RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE

The artistic triumvirate of RAQS Media Collective – Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi and Shuddhabrata Sengupta – has been in the field of art since 1992.

- Radhika Iyengar

The collective’s work is erudite, layered and deeply perceptive, often holding acute gravity. This year, it will be helming the Yokohama Triennale in Japan as its Artistic Director. It is a role not unknown to the collective. Among a constellation of gallery exhibits worldwide, the collective has been the curator of the Shanghai Biennale (2016) and of In the Open and in Stealth exhibition at MACBA, Spain (2018). This is the first time the Yokohama Triennale, which began in 2001, will have a non-Japanese director.

When I meet the three in their brightly-lit studio, they are huddled at a large wooden table, spectacles pinned to their noses, peering into their laptops, while sipping black coffee. With just a few months away from the opening of the Triennale, they are neck-deep in work. The walls are lined with book shelves stacked with slim copies, tomes and monographs on art, philosophy and history. On their table, amidst a pile of opened, face-down reference books and stationery, lies a blueprint of the Yokohama Museum of Art’s architectural anatomy, bearing scribbles of what-will-go-where. It is where the Triennale, opening on July 17, will come to life.

In 2018, the Yokohama Triennale’s committee released a press statement stating that while they received countless international proposals for the directorship of the 2020 Triennale, RAQS Media Collective’s artistic vision stood out. What was your proposal?