Curated by Manan Shah
Artists: Baptu Debnath, Khateeba Syed, Madhav Vyas, Meher Afroz Vahid, Poonam Jain, Sanyukta Kudtarkar, Shrobona, Vanshika Babbar
"But the heart has its own memory and I have forgotten nothing"- Albert Camus
A pleasant summer has come to an end. The trees, once in bloom, have begun to wither. It is autumn now: the trees shed their leaves, and winter is near. To many, this represents death. But some refuse closure. For them, there is marcescence, a botanical phenomenon in which certain trees and plants hold onto their dead leaves. Rather than dropping them in autumn, they carry them through the winter.
Marcescence of Restless Mind looks at the psychological form of marcescence as an embodiment of memory. Through text, protest, land, and family archives, the exhibition shows how memory acts as a tool of resistance. It does not surrender to closure but keeps returning in different ways of seeing.
Each exhibiting artist has responded to this text in their own way, by refusing to surrender to the "act of letting go." In doing so, the exhibition reflects on memory as a tool to counter high-politics in the current milieu, where there is a constant attempt to erase our history, associations, and identities.