Sindbad the Sailor by Abanindranath Tagore Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The New York Times does not recognize Spelling Bee Biennale as a legitimate term. It is associated with biennales like the Whitney Biennial, although the Venice Biennale has made that term part of the global art vocabulary. So we have the Gwangju Biennale, the Sydney Biennale, Dak’Art or the Dakar Biennale. And now after Kochi, Bengal has got a Bengal Biennale.

Given Kolkata’s British connections it could have been the Bengal Biennale. “But the Bengal Biennale sounds better in Bangla,” laughs Malvika Banerjee, who is one of the trustees with her husband Jeet. The Venice Biennale was always his benchmark. “I found it very inspiring that a place could be full of art for a few months every other year,” she says, having been there three times. Curator Siddharth Sivakumar remembers visiting the first Kochi Biennale as a young artist. “At that time we were in no position to think about making something like this happen.”

Shivakumar says, initially it was considered just an art fair in Shantiniketan. “It just grew,” he says. “The word Biennale was like the elephant in the room,” says Banerjee. “It was the dream that no one dared to name.” But by the end of June the Santiniketan Art Fair had become a biennial event with over 100 artists spread across 25 locations in both Santiniketan and Kolkata.

Twilight Landscape with Trees and Lake by Rabindranath Tagore Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Why Shantiniketan?

Although it would have been easier to hold the first biennale in a metropolis like Kolkata, where Banerjee already leads the Kolkata Literary Meet, she says she wanted to do it in Santiniketan because it was “India’s first university city, Tagore’s The school of art, the child of dreams, has had great masters and has also got the UNESCO tag, but nothing much has really been done there.” He started considering Kolkata as he was initially unsure. That Whether the university administration in Shantiniketan will be involved in this or not. Now they have, and Banerjee says, “I’m glad it worked out that way. Because if we had started from Kolkata, I don’t think we would have gone to Santiniketan.”

Shantiniketan proved to be an attraction for artists like Mithu Sen and TV Santosh, who studied there but never actually appeared there. The huge scrolls of Jayshree Chakraborty, another alumnus, have been shown all over the world but not in Kolkata until now. Even for those without a Santiniketan background, Tagore’s university town resonated. The biennale will open at Santiniketan with artwork by Devdutt Patnaik, which Banerjee says is “obviously hidden” in his books. When they asked him if he would like to come to Kolkata, Patnaik replied, “No, if I am making my debut then what better place than the Mecca of the arts?”

look at contemporary art

Bengal has played an important role in the art history of India. The Bengal School of Art originated in Kolkata in the 19th century and spread throughout India. Shantiniketan has its own art building. “You will see masters being sold in auctions, but the contemporary scene has moved away from Bengal,” says Shivakumar. “When there is a contemporary show, it is outside Bengal.” An exhibition of Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary, The Last Harvest, went to Delhi and Mumbai, but not to Kolkata, says Shivakumar. With the Biennial, he hopes “that will be brought up.” [contemporary] Bring art to Bengal and expose our art to visitors from outside.”

Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen Photo Credit: Nemai Ghosh (courtesy: Satyaki Ghosh)

Bookended between the twin gods of Tagore and Satyajit Ray, Bengal’s rich art heritage can get caught in a trap of nostalgia. “We are not celebrating nostalgia,” says Shivkumar firmly. “We have exhibitions of Rabindranath, Gaganendranath, Abanindranath and Sunayani Devi. But these are original works that we don’t get to see often. In fact, we’re calling the first version Anka-Banka: Through Cross-Currents. Anka means painting. Banka means oblique or bent. But anka-banka together express something devious, where meaning exists outside the straight and narrow. So, musician Louis Banks and economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee are at the biennale along with famous artists like Sudhir Patwardhan and Dayanita Singh.

Rabindranath Tagore

Challenge of finding sponsors

The road to the Biennale has also been bumpy. Banerjee readily admits that despite much enthusiasm, “it is difficult to expect payment from corporates for art on such a large scale”. It’s easier to sell a six-day literary festival than a two-month biennale. Additionally, the ongoing financial problems of the leading Kochi Biennale may deter potential sponsors. So, this year she says she will have to make do mostly with blessings.

Will it be easier next time? Banerjee isn’t sure, but tells a story about Yellowstone National Park, which was in crisis about 30 years ago.

‘Head of a Man’ by Rabindranath Tagore

As officials considered making the facilities more modern and tourist-friendly, one ecologist said they just needed to bring in some wolves. It turned out that the wolves ate the small animals that were destroying the grass, and when the grass grew tall, the deer returned. Their droppings helped the aspen to grow. The beauty of the aspen brought visitors back. “What I’m saying is that I don’t think a biennale will do anything directly,” says Banerjee. “But if we create an ecosystem, over time people will probably see Bengal differently. And Bengal will see itself differently.”

But who are the wolves? “We are,” Banerjee says without hesitation. “And we have to create the ecosystem.”

Through cross-current is from November 29, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

The author is the author of don’t let him knowAnd likes to tell everyone his opinion, whether he is asked or not.