Video, HD, 12'30''
based on the performance WHITE SPACE (2011) by Chalet5
Bloomingsikkim, Public Art Festival, Gangtok, Sikkim, India
March 21–24 2011
4 porters, 4 white shapes, 6 mm plywood, oil paint, 180 x 120 cm, a walk from Paljor Stadium to the end of M.G.Marg, repeated on 4 consecutive days, Bloomingsikkim Public Art Festival, Gangtok, Sikkim, artistic director and curator: Sayantan Maitra Boka



installation view
Zuhause ist auswÄrts und auswÄrts ist zuhause / home is abroad and abroad is home
Chalet5 solo show, Haus für Kunst Uri, Altdorf
15. September - 25. November 2018


the making of White Space (performance), video documentation HD, 04'39''

TEXT:
Uncharted grounds / Neuland
Interview Bruno Z'Graggen with Chalet5, about the video works
published in CHALET5 POCKET, 2016
pdf: german/english



Fading in / treated tamboura drones / car traffic, horns, and streetnoise from video footage / temple bells, Jaipur / ding, dang, a gong / girl school is out, shouts and giggling / 4/4 beat / a goat herd on Göscheneralp / Jodhpur market / Rumtek Monastery Main Prayer Hall / Varanasi Assi Ghat, morning puja drums, bells / Gangtok, conch horn blows in the middle of the night / Rumtek Monastery Golden Stupa / bird flapping its wings / fading out
(SOUNDTRACK, from CHALET5 POCKET 2016)






WHITE SPACE (2011)

There are no art galleries in Sikkim.
Transport and distribution of goods into Gangtoks steep and narrow alleys is dependent on human carriers. High up in the mountains the Kulis of the Himalayas developed their own and very distinct methods of carrying the heaviest loads around.
The familiarity of this image in the streets of Gangtok is broken by the strangeness and futility of the white objects that are being carried.
White Space takes the walls of the gallery out onto the street, performing a procession or a parade of some kind. Questions arise about perceptions of art, about repetitions of everyday life, ambiguity and transitions. White Space creates shifting clouds of mystery and abstraction on public grounds, a temporary and fleeting urban ornament.

Thank You
Sri Bahadur Chettri, Arjun Prasad Shivakoti, Ram Bahadur Shivakoti, Chandra Bahadur Shivakoti
Sayantan Maitra Boka, Artistic Director and Curator
Tshering Lepcha, Sonam Gyaltsen Bhutia, Mingyur, Kara, Siddharta, Naveen Kumar Sharma Carpenters
Pro Helvetia India