This project is a culmination of the last four years of conversations among the four members of the collective: Boka, Pravat, Navid, and Susanta.

It's an initiative to turn the whole gallery space into a living space of the collective for a month. Here, every room had a significant role to play for the members of the collective who lived in this space from 11 to 21 March. These experiences/outcomes are put up as the wall piece, and video extracts of the conversations with artist friends, educators, and a theatre maker during the time.

The wall piece was created with the intervention of an I-robot robotic vacuum cleaner, which was used one day to clean up the floor of the space and the way it navigated the space was turned into a line drawing through the app.

The functional, mobile kitchen is another sculptural object, which could be moved to every space, so that the person cooking will not to be cut off from the other events. The section where 15 sets of drawings are kept is considered a small lab or work station for the collective. This is a series of collaborative works partly online, partly hybrid and partly physical. The printing machines from Delhi, Zurich, Ghaziabad and Kolkata were also a significant collaborator and contributer to this body of work. We worked on ideas like Door/ window/ opening, Wall/ barrier, Emptiness and Occuping space.

Now the space is open from 21 March for the audience to experience.

M. Pravat

M. Pravat was born in 1972 in Kolkata, India. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in painting in 2002 and his Master’s in 2004, both granted by the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda. His art practice examines architectural forms and materials through a fractured lens. Over the years, his works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions, biennales and art fairs in Colombo, Delhi, Dubai, Mumbai, New York, Seoul and Zurich. His recent solo-exhibitions were presented by Vida Heydari Contemporary, Pune, 1x1 Gallery, Dubai, Aicon Gallery, New York and Nature Morte, Delhi. He was a recipient of the Pro Helvetia artist residency in Switzerland.

M. Pravat lives and works in New Delhi, India.

Navid Tschopp

Navid Tschopp (*1978, Iran/Switzerland) is a Zurich-based artist known for his politically charged interventions. He earned his Master's in Fine Arts in 2010 from Zurich University of the Arts. Tschopp's work delves into the complexities of image theories and perception traditions, particularly between the Orient and Occident. He's a member of Zurich's Visual Arts Commission and affiliated with the Indian-Swiss artist collective "Layout." With subtle yet impactful creations, Tschopp navigates cultural intersections, provoking thought and dialogue.

Susanta Mandal

Born in Kolkata, lives and works in Delhi NCR.

His works have been shown widely in India and abroad like ‘Chennai Photo Biennale’, Chennai, (2019), ‘Chobi Mela IX’, International Festival of Photography, Bangladesh (2017), ‘The Contemporary 2, Who Interprets the World?’, 21st CMCA, Japan (2016), ‘Making History, Colombo Art Biennale’, Colombo, (2014), India Xianzai, in MOCA, Shanghai, China (2009), 3rd Nanjing triennial, ‘Reflective Asia’, Nanjing, China (2008) and many more. Susanta has worked as an artist in residence at Khoj in Delhi, Britto in Bangladesh and Theertha in Colombo. 

Sayantan Maitra Boka 

Born in Kolkata, an architect by qualification, and a career in art by choice. He is a graduate from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi. As an architect, he has explored the realm of public art doing site specific interventions with LAYOUT Collective. 

He is the Chief Coordinator of NGO, Shelter Promotion Council (India) through which he has curated and produced public art festivals in Sikkim, Nagaland, Meghalaya and West Bengal as the first of its kind which comprised a melange of new media art and contemporary art addressing issues of sociopolitical and environmental nature. He is Vice President of NGO, massArt which is promoting Bengal art and architecture into newer frontiers.