Department: Tate Modern Curatorial
Host: Yasufumi Nakamori, Senior Curator, International Art (Photography)
To offer new possibilities for exhibitions and acquisitions at Tate, Veeranganakumari developed a research framework around which could be built a register of South Asian artists working in photography and time-based media.
Veeranganakumari also explored artists’ practices – particularly those of the South Asian diaspora – involving concepts around the displaced notion of home and identity, and how these enter institutional discourse and contribute to the creation of new theoretical knowledge.
The research prompted rethinking of the collection strategy for South Asian art. In particular, Veeranganakumari’s knowledge and expertise of Nepali art and the visual arts sector in Nepal opened up new pathways for approaching art from this region.
Installation view of Savinder Bual‘s The Pineapple Project 2018 at the exhibition Synaesthetic Notations, curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki, at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2024, Goa. (Photo: Philippe Calia and Sunil Thakkar.)
Biography
Veeranganakumari Solanki, a curator and writer based in India, is interested in the way various forms and creative practices merge to create dialogues in public and private spaces with the convergence of images across disciplines. Her research and practice consider how historical and contemporary thought informs exhibition-making and artistic practices to expand the ideas of medium specificity through narration, memory, time and storytelling.
Her curatorial discourse has focused primarily on art practices within South Asia and its diasporic context. Veerangana was a former Programme Director at Space Studio, Vadodara. Currently she is the Programme Director and Curator at The Gujral Foundation, New Delhi, and a Co-Director of the SqwLab Foundation, Mumbai.