Sightings: Jitish Kallat in conversation with Anand Gandhi

Jitish Kallat was born in Mumbai in 1974, the city where he continues to live and work. His works are often distilled, poetic investigations into the fundamental themes of existence, interlacing several autobiographical, art-historical, political and celestial references. His works have been exhibited widely at museums and institutions including Tate Modern (London), Martin Gorpius Bau (Berlin), Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), Kunst Museum (Bern), Serpentine Gallery (London), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Palais de Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Hangar Bicocca (Milan), Busan Museum of Modern Art, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo), ZKM Museum (Karlsruhe), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Oslo), Arken Museum of Moderne Kunst (Copenhagen), Institut Valencia d’Art Modern (Spain), Art Museum (Tokyo), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Jean Tinguley Museum (Basel) and the Gemeente Museum (The Hague) amongst many others. Kallat’s work has been part of the Havana Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Asia Pacific Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Asian Art Biennale, Curitiba Biennale, Guangzhou Triennale and the Kiev Biennale amongst others. His solo exhibitions at museums include institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Bhau Daji Lad Museum (Mumbai), the Ian Potter Museum of Art (Melbourne), CSMVS Museum (Mumbai), the San Jose Museum of Art and Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney). He was the curator and artistic director of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014.

Anand Gandhi’s first feature film Ship of Theseus premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival ’12 and has since been recognized as “one of the most significant films to come out of India in decades” by critics and audiences, alike. It has won prizes at the international film festivals of London, Dubai, Mumbai, Transilvannia, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and played at Rotterdam, Munich, LA and Sydney among others. It was put on a list of 15 “life-changing” films by the Critics’ Circle, UK. It was presented the National Award in 2014. Anand has been actively engaged in pioneering cinematic non-fiction in India. He distributed Nishtha Jain’s Gulabi Gang; He produced the hybrid short Newborns that premiered at Toronto and Clermont Ferrand. He has produced Khushboo Ranka & Vinay Shukla’s upcoming non-fiction political drama Proposition for a Revolution. The documentary has won the Sundance Institute Fund, the IDFA Bertha Grant and the Britdoc fund, and is slated for a mid-2016 release. He has co-written, creative directed and executive produced the feature film Tumbad, also slated for a 2016 release. In 2013, Anand was awarded the “Contribution to Jain Philosophy prize” by the Mumbai University. Anand has received the Rajeev Circle fellowship. He is also an INK fellow - a member of a group of young, global change-makers. In November 2015, Anand founded the Memesys Culture Lab.