Bengaluru's India Foundation for the Arts holds ‘Date with the Archive' to mark International Archives Week

The Hindu

a day ago

When the India Foundation For The Arts (IFA) turned 20, back in 2015, the team behind the Bengaluru-based NGO wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. 'The former executive director of IFA, Arundhati Ghosh, with the team back then, was brainstorming on how to celebrate IFA, its legacy, and the work it had generated over the years,' recounts Dr Biswadeep Chakraborty, Archivist, IFA. At first, they thought of throwing a gala, inviting all their grantees from 1995 onwards to celebrate the occasion, till they realised that 'it would be only one evening, and after that nothing would happen,' he says.
Around the same time, 'a wise person' asked them if they had an archive, says Biswadeep, who joined the organisation in 2021. Arundhati, he recalls, had responded in the affirmative, explaining that IFA had a record room containing everything since 1995. This person, however, told her that record-keeping was not an archive. While the latter involves 'securing everything in files for bureaucratic purposes', the core principle of archiving is to preserve memories, explains Biswadeep. 'The idea here was to document everything we have, the kind of work we have supported and the brilliant grantees and project coordinators who have worked with us throughout the years.'
So they started working towards this goal, hiring their first archivist, Dr Spandana Bhowmik, the same year. 'We started working in 2015, but officially launched the archive in 2018,' he says. This was the genesis of the IFA archives, which is currently holding its 'Date with the Archive', a week-long celebration to mark International Archives Week.
The event, which will be held at the IFA office in Sanjay Nagar between June 9 and 13, will consist of a series of curated walkthroughs, hands-on workshops, film screenings, and drop-in sessions, attempting to create an interest in these archives. 'The IFA Archive is a rich resource for artists, students, researchers, and anyone curious about the arts. We encourage visitors to explore the Archive, trace creative journeys, and discover the possibilities that an archive holds,' said Menaka Rodriguez, Executive Director, IFA. '
While, in general, the IFA archives are open through appointment, 'this particular week, we thought of curating an experience to give the public a glimpse of this archive: what we hold, how it is interesting, and why it is important,' says Biswadeep. 'This year's theme for International Archives Week is #ArchivesAreAccessible, so we realised that this is the best time for us to open our archives to the public,' Biswadeep adds.
In Biswadeep's opinion, making the archives accessible will enable the dissemination of knowledge. 'In different eras of human civilisation, knowledge is something people didn't share freely.' That is a major reason to disseminate knowledge, Biswadeep says, going on to quote the French historian and philosopher, Michel Foucault, who argued that knowledge is power. 'The idea is to make the archives' knowledge system accessible; art and culture, in this day and age of technology, is such an important sphere to focus on.'
At the archives
At one of the curated walkthroughs at the IFA archives, groups of young people are huddled over the various exhibits, peering into computer screens, examining archival materials being digitised or flipping through some of them, with gloved hands.
According to Biswadeep, when they first started creating the archive, most of the material accumulated over the years was kept in individual grant files made of plastic, in addition to the cupboards, which were full of audio and video material, artwork and books. 'We started securing all those files, creating an environment that is temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled and acid-free,' Biswadeep says, adding that nearly all the material, created between 1995 and 2021, has also been digitised.
Some of the objects on display include A Musuem of Dubious Splendours, a video game by Studio Oleomingus, which is an adaptation of a series of essays written by Gujarati poet Mir Umar Hassan; The Mapmaker of Baghdad by Anuj Malhotra, an interactive map documenting the history of Bombay's hidden cinemas in the 1970s; a series of books investigating the history and evolution of printmaking technologies in Bengal by the visual artist, Aranya Sengupta and Nee Engey, a film by RV Ramani that delves into the puppet theatre tradition of South India.
'There are many archives throughout India that are based around one particular format. For instance, film archives in which you will see only films or textile archives where we see only textiles,' says Biswadeep, who believes that this archive is unique because it exists in so many formats, including 'board games, video games, textiles, audio-visual materials, only audio materials, artwork, scrolls, art pieces.'
Equally unique is the sheer range of projects supported by the IFA grants, a deliberate decision, going by Biswadeep's account. IFA has, from the beginning, attempted to break down cultural hegemonies, facilitating projects that may not have seen the light of day otherwise, he says.
'You will see from the kind of materials that we have that they are not particular to one community or thing or one particular idea. You will find everything here, without bias,' Biswadeep says, something, that is also reflected in the archive. 'When we started this archive, we thought of creating one which would not look at hierarchies in creating a repository, representing the uniqueness of this country's art and culture realm,' says Biswadeep. 'The motto should be unity in diversity.'
To know more about the IFA archives, log in to indiaifa.org/about-us/ifa-archive.html