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mithu sen

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"I have only one language; it is not mine" 2014

Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi

A fantasy film in a real setting, communication outside the narrow alleys of comprehension...
Language imposes a strange and alien logic that tells us not to smell poetry, hear shadows or taste lights. Escaping this rigid framework, this project sought to not only locate communication outside the narrow alleys of comprehension but also tried to envisage dialogue in a way that cannot be read, heard or understood.

Through a non-scripted, interactive, and experience-based initiative extending into a few days-long performances as Mago- a seemingly homeless person who speaks her own language, I explored in an organic playful manner a possible existence of pre-lingual moment of life in a government orphanage home in Kerala.

Among the innocent young abandoned and neglected girls (of low self-esteem with anxiety and loneliness), victims of various emotional and sexual violence were being exposed to the corrupted behavior of others in this society. Interacting with these children by challenging the preconceived notions, an understanding was developed concerning the constructed complexities of domesticity, family, and relationships.

With a surrendered body, this unscripted performance placed me in a situation wherein all present were some fictional characters. The identity of the children was not disclosed in any realistic manner which made it not an ethnographic documentary but a fantasy film on a reality set. It was an experience of intimacy and trust producing physical and emotional behavior, making all involved belief in an alternative world.

The documentation was done by the camera itself hanging on my neck while surrounded by the kids and also by giving the camera to the kids and volunteers to get spontaneous shots and the visual conceptual / storytelling seen through their memories and emotions.

*“I have only one language—it is not mine” (Je n'ai qu'une langue, ce n'est pas la mienne):Jacques Derrida

 

projects

2023
mOTHERTONGUE
iWITNESS
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mOTHER I SPELL YOU WRONG

2022
Until you 206

2021
Be Beyond Being
Until You..

2020
Uncatharsis
BERKELEY FOR SALE !!
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2019
UnMansplaining
Lunch is cancelled
How to be a SUCKcessful Artist
100 (un)silent ways

2018
UnMYthU: UnKIND(s) Alternatives

2017
Unlynching
Sounding Drawing
Unline
Unhome in City IF Angels
We Unfinish each other
I Replace You
Embodied Language
Return Gifts: For Sale

2016
(Left Untold)
Aphasia
Kenopsia
Mis(s)Guide

2015
Tongue that won't stop wounding
Unwor(l)dly
Nonversation

2014
Border Unseen
Shop Lifting
I have only one language; it is not mine
Poems Declined
A ° V O I D

2013
I Am a Poet
Deafening Silence
Same River Twice
Artist: Unknown
Cannibal Lullaby

2012
I am not me
Devoid
In House Adoption
Twinkle Twinkle

2011
MOU (Museum of Unbelongings)
Once upon a sari
Ahh Taj !!
For(e)play
In Transit
No thing

2010
graffiti
Black Candy (Iforgotmypenisathome)
Unwanted

2009
Abstract Cabinet
Dropping Gold, Dropping Gold
Me two

2008
Nothing lost in translation
I dig,I look down

2007
Non spinal
Freemithu 2007-ongoing
Half Full
Kamdhenu
Indubala and her Unbelongings

2006
I chew, I bite, The Unknown
Icarus
All that's solid melts into air
It's good to be a queen
Letters on the beach
Drawing Room
Ephemeral Affair
Being Anastacia

2005
Spiritual materialistic

2004
No star, No land, No word, No Commitment
Breathing
Burnt by the sun
Outside the war zone

2003
I hate pink
Twilight Zone

2002
No way out

2001
Unbelongings

2000
Can we really look beyond the map?
Hair Unbelongings