In the time of pandemic, a contemporary take on Partition

The works of five artists will mark 74 years of Partition at a 12-day exhibition to be held in Kolkata starting August 17.

The works of five artists will mark 74 years of Partition at a 12-day exhibition to be held in Kolkata starting August 17, an event that organisers say will examine the trials and tribulations of the uprooted and comprehend the trauma that has scarred successive generations. To exhibition — Legacy of Loss: Perspective on the Partition of Bengal — is being organised by the Kolkata Partition Museum Trust and will be held at the Kolkata Creativity Centre. The participating artists include Dr. Paula Sengupta, Vinayak Bhattacharya, Debasish Mukherjee, Amritah Sen, and Dilip Mitra. The event will also include talk sessions and film screenings. “The exhibition offers a very contemporary take on Partition, with the artists’ wonderfully diverse work responding to the event and its aftermath over seven decades. It has also, ironically, developed a deeper resonance during this pandemic. There are many aspects of what we are going through now that reminds us of Partition: the suddenness of the event; the sheer contingency of the times; the governmental inability to tackle the crisis; forced migration and destitution; and above all, the overwhelming sense of pain and loss as people die in their millions, with their corpses once again filling up rivers,” said Rituparna Roy, a partition scholar and initiator of the Kolkata Partition Museum.