Daily Times

Artist Srimoyee Mitra, curator of contemporary art and writer, addressed a session of Academic Forum of Lahore Biennale Festival, titled, ‘Curating on the Border’ on Thursday. She said that goal of her work as a curator was to make the gallery an inclusive space by holding conversations where different members of the community can be brought together and meaningful interactions can be held.

She spoke about her work on the occasion. One of her exhibitions titled ‘Border Cultures’ was conceptualised as a multi-year exhibition in the process that transforms and mobilises discussion, recognises compelling and diverse artworks. She further said she plans on investigating art and the ways in which artists reinvent forms of representation. The task of the exhibition was to restage the space to connect the past with the present and it was done in the white cube gallery spaces of the Art Gallery of Windsor.

While talking to Daily Times, she said that she was thankful to Iftikhar Dadi who invited her to give a talk at the Lahore Bienalle. The event has been amazing and I’m enjoying the culture and history of the city, she said.

Srimoyee Mirtra worked as an art writer for publications in India and Programming Coordinator at SAVAC Toronto where her curatorial project included crossing Line. She joined the Art Gallery of Windsor as the Curator of Contemporary Art in 2011 and has developed an award-winning contemporary art program.

She said she grew up in a loving middle class family almost four decades after the partition of colonial India. My parents nurtured and reiterated the values of democracy, secularism and unity in diversity – the founding principles of Indian constitutions, she said, adding that India endorsed the economic liberalisation policies in 1991 that initiated the neoliberal, capitalist transformation of the society. “We were busy getting accustomed to satellite television and window into the first west.”

Srimoyee moved to Canada as an international student in 2000 and was perplexed by how meticulously and identically the build environment was organised.

Published in Daily Times, March 23^rd 2018.