Otherworlds is a long term art intervention in Kapashera (an urban village on the periphery of Delhi) through the generous support of Khoj Studios.
Kapashera is home to over 300,000 labour migrants working mostly in garment manufacturing. The migrants come from Bengal, Bihar, UP, Nepal and Kashmir. It's dense kalonies are home to not only people but colourful arrangement of stories, games, culture, and tradition. The colony or kaloni is a complex ecosystem. The interrelationships delicately balanced, the daily lives finely interwoven.
Kapas (cotton) is entangled with the destiny of Kapashera. From being an agrarian village just 3 decades ago, Kapashera today is integral to the planetary play of cotton. Processed cotton arrives here from China only to be spun and stitched into garments that then leave for Western shores. Capital is expanded, rented, and exchanged in the process. Through our thirdspace - Otherworlds, a former industrial loft; we have set out to explore the story of Kapashera and its people.
Artists
Sumedha Garg is an artist, designer and educator.
She has worked in communities across India and South Africa; on community healing and eco reparation through art, storytelling, nature play and integrated learning models. Her work lies at the intersection of art, design, narrative and sacred ecology. Sumedha is exploring the relationships between myth making, traditional knowledge systems, place making and people.
Nitin Bathla is an urban researcher, artist, and educator based at ETH Zurich where he is currently pursuing his doctoral studies on a Swiss Excellence Fellowship. He has practiced actively in the domain of social design and urban research in India. Nitin’s work focuses on labour, housing, and land ecology. Aside from academic writing, Nitin works on film-making and community-based art projects.
Bhavyaa Parashar is a graphic designer. She recently graduated from Sushant School of Design. Bhavyaa explores storytelling through different mediums of art such as tattooing, photography and illustration. She works as an archivist and illustrator for Otherworlds.
About Khoj Studios
From its modest beginnings in 1997 as an annual workshop, Khoj has established itself as a not- for-profit, contemporary arts organisation based in Delhi which provides a financial, physical and intellectual space for artists through its various programs. It has built an international reputation as outstanding alternative arts incubation space. It plays a central role in the development of experimental, interdisciplinary, and critical contemporary art practice in India– constantly challenging the established thinking about art.
supported by KHOJ International Artists' Association
through socially engaged art projects
