Parallel to the festival, the Photoink Gallery is showing 154
Nashville Road and other stories by Kapil Das. Kapil Das to make us understand who he is , and where he comes from, takes us home in his family in Deradhur a hill station in the Himalaya. There in the family home at 154 Nashvilla Rd ,he photographed them among their belongings, full front or with a downward gaze always with a flash. We follow the silent life of his parents, of his sick brother and their little dog.
The protagonists including the animal are more often than not warmly dressed with sweaters, scarfs and bonnets that protect them from the cold or any other danger; the illness of the brother? the slow unravelling of the family ties?
We are in a closed and quiet world to the beat of the humdrum daily tasks,in the kitchen, while reading the newspaper, with thick wool gloves, taking chai in the sun on the deck , a world where the souvenirs are gathered in agendas , photo albums, closets and shelves. But this peace is uneasy , we can feel the seclusion, the solitude, the madness that enter the house as dust gathering on the furniture and objects.
We leave Nashvilla Rd to discover the other places of Kapil Das peopled by strange creatures. We cross the great wax figures of India history, Gandhi, Nehru, and Subhach Chandra Bose leaders of the independence of India, Mother Theresa, Abdul Kalam father of the atomic bomb. We meet a theater group in a lost town the Toran Natak company, we take a walk among a crowd curious to see horrible fetuses kept in formaldehyde .
With 154 Nashvilla Rd and others stories Kapil Das share with us an offbeat glance full of poetry and humor on things and peoples.
Sybile Girault
Kapil Das
154 Nashvilla Road and others stories
Galerie Photoink
New Delhi
Until November 12th 2011
