chandigarh, the utopian, Western-modernist planned city built by Le Corbusier in the 1950s; and the Maha Kumbh Mela, held every twelve years in Allahabad, considered the largest human gathering in the world with its forty million pilgrims.In new sculptural, filmic, and photographic works, Nandita Raman and Kay Walkowiak engage with various aspects of these real sites of utopian character. The exhibition explores both the topos of the failed utopia and the phenomenon of the insatiable longing for a place beyond all places. Ultimately, it also addresses the question of how to translate that "non-place"—a space of potentiality that fuels and sustains our desire machines.

Curator:
Cornelis van Almsick