Antahshira

This essay takes a Bengali term anta(h)shira, used to denote an intravenous vein, as its starting point, treating it as a metaphor for the subtle, capillary-like currents that run through bodies and social imaginaries. The text unpacks how such culturally embedded words defy neat translation, revealing fissures in our shared vocabularies. It argues for a practice […]

The Course of love

The Course of LoveShown at: Setouchi Triennale, Honjima (2019) Sculpture using faceted Lenticular panels, with Found Boat wataru funa-bito / the boatman lost the rudder. kaji-wo tae / the boat is now adrift yukue mo shiranu / not knowing where it goes. koi no michi kana / is this the course of love? – Sone-no […]

Pamphilos (2019)

Video, sculpture, pottery and conversation Deep Breath Shown at: Pamphilos, Athens (2019) FilmDuration, 25′ Sometimes, the finding of an antidote to the most basic and lethal form of amnesia, ‘the forgetting of air’, may require the undertaking of a deep dive. The site of descent is what it’s really all about, isn’t it? Where and […]

In the Open or in Stealth

A realignment of resources, technologies, and energies is taking place. The intimation of this emergent ensemble, however, is faint and tangled. The exhibition is a fabricatory tracing indeterminate spaces and moving between tenses, all of which murmur at each other like distant lovers

Deep Breath

Sometimes, the finding of an antidote to the most basic and lethal form of amnesia, ‘the forgetting of air’, may require the undertaking of a deep dive.

Dohas for Doha

The video works Dohas for Doha are illuminated proverbs that play with linguistics, light, and the transmission of knowledge

Listening: Active Presence of Aura of the Ordinary

Listening: Active Presence of Aura of the Ordinary Suraj, Shamsher and Neelofar were part of the Cybermohalla Ensemble (2001-13), and co-authrored innumerable books, broadsheets, and art works with the Ensemble. Notable among them are Trickster City: Writings from the Belly of the Metropolis (Penguin-India, 2010, English translation of Bahurupiya Shehr, Rajkamal Prakashan, 2007), and Cybermohalla […]

21 Personae

21 Personae is an extension of the 51 Personae project curated by Raqs Media Collective for the 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016–17)

To People, Demos & Prostheses for the History of Insurgent Crowds

To PeopleShown at: Mathaf, Doha (2019) 11 Textile and 2 Prints on paper,100 x 500 cm each Eleven hand-woven carpets and two paper prints are hung throughout the gallery, cascading to the ground. The forms that inhabit the woven textiles represent a mass, a collective, or a network of people as an interlaced, connected weave. […]

Time Devices (2011- 2025)

“One question that stayed with us and has proven to continue getting exponentially more complex is that of time. The 90s had posed the scrambling of time in ideas of development, progress, or modernity.During that time, as very young people, we examined and re-examined what progress could even mean. We have, from then, been unpacking […]

Everything Else is Ordinary

Everything Else is Ordinary delves into the elusive, multifaceted nature of time and how it shapes our existence. Raqs explores the concept of time not as a singular, linear force but as a series of intersecting moments that reflect our complex relationships with labor, memory, and each other. The exhibition interweaves various elements of daily life with philosophical reflections.


Ghost Floating Legs

Ghost Floating LegsShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) VideoDuration, 6’3″ The First World War produced the greatest number of amputated limbs, especially when soldiers lost arms and legs as a result of stepping on mines. These bodies without limbs, and limbs without bodies, became ‘phantoms’  […]