Bringing alive the tales of migrants

The third edition of the Kochi-Muzirs Biennale (KMB), curated by eminent Indian artist Sudarshan Shetty, is a one-of-its-kind art event in South Asia. Titled ‘Forming in the pupil of an eye’, the biennale will run for 108 days from December 12, 2016 till March 29, 2017. In keeping with its curatorial vision, this edition of the biennale attempts to question and blur the boundaries that categorise the various disciplines of artistic expression. KMB 2016 will feature works by visual artists, poets, musicians and performance professionals from diverse cultural and artistic traditions. 

Desmond Lazaro’s installation will be a part of the biennale. He shares, “For Kochi, I will showcase the ‘In-Coming Passenger’ narrative which draws upon my family’s migration from Burma to the UK during the late 1950s. I had used the same for my solo exhibition earlier this year on the migrant crisis. The installation involves small (polaroid) format paintings, Pichwai hangings and a video installation that explores immigration, identity and history – the space where collective and personal stories collide.” Desmond, born in England, hails from an Indian family and is the owner of a PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card – a mark of his identity. The journey to receiving this card led him to find stories, family trees and people, in order to trace his ancestry. ‘In-Coming Passenger’ brings out his story through drawings, film and texts in an attempt to portray the struggles of immigrants. 

Lazaro trained in miniature paintings and Pichwai art in Jaipur under Banu Ved Pal Sharma, one of the few living experts on this ancient tradition, after graduating from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. “I learnt miniature painting and Pichwai for 12 years. My work is rooted in and inspired by traditional language along with its methods, materials and symbolism. I was intrigued by both art forms and always wanted to know how they were made. Once I started training, I moved towards more spiritual and philosophical concerns like how do we negotiate this form in today’s art? Eventually, I realised that they are diametrically opposing forms. With miniature, the paintings enter your personal space and that they are made for the hand not the wall, allows a private view. However, Pichwai paintings confront your space and you tend to enter them. I love the contradiction between these two forces – the outer and inner worlds – and yet they weave together because the methods and materials are the same,” explains Lazaro. 

Lazaro’s work, just like his personal history, spans East and West, and he has exhibited extensively in India, UK, Dubia, Hong Kong and Germany. The most ambitious work in Lazaro’s oeuvre is at the new Mumbai airport, an 80x50-foot artwork representing gods and goddesses of South India using traditional woodcarving and re-imagining of the Tagore painting tradition. “It was a collaboration between Ramesh Kalkur and I, working together with the curator Rajeev Sethi. It was two-year journey and was wonderful to work at that scale with so many artistes,” he says. Apart from the Biennale, Desmond is focusing on his solo show in Germany next year.