KOCHI:
The alternative histories, smaller truths and partial narratives of Kerala society and culture as revealed through a curated archive of visual imagery were presented over a two-day exhibition held on the sidelines of ongoing third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
Titled ‘The Accidental Archive’, the special presentation by the Kochi Biennale Foundation and Critical Collective, a New Delhi-based arts and knowledge-building institution, showcased early photographic and 
The images ranged from rare black and white individual and family portraits, to sketch- and colour-augmented ‘artistic photographs’ and cut across class and caste lines.
Working with the assumption that images are ‘unconscious’ archives – originally intended to be viewed in their own contexts but open to reinterpretation in the future, the exhibition was intended to provoke questions about grand narratives and established canon.
“When the KBF approached us about the project, the idea of the archive suggested itself. The Biennale’s interlinking of Kochi, a site that bears its own markers, its own authenticity and its own vernacular, and Muziris offered a way point. An archive of photography and film on the larger history and identity of Kerala from within the Madras Presidency could be extrapolated,” said Gayatri Sinha, art curator, critic and founder of Critical Collective.
The show, held at the Pavilion in Cabral Yard, Fort Kochi from January 22-23, was supported by HCL, Pro Helvetia New Delhi – Swiss Arts Council and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. The influences and purposes of the archive were examined at a ‘Let’s Talk’ yesterday (Sunday).
Sinha moderated the discussion, which saw participation from Helen Hirsch, Director and Curator at Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland, Jonathan Harris, Professor in Global Art and Design studies at the University of Southampton and Sujith Parayil, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Media Studies in JNU.
“A single photograph allows for the shadows of the past to be lifted. The net is a vast repository of such documentary material – whether about ordinary folk, Travancore royals, missionaries and aristocrats, for example,” said Sinha, noting that the project ignored momentous historical events and political upheavals in favour of the hidden, even neglected, micro-stories.
Stories like the abundant material on women’s bodies, whether of workers, nurses, or regents. This was an unlikely subject of photography elsewhere in India, Sinha said, noting that unearthing such narratives was possible due to the freedom offered by the archive interface.
“Uploading old photographs rather than a supported history of the state, the value of the archive is its ability to lift images from political context and time. The intent of the archive is to challenge the hegemonic control of knowledge and invite revisiting,” Sinha said.
Examples of such reinterpretations were presented at the talk, which saw Parayil contend that “photography in Kerala was not simply a reproduction of reality but also infused with artistic sensibility and symbolism”. Gestures and posing in photographs were thus not just important as aesthetic choices, but also as meaningful conveyers of power and position.
Hirsch noted that “since the turn of the millenium, artists and scholars alike are increasingly looking to archives to understand the past and the present with the ease of access triggering a need to access”. Harris observed that such engagements with “accessing alternative histories were crucial in a time where old truths are fading in the face of dangerous new narratives”.
