On view 1 – 30 September 2019
The video The Lost Head and the Bird opens with a short story: a woman loses her head and begins to look for a new one. A photograph of a contorted human body gradually appears. The fairy tale of the headless woman, Madhu, then gives way to a flood of found footage consisting of photos and videos. Two images at a time are juxtaposed and thus come to form a third. The ever faster and more violent stream of images is accompanied by a driving soundtrack from Hannes d'Hoine and Sjoerd Bruil.
Like a machine spinning out of control, the story of the headless woman disappears into this torrent of brutal social media images, from which a picture of a whole society emerges. The artist's video develops a convincing visual language to address the problematic of sexual, religious, and political violence in Indian society. Here the sometimes voyeuristic images play with our own voyeurism as viewers. The handwritten credits list all of the sources used and function as a reprise of the film. The Lost Head and the Bird is a furious video that confronts the reality of Indian (and not only Indian) society. (IA)
Sohrab Hura, *1981 in Chinsurah, Westbengalen (IND), lives and works in New Delhi (IND). Hura studied at the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi (IND). Exhibitions (selection): 2019 Videonale Prize, Bonn (DE), 2018 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen (DE), Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong (CHN), 2017 Sweet Life, Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata (IND) [S], Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco (US), 2016 The 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (CHN).