Neither India nor Pakistan has a permanent pavilion in Venice. Do you see the joint presentation at Venice as an opportunity for artists from the subcontinent to enter into a dialogue?
In the absence of any official pavilion from the region, in the specific context of the Venice Biennale, this project presents itself as an ‘unofficial’ presence, carrying with itself, an ‘unofficial dream’ where two artists from two places, which are closer than many would like to believe, will be shown together. The project proposes to delve into time, which is not immediate, not so entangled and to look beyond tense definitions which are not as old as projected.
Your work at the Biennale, My East is Your West, raised questions on issues of nationhood, identity and borders. Did you and Rashid Rana collaborate closely while reflecting on these themes?
I live in Mumbai and Rashid is in Lahore. While starting out, we had several conversations over Skype and email. We looked at overlapping interests in our practices. We are both interested in perception, time, location and construction of knowledge. As we went ahead, we decided to not limit ourselves to a common theme and to allow ourselves to work on our own projects.
