The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) invite you to a digital workshop on: Off-frame, a geography of contemporary art spaces and workers in Mumbai
Speaker:
Christine Ithurbide, Research Fellow, CNRS
About the Talk
This presentation proposes to explore one of the largest cultural metropolises in India, Mumbai, through the lens of an industry less well-known than Bollywood but just as globalized, that of contemporary art. At the commercial and cultural crossroads since the end of the 19th century, Bombay/Mumbai asserts itself as a centrality of the Indian contemporary art market after the economic liberalization of the 1990s, especially with the development of an art district in the historical neighbourhood of Fort, gathering museums and galleries. The success of a new generation of artists on the international art market and the evolution in artistic practices towards the making of large scale installations led to the progressive reorganization of the artwork production process. Beyond the art district, the speaker will discuss how a complex geography of art is relying on networks of small workshops and less visible workers – fabricators, artisans, assistants – often located in the informal and industrial districts of the suburbs and which emphasizes the continuity between a globalized art economy and informal systems. Drawing from an approach in social and cultural geography and based on several years of ethnographic fieldwork, this research invites a critical analysis of cultural metropolises in the Global South, more attentive to socio-economic margins and forms of division of labor in contemporary art.
About the Speaker
Christine Ithurbide is a CNRS researcher fellow with Passages (UMR 5319), Bordeaux. She holds a PhD in Geography from Paris Diderot University, co-supervised with the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University (2015) and graduated from a Master in Contemporary Art and Curating at Paris Sorbonne (2009). Her research focuses on the social and spatial reconfigurations of cultural industries in India in the context of globalization and digital deployment. She also conducted an expertise mission for UNESCO-New Delhi on Art policy in India and co-authored the Legal Handbook for the Artist Community in India (2020) with T. Savara published with the support of UNESCO. Her book Une géographie de l’art contemporain à Mumbai is in preparation (ENS Editions).
Find all the available videos of our previous workshops, here
