Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in collaboration with The Guild presents History Lab and the Elegy of Visceral Incantations by T. V. Santhosh. This body of work, distinct from his earlier mode but forming a continuity with his artistic preoccupations, offers the viewer a look into the artist’s careful approach to historical and present conflicts, their continuities and ironies. History Lab incorporates the artist’s attention to detail into his keen consciousness of contemporary events, drawing inspiration from world events, his own early roots in art, activism and historical reference to create a compelling and cogent body of work.

The exhibition will run from 14 December 2023 to 11 February, 2024, at the Special Projects Space Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai.

“One of the sculptures in this show, titled History Lab IV, is about a process of understanding history from the point of view of progress as defined by industrial and technological advancement, and how these high points of advancement in turn become yardsticks to measure the extent of damage caused by man against its own kind. The history of war could be read as a parallel phenomenon to the development of weapons technology. History has its multiple complex narratives…” – T. V. Santhosh

About the Artist

T. V. Santhosh born in Kerala, India, 1968, obtained his graduate degree in painting from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan and his master’s degree in Sculpture from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. His art cites histories of violence, injustices, war, terrorism and media propaganda. His art practice has stood as a strong commentary on the current social and political crisis of our lives.

Santhosh’s works have been shown widely in museums and biennales. Some of his museum shows include Lokame Tharavadu (The World is One Family), curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Kochi Biennale Foundation, 2021; forming in the pupil of an eye, curated by Sudarshan Shetty, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2016;  The Great Game, curated by Marco Meneguzzo and Mazdak Faiznia, National Pavilion of Iran, 56th Venice Biennale, 2015; Making History, Colombo Art Biennale, 2014; Heritage Transport Museum, New Delhi, 2013; WAR ZONE – Indian Contemporary Art, Artemons Contemporary, Das Kunstmuseum, Austria, 2012; Critical Mass: Contemporary Art from India, curated by Tami Katz-Freiman and Rotem Ruff, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, 2012; 11th Havana Biennial, 2012; ÍNDIA- LADO A LADO, curated by Tereza de Arruda, SESC, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012.

Santhosh’s select solo shows include Common Wall, Grosvenor Vadehra, London, 2014; The Land, Nature Morte, Berlin, 2011; Burning Flags, Aicon Gallery, London, 2010; Blood and Spit, Jack Shainman Gallery, 2009; Living with a Wound, Grosvenor Vadehra, London, 2009; A Room to Pray at Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich, 2008; Countdown, Nature Morte, Delhi, 2008: all in collaboration with The Guild; Countdown, The Guild, Mumbai, 2008. Many of his works are in important institutions and private collections.

His art practice has been widely written about, including in two books, T. V. Santhosh: Unresolved Stories (The Guild Art Gallery, 2008) and Blood and Spit: Living with a Wound (The Guild and Jack Shainman Gallery, 2009). Other catalogues with solo shows include One Hand Clapping/Siren, Living with a Wound, and False Promises.

About Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
 
The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum is Mumbai’s first museum, established in 1857, and is the erstwhile Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay.
 
The Museum building and collections underwent a comprehensive, UNESCO-Award winning restoration, spearheaded by the Mumbai Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), and supported by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation. The project involved an institutional overhaul and training an all new staff. Since it opened to the public in 2008, the Museum has pioneered contemporary art which is presented in the extraordinary 19th-century building, one of the finest in India, in an attempt to rethink the cannon and challenge colonial and Enlightenment precepts.
 
The Museum was built to showcase the city’s contemporary art and craftsmanship through a rare collection of fine and decorative arts of India. The Museum’s robust exhibition and outreach programme invites artists to engage with these collections and archives and interrogate its founding principles.
 
Over 85 exhibitions have been presented, which include collaborations with both local and international institutions and organisations. Past exhibitions have showcased contemporary creative practices in design, crafts and textiles, architecture, urbanism, and film and video art. To mark its 150th anniversary in 2022, the Museum brought out a book titled ‘Mumbai: A City Through Objects, 101 Stories from the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum’, edited by the Director, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta. The book was co-published with Harper Design, Harper Collins’ new design imprint, and has won several awards.
 
For more information about the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, please visit www.bdlmuseum.org
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Contact: +91 22 23741234
 
The exhibition is on view at:
Special Projects Space, Museum Plaza,
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, 91-A, Veermata Jijabai Bhonsale Udyan (Rani Bagh),
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai – 400027

For press enquiries, please contact: 
Ruta Waghmare Baptista: rwaghmare@bdlmuseum.org
Kindly note that the main Museum building is currently closed due to essential repairs.

About The Guild
 
The Guild was established in 1997 with an aim to function as a semi-institutional space within the bustling art-hub of Mumbai, India. Since its inception, it has been providing a platform for discursive practices, innovation and experimentation in contemporary art. The Guild represents artists of diverse generations who have brought in robust dialogue within and across their disciplines.

The gallery has held major retrospectives of K. P. Reji, Sudhir Patwardhan, Navjot Altaf and G. R. Iranna in collaboration with premier national art centres, and published a number of books with essays by preeminent critics and curators on contemporary Indian artists, such as Sudhir Patwardhan, Navjot Altaf, Jyoti Bhatt, K. G. Subramanyan, A. Ramachandran and T. V. Santhosh, amongst others.



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