My East is Your West

About

My East is Your West, a Collateral Event of the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, opens today, Tuesday 5 May 2015. Commissioned by The Gujral Foundation, this landmark exhibition unites for the first time at the Venice Biennale the historically conflicting nations of India and Pakistan in a shared exhibition by artists from both countries. Shilpa Gupta (Mumbai) and Rashid Rana (Lahore) each present a new series of works at the Palazzo Benzon, situated in the centre of Venice on the Grand Canal. As neither India nor Pakistan has a permanent national pavilion in Venice, this presentation provides a unique platform for artists from South Asia to enter into a dialogue through the arts, representing the Indian subcontinent as one region.

Shilpa Gupta's new series of works brings together over four years of ongoing research in the India-Bangladesh borderlands; the world's longest security barrier between two nation-states currently in construction. She exhibits works ranging from installation, video, photography, drawings, text-based pieces and performance which will take place throughout the opening week and at intervals throughout the Biennale.

Rashid Rana presents an immersive setting across five rooms surveying the conception of presence, temporality and location as collective experience, across digital printmaking, video and installation. In a live stream video work, produced in collaboration with the Lahore Biennale Foundation, viewers will be transported from Venice to Lahore and vice versa. 

My East is Your West is titled after a light installation by Shilpa Gupta and commissioned by The Gujral Foundation.