The ‘Endangered Spaces’ exhibition puts together works from the ‘Zeitgeist’ series by Hélène Guétary from Paris, France and Kushti – The lost children of post modernism by Jayesh Kumar Sharma, India along with a joint collaborative video work conceptualised by both artists.
The world stands in a rather ambiguous and vacillating space today, torn between the relentless spate of globalisation with dreams of incorporating all people into a singular universal society and the tenacious and persistent undertow of a slew of diversely lived memories of traditions which do not seem to let go. Paradoxically the very forces of globalisation which have made possible the collaboration of our two artists are what both artists are questioning and cross examining. Intensely aware of this irony, both are interested in the acuity of the landscapes of loss and longing which seem to have become an enduring feature of modernity.
Hélène Guétary’s ‘Zeitgeist’ is a call for attention to the fragility of our world. Fleeting guardians of natural sites, or of man-made environments representing Culture and History, they whisper to the viewer to remain aware of how precious our world and our values are.
The Zeitgeist appear in places that convey beauty but also needs our protection. Their presence, sometimes enigmatic, sometimes spectacular, reminds us what these places mean, contain, or allow. Helene started these series in between lockdowns. Since then, this series has been shot around the planet, France, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Spain, Caribbean islands, California deserts and then in India too.
Kushti – The lost children of post modernism is the fulcrum on which Jayesh Kumar Sharma’s search for the dying and lost is leveraged. The changes within the sport, personify for him the larger global changes swirling all around us. To see years of traditional upbringing and ritualistic disciplines of the ‘pahalwans’ finding less and less meaning within the newer constructs of modernism is a challenging and sad process for Jayesh. In the almost monastic and closed lives led in these Kushti ‘akharas’ it is near impossible for outsiders to enter and engage deeply. Perhaps Jayesh’s own emotive state has made his entry to these spaces acceptable to the wrestling community – allowing him to photograph them intimately and to present this cloistered world to us.
Having encountered each other two years ago, both artists were struck by the common themes of their projects and decided to create a collaborative video installation. They decided to maintain the integrity of the forms and symbols of their own work but forge a new piece to escalate their ideas.
Hélène Guétary
Hélène Guétary is a photographer, writer and director. Born in Paris, she soon moved to New York where she started her career as a visual artist, and lived for 12 years.
She published a book of her early work of Tableau Photography in collaboration with P. Casanova, ‘Skindeep’, with a foreword by the late Federico Fellini. She then worked on a two decade long anthropological fiction project, ‘Hypnopompia’, which was shot on a 20 x 24 Polaroid camera and exhibited in France and US.
Narration being a central element to her artistic creations, she naturally moved on to directing and writing, while continuing her art practice. She won multiple awards for the original short films series she directed for ARTE from 1992 to 2002. She has also published 4 novels and directed documentaries, TV dramas, immersive videos for the Beijing Opera and Opera de Nancy.
Hélène recently returned to photography, inspired by the loneliness of the lockdown, and worked with herself as a model on two series: ‘Me, Myself & I’, a surreal photographic diary, and ‘The Masked World’.
She’s currently working on ‘Zeitgeist’, a call for attention to the fragility of our world and and ‘Kumari Nayika’, a visual tale created with young girls of the Rakjumari Ratnavati School in Jaisalmer.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 ⇒ Fundraiser for CITTA, KUMARI NAYIKA series, NineFish Gallery Mumbai, India.
2023 ⇒ Itinerary artist residency with Basu Foundation in India and RAAS in Jodphur, India.
2022 ⇒ Solo Show ‘POETIC RESISTANCE’ Remedes Gallery, Paris.
Artist Residency at Basu Foundation – Mauritius.
Collective exhibition EXPOLAROID, Atelier-Galerie Taylor, Paris.
2021 ⇒ Solo exhibition, Atelier-Galerie Taylor, Paris.
Collective exhibition – Flâneries d’Art Contemporain Aix-en-Provence.
Zandolie Artist Residency, Saint Lucia, Baumbasz collection.
2020 ⇒ Collective exhibition Dada & Democracy, Artdoc Photography (Online).
Exhibition Hélène Guétary & Dominique Fury, Galerie Basia Embiricos, Paris.
Collective exhibition Human beings, not Human skins, Artdoc Photography (Online)
2010 ⇒ Exhibition Hypnopompia, Galerie Opera (Paris, Londres)
2008 ⇒ Photographic boxes and artefacts, Galerie Lydie Trigano (Art Paris Fair)
2001 ⇒ Restrospective Show Hypnopompia-Unknown Species, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris.
1992 ⇒ Solo exhibition Hypnopompia, polyptiques, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris.
1991 ⇒ Acquisition polyptiques Hypnopompia by MEP and collection Vachon
1989 ⇒ Solo Exhibition Hypnopompia-Unknown Species, 20×24 Polaroids & artefacts, Galerie Albert Benamou, Paris.
1987 ⇒ Solo Exhibition Hypnopompia-Unknown Species, Galerie Jacques Kaplan, Kent, USA.
1984 ⇒ Publication Skindeep , with a foreword by Federico Fellini, Éditions Love me tender- France & USA.
1983 ⇒ Performance et large photographic prints, White Gallery, New York.
1982 ⇒ Solo exhibition, paintings, Yves Arman Gallery, New-York.
Jayesh Kumar Sharma
Jayesh Kumar Sharma received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2012) from Varanasi.
His earlier interests in painting soon began to shift to the medium of photography, documentation, archiving, etc. Growing up in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, his early life kept him away from the ‘modern’ world so to say. The move to Banaras and then Mumbai made him see the world anew. He became aware of the myriad social struggles and sweeping changes that were occurring across the country, sensitizing him to the many traditions, rituals, local sports, crafts, that were being lost forever. He determined to capture these “losses” though his camera and has since worked on projects which are impacted by this onrush of change.
He saw that Kushti, an ancient form of sport was not just a sport but a whole way of life, integrating into its almost monastic lifestyle, ritual, society, ways of living, acknowledgement of one’s past, and mostly a connection with the earth (the soil) on which it was practiced. His photographs, shot over 6 years, use this fast disappearing sport as a metaphor of all that is being lost – man’s disconnection with the earth, which was once valued and worshipped and which sustained us all.
Jayesh’s works have been exhibited in Mumbai, Venice, Milan, Madrid amongst other places. His ‘Kushti – The Lost Children of Postmodernism’ series has been covered in many magazines and articles, both in India and abroad.
Awards
2018 ⇒ Gold Medal Award, Eye Win International Photography, Delhi, India
2017 ⇒ Next Generation Award, Nikon International Photography, Tokyo, Japan
Exhibitions
2023 ⇒ Group Exhibition “Bright” at Van Gogh Art Gallery, Madrid
2023 ⇒ International Contemporary Art Fair, Luxemburg,
2023 ⇒ MIA Photo Fair, Milan, Italy
2023 ⇒ Finalist in Digital Photography, Arte Laguna Venice 2023
2022 ⇒ Indian Photo Festival Portrait Prize, Exhibition at the Auckland Festival of Photography, New Zealand
2021 ⇒ Finalist Portrait Award, Indian Photo Festival, Hyderabad, India
2016 ⇒ The Exposure Award Exhibition, SeeMe Photography Community, Louvre Museum Photo Gallery, France
2016 ⇒ Solo Show, Jahangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
Hélène Guétary
Jayesh Kumar Sharma
