Raqs Media Collective New Delhi, India, b.1965
Founded in 1992, Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta) have been highly visible on the international art scene for the last decade. They enjoy playing a plurality of roles, often appearing as artists, occasionally as curators, and sometimes as philosophical agent provocateurs. They create art and films, curate exhibitions, edit books, stage events, collaborate with architects, computer programmers, writers and theatre directors and discover processes that have made deep impacts on contemporary culture in India. Raqs follows its self-declared imperative of 'kinetic contemplation' to produce a trajectory that is restless in terms of the forms and methods that it deploys even as it achieves a consistency of speculative procedures.
Raqs have exhibited their works in Documenta 11 in 2002 and the Biennales of Venice, Istanbul, Taipei, Liverpool, Sydney and Sao Paulo, amongst others. Their work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Britain (London), Art Unlimited (Basel), Mori Museum (Tokyo), SALT (Istanbul) and at the Hayward and Serpentine Galleries (London), as well as many other international institutions. In December 2015, the Collective opened Untimely Calendar (Asamayavali), the largest and most wide ranging exhibition of its work to date, spread over 3,200 square meters of Jaipur House at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, with work spanning over a decade.
Raqs curated “The Rest of Now” for the 7th edition of Manifesta: The European Biennial of Contemporary Art and “Steps Away from Oblivion” for the international roving exhibition "Indian Highway” initiated by The Serpentine Gallery, London, both in 2008. In 2013, they initiated “Sarai Reader 09: The Exhibition,” as a curatorial process of exhibiting making and unmaking. Raqs Media Collective was appointed chief curator of the 11th edition of the Shanghai Biennale opening in November 2016, under the title Why Not Ask Again? Manoeuvres, Disputations and Stories, a phrase that comes from its reading of Indian New Cinema Movement pioneer Ritwik Ghatak's film Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (Arguments, Counter-Arguments and Stories, 1974).
Selected Artworks
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Not Yet At Ease, Firstsite, (14-18 Now), Colchester, Essex
Raqs Media Collective, K21 - Museum for 21st Century Art, Dusseldorf
Provisions for Everybody, solo project for AV Festival, Newcastle upon Tyne
2017
Hollowgram, Serpentine Gallery Outdoors, London
Twilight Language, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Manchester
Passwords for Time Travel, remaimodern.org
2016
Thicket, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, London
Happen-stances, Project Space Plus, The University of Lincoln, Lincoln
2015
If the world is a fair place - Laumeier Sculpture Park, St Louis
It's possible because it's possible - Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires
Luminous Will - School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A Myriad Marginalia - RISD Museum, Providence
Its possible because its possible - MUAC Mueseo Universitario Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City
2014
Untimely Calendar - National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi
Corrections to the First Draft of History - Frith Street Gallery Golden Square
The Capital of Accumulation - The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2, MoMA, New York
Raqs Media Collective - It's possible because it's possible - Centro de Arte dos de Mayos (CA2M), Madrid
An Afternoon Unregistered on the Richter Scale - Project Space Plus at Lincoln School of Art & Design
A Sublime Economy of Means - Tranzit Display, Prague
2013
Extra Time - Chronus Art Centre, M50, Shanghai
Black Box: Raqs Media Collective - Baltimore Museum of Art
2012
A Phrase, Not A Word - Nature Morte, Delhi
The Great Bare Mat & Constellation - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Primary Education of the Autodidact - Audain Gallery, Vancouver
An Afternoon Unregistered on the Richter Scale - Photographer's Gallery, London
Reverse Engineering - Nature Morte, Berlin
Guesswork - Frith Street Gallery, London
A Different Gravity - Indian Art Fair, New Delhi
2011
Reading Light - Festival d'Automne at Espace Oscar Niemeyer, Paris
Surjection - Art Gallery of York University, Toronto
2010
The Capital Of Accumulation – Project 88, Mumbai
The Things That Happen When Falling In Love – Baltic Centre, Gateshead
2009
The Surface Of Each Day Is A Different Planet – Art Now Lightbox, Tate Britain, London
When The Scales Fall From Your Eyes –Ikon, Birmingham
Escapement –Frith Street Gallery, London
Decomposition –Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
2007
Building Sight - Watermans Gallery, London
2006
The KD Vyas Correspondence Vol.1 –Museumof Communications, Frankfurt
The Anthropometry Of The Soul –Iniva, London
There Has been A Change Of Plan –Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi
2004
The Impostor In The Waiting Room –Bose Pacia Gallery, New York
The Wherehouse –Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
The Listening Room –Das TAT, Frankfurt
2003
Co-Ordinates – Roomade Office for Contemporary Art, Brussels
Group Exhibitions
2018
India & the World - A History in Nine Stories, National Museum, New Delhi
Common Threads: Weaving Stories Across Time, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Cassata Subduction, Cassata Drone, Palermo, Sicily
Togetherness, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
ZEITSPUREN – The Power of Now, Pasquart Kunsthaus, Biel, Switzerland
FotoFest 2018 Biennale, Houston, Texas
Re Present: Photography from South Asia, Kamloops Art Gallery, Canada
Twisted Fold for When is Space? Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur
2017
The Emperor's New Clothes at Parted: A lost love story, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Traduttore, Traditore, College of Architecture and the Arts University of Illinois, Chicago
To Refuse/To Wait/To Sleep, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery,Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Doublethink Double vision, Pera Museum, Istanbul
Self-Portrait as the Billy Goat, Whitechapel Gallery, London
The Edge of Here and the End of Now, at Thresholds of Knowledge, Kingshuset, Lund University, Sweden
Presentomorrow at Mondialité, Villa Empain, Brussels
Ecliptic, at Field Guide, Remai Modern, Canada
Between Film and Photography, FOMU - Foto Museum, Antwerp
Collecting Europe – artist commissions, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2016
Superhumanity, 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Istanbul
The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), 11th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea
Terminal P, La Panacée, Montpellier, France
New Sensorium: Exiting from Failures of Modernisation, ZKM, Karlsruhe
Time / Image, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2015
Everything Must Go: Art and the Market - Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork
All Men Become Sisters - Museum Sztuki, Lodz
Time / Image - Blaffer Art Museum, Houston
Where do we Migrate to? - Varmland Museum, Karlstad, Sweden
Postdate - Ulrich Museum of Art, Kansas
Continuous Drift - Meeting House Square, Dublin
Global Imaginations - Meelfabriek/ Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden
History Lessons - Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderna, Gran Canaria, Spain
Telling Time - MUDAC, Lausanne
Venice Biennale: All the World's Futures - Giardini, Venice
Playing Future - Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany
The Bank Show: Vive le Capital - BANK, Shanghai
After Midnight Indian Modernism To Contemporary India 1947/1997 - Queens Museum, New York
POSTDATE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND INHERITED HISTORY IN INDIA - San Jose Museum of Art
How to Construct a Time Machine - MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
2014
The Jerusalem Show VII - Khalidi Library Cultural Foundation
Silver - Frith Street Gallery Soho Square
Highlights and Classics - Museum fur Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt
Do It - Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town)
Spaghetti Harvest - Project 88, Mumbai
A Museum of Immortality - Ashkal Alwan, Beirut
Bucharest Biennial - Pavilion Centre, Bucharest
Eva International, Ireland's Biennial – Agitationism - Limerick City Gallery of Art
Install Hope - Nordstans Shopping Centre, Gotheburg
Helsinki Photo Biennial - The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki
Waiting for the Wind - Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata
Install Hope - Landvetter Airport, Gotheburg
2013
Aesthetic Bind | Phantomata - Gallery Chemould, Mumbai
Gwangju Folly II/ Auto-didact's Transport - Gwangju Metro
If the World Changed - Singapore Biennial - Bras Basah.Bugis Precinct
Aesthetic Bind | Citizen Artist: forms of address - Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
Off Modern: Ruins of the Future - Stella Art Foundation, Moscow
LINES OF CONTROL: PARTITION AS A PRODUCTIVE SPACE - Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University
Words Don't Come Easily - Centre for International Light Art, Unna, Germany
Art of Memory - Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm + Royal Observatory, Stockholm
Momentous Times - Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry, Northern Ireland
Real DMZ - Cheorwon-gun + Artsonje Center (seoul)
Wiener Festwochen - Program Book
Host and Guest - Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Multitude Art Prize - Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing
Theo.do.lites - Institute for Contemporary Arts, Singapore
Sharjah Biennale 11 – Sharjah
Benzine: the energies of your mind - La Triennale, Milan
Economy - Centre of Contemporary Arts, Edinburgh & Stills, Edinburgh
Benzine: the energies of your mind - Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna
2012
Benin Biennale – Benin
Collecion VI - Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid
In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art - The Drawing Centre, New York
Reakt: Olhares e Processos - Guimaraes, Portugal
Where do we migrate to? - Contemporary Art Centre, New Orleans
Bandung Pavilion, Shanghai Biennial – Shanghai
The practical function of 12 networked publications with 4 books, 2 posters and 1 chart - Christophe Daviet-Thery Livres et Editions d’Artistes, Paris
The 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art - Yekaterinburg, Russia
Copenhagen Art Festival - Copenhagen, Denmark
Liquid Archive - Museum of Art, Monash University, Melbourne
Helicotrema - Serra dei Giardini, Venezia, Italy.
Art Unlimited, Art Basel - Basel, Switzerland
Manifesta 9 - Genk, Belgium
Critical Mass - Tel Aviv Museum
In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art - Salt Beyoglu
Creative Destruction - The Kitchen, New York
Screening of Sleepwalkers' Caravan - Cinémas Studio 2, Rue des Ursulines, 37 000 Tours
The Capital of Accumulation - Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art
Cynical Love: Life in the Everyday - Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Plot 3A Sector 126, NOIDA
The Contemporary Sultanate - One Style Mile, New Delhi
India Art Fair - New Delhi
Slipping Through the Cracks - Latitude 28 Gallery, New Delhi
Lines of Control - Museum, Cornell University
Social Fabric - Iniva, London
2011
Cities and Things that Matter - Lombard Freid Gallery, New York
Words: A User's Manual - Exhibit 320, Lado Sarai, New Delhi
Critical Fetishes - Museo de la Ciudad, Mexico
In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art - Khoj Studios
India side by side - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brazil
Medi(t)ation – 2011 Asian Art Biennial - National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei
The Global Contemporary : Art Worlds after 1989 - ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe
In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art - De Vleeshal, Netherlands
Contemporary Art Archipelago - Turku Archipelago, Archipelago Sea, Finland
2010
29th Sao Paulo Biennial 2010, Brazil
8th Shanghai Biennale, China
The New Décor – Hayward Gallery, London
The GarageCenterfor Contemporary Culture, Moscow
2008 - 2009
Indian Highway – Serpentine Gallery, London
2007
Shooting Back –Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Timeshares Exhibition Series, Online Exhibition, and Rhizome.Org at the New Museum of ContemporaryArt, New York
The Thermocline of Art – ZKM, Karlsruhe
Istanbul Biennial
New Installations By Artists From India – The Mattress Factory, Pittsburg
Horn Please –Kunst Museum, Berne
World Factory –San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco
Art Of The Possible –Lund Konsthall, Lund
2006
Academy: Learning From Art –MUHKA, Antwerp
Janken: The Power Of Chance – Ogaki Biennale of New Media Art, Ogaki
Sub-Contingent – Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
Zones Of Contact –Sydney Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2005
Icon: India Contemporary – 51st Venice Biennale, Venice
Beyond – 2nd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou
2004
International 04 – Tate Gallery Café, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Do You Believe In Reality? – TaipeiBiennale, Taipei
2003
The Structure Of Survival – 50th Venice Biennale, Venice
When Latitudes Become Forms –Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis
Geography and the Politics of Mobility –Generali Foundation, Vienna
2002
Emocao Art.Ficial – Itau Cultural Centre, Sao Paulo
Documenta 11, Kassel
Geography And Politics Of Mobility – Generali Foundation, Vienna