Arindam Manna

Arindam Manna’s projects revolve around complex concerns and are an extension and continuation of his main project that he started in 2018. Arindam’s project, “Transience and Materiality,” was initiated during his research in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, on Grand Trunk Road. He came across several migration stories and witnessed spaces and lives in flux, a phenomenon that is amplified in small mufassil towns and villages like Dadri and Chithera. This same road transforms into National Highway 19, which traverses the Birbhum region of Bengal and the town of Suri (old NH 19), where he lives. His processes evolve from temporality and immersion in the worlds that the road and its traversal of the subcontinent contain. Time plays an important role in these experiences, and therefore the observation of the traces of time became a central theme of his research. His practice evolves through questioning the present, where the boundaries between personal and collective memory blur.

Arindam completed his BFA in painting from Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan and an MFA from Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh. In 2021, he was selected for the Kochi Muziris Biennale/ Students Biennale. His work has been published in Hakara bilingual Journal, Postscript Magazine etc. Recently, his work was exhibited in ‘Yuva Sambhuva’, Raza Foundation. He has also been selected for “Hyundai Art For Hope award (A CSR initiative).” Arindam is also part of an alternative research platform, SFRA (Society For Research Alternative).