Amar Kanwar: The Lightning Testimonies And The Sovereign Forest

It starts with a single-channel video, 42 minutes long, that shows the impressive landscapes of Odisha. They are images captured with a poetic sensibility and intimate precision that allow viewers to explore the beauty of these landscapes while simultaneously encouraging reflection: a fisherman casts his net at dusk to the sound of birds and insects; a snaking estuary as it flows out to sea; and the interplay of the different greens of blades of grass and rice.

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Titled The Scene of Crime (2011), the video forms the core of a larger project The Sovereign Forest – an ongoing investigative work that provides multiple ways to enter and become immersed in the social, moral, economic and political issues specific to Odisha and yet faced by many communities across the globe. It somehow sets the tone for the larger exhibition that brings into sharp focus the seen and unseen violence that is enmeshed in our lives, highlighting the issue of ‘social justice and environmental degradation through the poetry of interpretation and real-life’. That, in a nutshell, was the statement presented by the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and the TBA21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary) Foundation, as they inaugurated The Lightning Testimonies and The Sovereign