Rescue Bombay’s NGMA
During the opening of the Edge of Desire exhibition at the Bombay NGMA, noted art critic and columnist Girish Shahane distributed a statement demanding autonomy for the Bombay NGMA from the control of the NGMA director Rajeev Lochan.
The statement began by encapsulating the issue:
NGMA was the only place in this city where interesting art shows were regularly complemented by discussions, screenings and performances.
The Director of the Delhi NGMA, Rajeev Lochan, lobbied to ensure that:
- the term of the Bombay Director, Saryu Doshi, was not extended.
- the Bombay NGMA remained headless and dependent on Delhi for all decisions.
The Cowasji Jehangir Hall has ceased to be the buzzing venue it was in the past.
The only way to reverse this decline is to press for the appointment of a capable Director in Bombay, with autonomy, discretionary powers and a reasonable staff and programme budget.
The note traced the history of the Bombay NGMA's functioning in the years before Rajeev Lochan took direct charge, and the change that has occurred in the past few months. Unlike the Delhi NGMA, Shahane contended, the Bombay centre depends on special shows because of its small size. The centre had suffered because there have been far fewer exhibitions since the post of Bombay director was done away with.
Besides, Shahane wrote:
"[Lochan] didn't recognise that the repute of the Bombay NGMA was due only in part to blockbuster exhibitions. The second pillar of its success was that members of Bombay's art community felt it was their space. That second pillar has now crumbled."
He the attacked Lochan for his self-aggrandising tendencies, particularly the penchant for naming himself the curator of shows which, in the writer's view, lacked the vision a real curator would bring.
In conclusion, the note looked askance at the art community in Bombay, which had failed to launch a sustained campaign for the appointment of a Bombay-based director.
"The question is, are we in Bombay truly interested in debating issues related to the history, production, exhibition and appreciation of art? Do we believe public institutions have an important role to play in the art world? Or are we too content with the booming market, and too busy supplying to that market, to care about such matters?" |
