Exploring Kolkata along the path of Adi Ganga is what professor, filmmaker and media artist Madhuja Mukherjee’s new project unveiled and installed at the Victoria Memorial Hall is all about. The on-site immersive media installation (video) titled “Kolikata r Nakshi-Kotha: Sketches and Stories of Kolkata” is on display at the Calcutta Gallery, Victoria Memorial Hall. Following the inauguration of the exhibition on November 18, a discussion about the project took place between Madhura Mukherjee and geographer Keya Dasgupta.
Madhuja Mukherjee at the event
Route 033
Mukherjee’s installation comprises a video and a map projection, the results of the Foundation Project called Route 033 in which Madhuja has been involved for the last one-and-a-half years. The project was carried out under the aegis of the India Foundation for the Arts, Archives and Museums Programme which received immense support from Victoria Memorial Hall and the Goethe Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi.
The map projection by Madhuja Mukherjee
When My Kolkata asked Mukherjee about the choice of her subject and the installation, she said, “We started working and thinking about the city as it belongs to different people and communities. We were looking for different entry points, different approaches to understand the city besides north and central Kolkata, the kind of colonial imagery that circulates in literature, films and so on. We were trying to understand the city from other historical vantage points and in that process of research and going back and forth, what became an interesting thread was the Adi Ganga which takes us through the past as well as the new trajectories of the city. That’s how Adi Ganga became a way of exploring the city.’’
Stills from the video made by Madhura
Overcoming Challenges
Talking about the challenges of the project, Madhuja said, “The Adi Ganga as a river has been in existence for a long time. In 1777, William Tolly dug up a canal, extending the Adi Ganga and using it for commercial purposes. That waterway exists because that’s what we have been following. It stretches from Kidderpore to Alipore, to Kalighat and Tollygunge. Then it keeps going southwards and it takes detours and goes towards the west in Kabardanga, Katapukur and other places. Tolly’s canal still exists but it exists as a sewerage and a forgotten stream which flows through the heart of the city. It divides the city. What was difficult is, because cities are usually routed through the streets, at some point, to even find a way to the canal was difficult. Roads don’t necessarily lead you to the canal. You have to keep walking to find that route. It was challenging but exciting to find a way.’’
The 33- minute video of the entire journey and a map tracing the course of the forgotten water body can be viewed till December 18, 2022, at the Victoria Memorial Hall.
