When curating her shows, Vidya Shivadas looks for threads that link the artists besides their gender and nationality; Pic by Jagan Negi

T he last thing you’d expect at an art show would be to hunt for art. But this was an exhibition with a difference — there was no spiffy gallery nor the regular brigade of art aficionados. Shikaar: The Hunt, the brainchild of 30-year-old curator Gitanjali Dang and presented by Khoj International Artists’ Association, took people by surprise. The curator Dang invited visitors to Delhi’s Select Citywalk (one of the city’s most happening malls) to participate in a treasure hunt for artwork.

Dang has a penchant for doing things differently. Her Internet art project in March 2010, Beam Me Up_Project India that was supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, not only displayed the artwork online but also involved viewer participation via Skype and Twitter. It included Vishal Rawlley’s sculpture of Burak (Prophet Muhammad’s winged horse) set afloat on Delhi’s Hauz-i-Shamsi reservoir and presented online via a webcam. The sculpture responded to sound by lighting up. So visitors could connect with it via the phone number or Skype ID provided and make it light up by speaking loudly.

Interactive elements like moving sculptures or an art treasure hunt make Gitanjali Dang’s shows innovative. Pic: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Young curators like Dang are engaging both, art buffs and artists, in interesting ways. Some like Vidya Shivadas and Anirudh Chari are permanent curators for prime galleries like Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery and Calcutta’s Ganges Art Gallery respectively, while others work independently. “There are talented young curators who’re looking at Indian art from a fresh angle,” says Alka Pande, consultant art advisor and curator, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Delhi.

“A curator translates the artist’s implied meaning through display, wall texts, catalogue essays or gallery maps,” says the 25-year-old Mumbai-based curator Veeranaganakumari Solanki. So, in her 2010 show Feminine Recitals at Exhibit 320, Solanki let the artists do the talking — literally. Visitors could listen to recordings of the artists speaking about their work.

Most of these curators began their careers as art critics and some topped their courses in art criticism or aesthetics with curatorial programmes. Solanki was part of the first Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course in 2009 in South Korea while Natasha Ginwala is currently participating in Amsterdam’s de Appel Curatorial Programme, which she says is an exceptional programme with just five or six participants each year.

One of Anirudh Chari’s concerns is getting the lighting right for his exhibitions; (above) Maya Kovskaya believes art shows must transcend ethnic borders; (below) Veeranaganakumari Solanki conveys the artist’s thoughts to viewers using different audio and visual tools. Pic: Rashbehari Das, Jagan Negi,Gajanan Dudhalkar.

On the other hand, this year’s Young Curators Hub organised by Prateek and Priyanka Raja of Calcutta’s Experimenter gallery, brought together 10 curators to discuss the future of curation in India.

Exploring everything from politics to gender or sexual politics, these curators have curated shows for top art galleries in India and abroad like Sakshi Gallery, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Latitude 28, The Guild, Vadehra Art Gallery and London’s Grosvenor Vadehra Gallery.

Delhi-based Deeksha Nath’s FIRST SHOWING at Seven Art Limited travelled to Nature Morte, Berlin, this year. Creativity is the name of the game for the 35-year-old Nath. For her 2009 show, Immersions, she invited the artists to transform Delhi’s Anant Art Gallery into an “immersive experience”. So, visitors entered ‘environments’ or chambers like Archana Hande’s hot pink wedding booth, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the Indian marriage mart, where they could log onto her website arrangeurownmarriage.com and choose everything from the features of their ‘ideal’ spouse to their wedding card. Another artist Nivedita Deshpande created sculptures suspended from the ceiling that cast shadows across the room.

In Nature Revisited, co-curators, artist Jaya-shree Chakravarty and Anirudh Chari had part-itions built in the two wings of Calcutta’s Gallery Sanskriti. “This gave a sense of how we wanted viewers to go through the show,” says Chari, a stickler for perfect lighting at his shows.

While most exhibitions feature Indian artists, some curators also pick foreign artists that fit the show’s concept. This September, Delhi’s Sakshi Gallery threw open Staging Selves: Power, Performativity & Portraiture curated by the California-born, Delhi-based Maya Kovskaya. The show featured artists from India, China and Iran. Photographers including Samar Jodha, Ravi Agarwal and Chinese artist Han Bing exhibited works that presented people on the periphery of society like migrant workers and a mining community.

Solanki’s Myth-Reality at The Guild had artists from Taiwan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Croatia. Shivadas, who is also director of the Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art, looks for threads other than gender or nationality that link the artists. Faiza Butt, Ruby Chisthi and Masooma Syed, featured in her 2009 show, are not just Pakistani women artists residing outside their country but were also classmates at the National College of Arts in Lahore.

“Young curators are coming up with innovative ideas and working with the new media,” says Meera Menezes, an art writer, who began curating four years ago. And by putting those ideas to work in galleries and public spaces they are adding an extra zing to the art scene.