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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
m/Other Tongue
Be Beyond Being 2021
Until You.. 2021
Uncatharsis 2020
BERKELEY FOR SALE !! 2020
QR 2020
UnMansplaining 2019
Lunch is cancelled 2019
Unlockdown 2020
Drawings
How to be a SUCKcessful Artist 2019
100 (un)silent ways 2019
grafitti
Sculpture
UnMYthU: UnKIND(s) Alternatives APT9
new media
Mit i sny (Myth and Dreams)2018
UnMYthU
Unlynching 2017
Sounding Drawing
Poetry
BASMATI SARIR BAGAN BA GAAN 1995-2005
Performance
Unline 2017
Installation
Unhome in City IF Angels 2017
We Unfinish each other 2017
I Replace You 2017
Embodied Language 2017
(Left Untold) 2016
Aphasia 2016
Return Gifts: For Sale 2016
MOU (Museum of Unbelongings)2011-2018
Kenopsia 2016
Mis(s)Guide 2016
Tongue that won’t stop wounding 2015
Once upon a sari 2015
Unwor(l)dly 2015
Ahh Taj 2011 – 2015
Nonversation 2015
Border Unseen 2014
I Am a Poet 2013 – 2014
Shop Lifting 2014
I have only one language; it is not mine 2014
No star, No land, No word, No Commitment 2004-2014
Non spinal 2007-2014
Poems Declined 2014
A ° V O I D 2014
Deafening Silence 2013
Same River Twice 2013
Artist: Unknown 2013
Cannibal Lullaby 2013
I am not me 2012
Devoid 2012
In House Adoption 2012
Twinkle Twinkle 2012
For(e)play 2011
I chew, I bite, The Unknown 2010-2011
In Transit 2011
Black Candy (Iforgotmypenisathome) 2010
No thing 2011
Unwanted 2010
Nothing lost in translation 2008
Freemithu 2007-ongoing
Abstract Cabinet 2009
Dropping Gold, Dropping Gold 2009
Me two 2009
I dig,I look down 2008
Half Full 2007
Kamdhenu 2007
Icarus 2006-2007
Indubala and her Unbelongings 2007
All that’s solid melts into air 2006
It’s good to be a queen 2006
Letters on the beach 2006
Drawing Room 2006
Ephemeral Affair 2006
Being Anastacia 2006
Spiritual materialistic 2005
Breathing 2004
Burnt by the sun 2004
Outside the war zone 2004
I hate pink 2003
Maa Jai Boluk 1998
Twilight Zone 2003
No way out 2002
Unbelongings 2001
Can we really look beyond the map 2000
Hair Unbelongings 2000-ongoing