Sandarbh opened the Equilibrium exhibition on March at Takhman Art Gallery, showcasing works created during the four-week arts incubator program in Partapur. The evening brought together creative practitioners from all walks of life—artists, young students, and art enthusiasts—sparking meaningful exchanges around the works on display.
The evening began with a walkthrough led by the curator Shilpa Rangnekar, joined by artists Aditi Anerao and Deparna Saha, offering an intimate look into the collaborative process behind the works. This was followed by Rangnekar’s talk offering insights into Sandarbh’s journey and the vision of Equilibrium.
The artworks varied from paper mounted on the wall to mixed media, t-shirts and textile-inspired installation at the gallery’s entrance. There were other interactive works laid out on tables and pedestals.
Project Equilibrium at Takhman Art Gallery
Equilibrium is a long-term cultural initiative that fosters creative dialogue through participatory art practices with the women of Partapur.
Endearingly titled Guspus Mitti Ki (Secrets in mud), a clay workshop by Dipali Sisodia, was one of the first events kicking off the Project Equilibrium, a cultural initiative. For the uninitiated, Project Equilibrium is a collaborative endeavor curated by Shilpa Rangnekar and hosted by Sandarbh and Beneshwar Lok Vikas Sansthan, an NGO based in Partapur. The city of Partapur is located in the Banswara district of Rajasthan, India.
Project Equilibrium is a cultural initiative established in 2014, designed to explore the interconnectedness of art and everyday life through working with the women members of Self-Help Groups in Partapur by entering into a participatory framework with creative practitioners. The project is dedicated to providing a platform to women members by helping them identify their interests, learn new skills, and gain experiences that can be applied in broader social and economic contexts. A key aspect of this vision is to use art as a tool for reflection, shared learning, and collective creation.
Creative Collaboration
Curated by Shilpa Rangnekar, this edition of the project, is supported by Arts Council England, and realized through a partnership between Sandarbh, Beneshwar Lok Vikas Sansthan (India), and Artcore (UK). It brings together artists from India and the UK, incorporating a unique design focus that expands the discourse on art, design, and functionality. By including a designer among the participating artists, the residency challenges conventional boundaries and explores how objects, spaces, and narratives can be reimagined through artistic collaboration.
“Sandrabh is a context for experimenting with artistic processes, and exploring new modalities of viewership and public participation in art. Cofounded by Artist Chintan Upadhyay, Lochan Upadhyay, and Yatin Upadhyay, Sandarbh began in 2003, as a ten-day residency workshop in Partapur, a town in Western Rajasthan in India,” explains Ragnekar.
The participating artists were largely associated with M S University-Baroda. Partapur was chosen as a site, primarily because it is Upadhyay’s hometown and he was particularly keen to share his work, ideas and life as an artist, with his extended family and community.
The first workshop led to regular residencies and programs, and most were based in the rural/ tribal areas in and around Partapur. However, we are told that Sandarbh was not confined by geography. “It is a traveling context and time and again initiatives have been taken to extend it to urban spaces like Baroda and Jaipur in India, as well as New York, Derbyshire, Nijmegen in the USA, UK and Netherlands,” says Upadhyay whose brainchild is the project going all the way back when he was a young artist in 2003.
Exploring Traditional Themes
Returning to the current situation, another part of the project involves Aditi Anerao’s workshop, Patterns of Partapur that sources the everyday architecture of Partapur. The city is known for its rich, vibrant colors and intricate door and window grills. This project explores and reinterprets these details through documentation, workshops, and material experimentation, transforming them into textiles, ceramics, and wall art. By preserving and adapting these elements, the project bridges past and present, celebrating the beauty of ordinary spaces. As an ongoing endeavor, the project will culminate in a zine showcasing original graphic patterns inspired by Partapur’s architectural language and color palette, offering a visual narrative of its unique identity.
As part of this process, Aditi conducted a workshop with students at PSP College. It involved Shalin Kansara, Vihan Yadav, Vidushi Dwivedi, Payal, and Yamini. “Aditi introduced them to the architectural patterns of their surroundings, encouraging them to observe, document, and reimagine these motifs through hands-on experimentation,” says Ragnekar, adding, “Their collective explorations contributed to the project’s evolving visual language, and allowed them to gain a foundational understanding of design and its implementation.”
Anerao further collaborated with Ravi Prajapati, to create Dhara a lighting collection, shaped by traditional elements of local hand-beaten craft, taking inspiration from the Mahi, the river, they created an interplay of light and texture.
Indigenous Practices and Collaborative Initiative
Milk and Human Kindness is a project pursued by Anthony Shepherd (UK)
Observing the daily rhythms of traditional dairy farming, he found it in stark contrast to the commercialized systems he had encountered in the U.K. The Partapur way stood out as being inherently friendly and, most importantly, circular—rooted in nature and returning to it.
Eva Joy looked into also from the UK, looked into the bright orange religious stencilling onto homes and businesses that caught her attention. Joy has reworked the message “My Ram, My Village, My Ayodhya”, seen in the village Madkola, to “My Village, My Space, My Dagra”. These stencils have been spread around the area by the artist, mimicking and interrupting the original state-funded markings with a different message, one which aims to incite a secular pride in one’s village as well as connecting to and advertising for the Dagra collaborative project. This also led to a mural project.
Most of the projects followed by the Sandarbh resident artists here are of a collaborative nature and observe local practices, bringing to them an international observation, integrating them with the environment and understanding sustainability practices that are local and born from the area, but can be understood and practiced globally.
The exhibition was on view until 7th March 2025 at Takhman Art Gallery, Udaipur.
Image Courtesy: Sandarbhart
Georgina is an independent critic-curator with 18 years of experience in the field of Indian art and culture. She blurs the lines of documentation, theory and praxis by involving herself in visual art projects. Besides writing on immersive art for STIRworld, she is a regular contributor for The Hindu, MASH Mag and Architectural Digest.
