Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeSarnath Banerjee
*1972, Calcutta, India. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Sarnath Banerjee is an Indian graphic novelist, artist, and film maker. After getting a degree in biochemistry, he received an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths College in London. His graphic novels, Corridor (2004) and Barn Owl’s wondrous Capers (2007) were published in India and France.
Sophistication / India / 2009-2010 / 5′ / 4:3
Sophistication is a collage animation based on real images and drawings by Sarnath Banerjee. The video ironises humanity’s insatiable lust for power and its fanatical political and religious excesses from Europe to Asia.
Bengali Tourist / India / 2003 / 4' / 4:3
The story is a palimpsest that recounts contemporary Calcutta through the voyages of Ibn Battuta (1304-1369), the only known medieval traveler to have visited each Muslim country of his time. The grand traveler from Tangiers leaves on an expedition to the Middle East, travels through the sultanate of Delhi, all the way to China, in the 14th century. The artist mixes irony with his comments on the adventures of Battuta, who seems to have traveled so far only to persuade himself that everything was better at home. This Parabolic film is part of a long historical reflection on tourism and the Diaspora as affiliation to this group only applies once all plans of return have been abandoned.