Raqs Media Collective
'What if we could fold time in the same way as we can fold a piece of paper? Supposing we could fold it into a boat or an airplane, what kind of voyage would we find ourselves embarking on?'
Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, b.1965, New Delhi, Monica Narula, b. 1969, New Delhi, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, b. 1968, New Delhi) have been variously described as artists, media practitioners, curators, researchers, editors and catalysts of cultural processes. Their work is located at the intersections of contemporary art, historical enquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory, often taking the form of installations, online and offline media objects, performances and encounters. Raqs follow their self-declared imperative of ‘kinetic contemplation’ to produce work that demands the viewer look anew at what they take for granted. Myths and histories of diverse provenances, a deep ambivalence towards modernity and a quiet but consistent critique of the operations of power and property inform their diverse oeuvre.
In 2015, Raqs interrupted the Giardini at the Venice Biennale with Coronation Park, an assemblage of plinths, sculptures and plaques. These fragments of ceremonial regalia, residues of authoritative stances and the accoutrements of dematerialized power commemorate neither victory nor defeat. They offer nine meditations on hubris and a provocation to think about power's deepest anxiety: the inevitability of abdication. These formations are annotated by statements adapted from George Orwell's parable about the brittleness of Imperial authority, Shooting an Elephant (1936). Orwell is also a touchstone for their video Provisions for Everybody (2018), which travels between abandoned coal seams in Northern England and an incomplete bridge in East Champaran, India to mark two cardinal points in the compass of Orwell’s life.
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Raqs Media Collective
Whitney Biennale | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 21 Jun 2024Dear Ghost, If A Memory Is False Does It Mean It Does Not Have Real Consequences? 7pm Friday 21 June 2024 Floor 3, Theater |...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Artist Talk: The Photographers' Gallery, London 7 Dec 2023Thursday 7 December 2023 | 6.30–7.45pm Monica Narula from Raqs Media Collective Hear more about Raqs Media Collective's recent commission, The Bicyclist Who Fell...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Artist Talk: British Pavilion, Venice 23 Nov 2023Thursday 23 November 2023 | 2.30–5pm Monica Narula from Raqs Media Collective Monica Narula will participate in the panel discussion: 1980 in Parallax organised by...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
International Conference at Medienhaus, Berlin University of the Arts 23 Jun 2023June 23–24 2023 Intervening Lecture Art Thinking About Doing Art: Artistic Practices in Educational Contexts from 1900 to today The Intervening Lecture by Raqs Media...Read more
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Raqs Media Collective
Thinking with the Blood of Stars at G.A.S. Lagos 21 Jun 2023Wednesday 21 June 2023 | 6–8.30pm A screening and discussion To mark the end of Raqs Media Collective's residency at the G.A.S. Farm House, there...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Everybody Talks About the Weather at Fondazione Prada, Venice 20 May 202320 May–26 November 2023 Raqs Media Collective's new video work Deep Breath, 2022 will be shown as part of the group exhibition 'Everybody Talks About...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Breguet, Frieze New York 17 May 202317 May–21 May 2023 During Frieze New York, Breguet will unveil the first iteration of a curatorial project by the Seoul - and Paris -...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Invisible Dust at The Royal Docks, London 11 May 2023Friday 19 May 2023: 'Forecast' 2023 symposium , City Hall 11–29 May 2023 – The Royal Docks & Thames Barrier Park, London E16 Sea Change...Read more
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Raqs Media Collective
The Time it Takes at Pompidou Centre, Paris 27 Apr 2023The Time it Takes | Thursday 27 April, 7–9pm Projection and Discussion The Time it Takes will bring together four films representative of the concerns...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
1980 in parallax at The Cosmic House, London 3 Apr 2023Until 29 December 2023 1980 in parallax is an exhibition by Raqs Media Collective that centres around a new film commission, The Bicyclist Who Fell...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Artist Residency at Yinka Shonibare Foundation, Ijebu, Nigeria 21 Jun 2022The World Weather Network June 21 2022–June 21 2023 We are delighted to announce the participation of Raqs Media Collective in the World Weather Network,...Read more -
Raqs Media Collection
Hungry for Time at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria 9 Oct 2021Group Exhibition Hungry For Time An Invitation To Epistemic Disobedience With Raqs Media Collective, In The Art Collections Of The Academy Of Fine Arts Vienna...Read more
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Raqs Media Collective
The Pandemic Circle Online 1 Dec 20201 December 2020 – 31 January 2021 An online exhibition and screening of new videos commissioned by Stamps Gallery, Penny W. Stamps School of Art...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Yokohama Triennale 2020 17 Jul 202017 July–11 October 2020 The 7th Yokohama Triennale, directed by Raqs Media Collective, opens today. Titled Afterglow, it proposes a transformed experience of discovery for...Read more
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Moving Image Programme
Alliances 22 Jul - 15 Sep 2024 Online Exhibition -
Raqs Media Collective
Come Undone 22 Mar - 4 May 2024 Golden SquareRaqs Media Collective have been variously described as artists, curators, philosophical agents provocateurs, and catalysts of cultural processes. For their fifth exhibition at Frith Street Gallery, they present works centred...Read more -
Moving Image Programme
Portrait 10 Jul - 20 Aug 2023 Online ExhibitionOver the course of the exhibition and continuing into August, we are delighted to present an online programme of moving image works by gallery artists. Each work will be available...Read more -
Found Forms: A Summer Show 1 Jul - 13 Aug 2022 Golden Square
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Raqs Media Collective
Spinal 31 Jan - 16 Mar 2019 Golden SquareThe collective follows a self-declared imperative of ‘kinetic contemplation’ to produce a trajectory that is restless in its forms and exacting in its procedures, articulating an intimately lived relationship with...Read more -
Summer Breeze 6 Jul - 11 Aug 2017 Soho Square, Golden SquareThe works at Golden Square reveal how the notion of body is imbued with multiple meanings, including recurring bodies of artwork, or bodies of human subjects themselves. An analyst, an...Read more
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Silver
17 Oct - 17 Dec 2014 Soho SquareSince opening, Frith Street Gallery has emerged as one of the art world’s most interesting forces, instrumental in developing the careers of internationally renowned figures as well as supporting those...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Corrections to the First Draft of History 19 Sep - 31 Oct 2014 Golden SquareIn the time when all the news that was fit to print got printed, Raqs decided to take things in hand. History, they decided, would no longer be destiny. Corrections...Read more -
Raqs Media Collective
Guesswork 24 Feb - 12 Apr 2012 Golden SquareThey represent the way in which Raqs is thinking at present about counting, gestures, signals and the presence of the ineffable in our lives. The works featured in Guesswork invite...Read more -
After the Volcano: A Summer Show of Gallery Artists 3 Jul - 14 Aug 2010 Golden SquareAfter the Volcano: a summer show of gallery artists features work by 14 gallery artists: Massimo Bartolini, John Riddy, Anna Barriball, Dayanita Singh, Dorothy Cross, Bridget Smith, Tacita Dean, Juan...Read more
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Raqs Media Collective
Escapement 8 Jul - 30 Sep 2009 Golden SquareTime girds the earth tight. Day after day, the hours, astride minutes and seconds, ride as they must, relentlessly. In the struggle to keep pace with clocks we are now...Read more
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Raqs Media Collective
Everything Else Is Ordinary 2018Hardback, 168 pagesRead more
Publisher: Kerber Verlag, Berlin
Dimensions: 20.57 x 2.03 x 27.43 cm -
Raqs Media Collective
Twighlight Language 2017Paperback, 45 pagesRead more
Publisher: Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Dimensions: 28.1 x 1.2 x 25.1 cm -
Raqs Media Collective
Casebook 2014Paperback, 300 pagesRead more
Publisher: Art Gallery of York University
Dimensions: 15.3 cm x 24.1 cm