Profile Interview – Kasha Vande
No longer restricted to traditional care-taking roles in museums, many curators increasingly see their role as cultural producer with evolving relationships to the cities and people around them. How does the increasing importance of the everyday, of the street, and of shifting political geographies of art practice mark curation today?
Kasha Vande, a Franco-American self-styled concept designer, project co-ordinator and social entrepreneur is one representation of the changing role of curator. Although she shuns the limelight, preferring to work behind the scenes, Kasha’s reputation goes before her. Her vision, courage and commitment to bringing art to the public resulted in her being selected as the KHOJ, British Council and Goethe Institute Max Müller Bhavan ARTThink South Asia Fellow in 2015-2016 in recognition of her work as a cultural manager in Pondicherry, India.
During her 16 years in South India, Kasha has organised over 60 events using different platforms, culminating in PondyPHOTO, a series of ground breaking photography festivals in Pondicherry, led by the PondyART Foundation, a government registered trust dedicated to presenting art in public space, The scale and number of artists involved and the iconic locations (an abandoned arak distillery and the city’s original port complex ) did more than shake up the local community. They introduced international standard photography and other art forms to the public in a unique and inclusive format previously unrepresented in the region. Conservative estimates indicate over 2 million attended events she co-ordinated!
Portrait Dravida
This summer, Kasha linked up with Zoe Headley, Director of the S.T.A.R.S Archive based in Pondicherry to organise PondyART’s first foray into the international art scene with the luminous “Portrait Dravida, 100 years of Tamil Studio Photography” exhibition at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. Drawing the public into a space previously only frequented by researchers and students has expanded the identity of the building while sharing the photographic history of South India with the French public. Kasha and Zoe are now exploring more international opportunities with S.T.A.R.S., Studies in Tamil Photography and Society and the “Portrait Dravida”. https://stars.hypotheses.org/a-propos.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Kasha earlier this summer for the following interview.
Question: Congratulations on this stunning and rich collection of late 19th and 20th century studio photography! When and how did you become involved in the STARS collective?
Kasha: I approached Zoe Headley, Director of STARS in 2015 to see if she was interested in presenting something from the archive for the first edition of the Pondicherry Heritage Festival. We decided to present a public exhibition and working together designed an interactive show of various portraits included in the archive at the Institut Français de Pondichery (IFP, CNRS MAAE) in February of that year. « Portrait Dravida » is our second exhibition of a selection from the archive of over 25,000 photographs. The success of both the exhibitions went beyond our expectations and we are already working on new exhibitions for other cities across India and internationally as well as sourcing funds for developing a cross cultural workshop/artist intervention program.
Photo:Zoe Headley with Ramesh Kumar (IFP)
Question: How did Tamil commercial studio photography really take off?
Kasha: I am speaking for Zoe here, as this is her research project, but in summary, photography arrived in India in the 1840s with the first photographic society in South India being created in Madras in 1856. During the early decades of Indian photography, it was accessible almost exclusively to the colonial administration and Indian elite. However by the 1880s, commercial photography studios had found their way into the bazaars and family portraits started to appear inside Tamil households. Previously no local forms of popular portraiture existed aside from representations of the gods. S.T.A.R.S is especially interesting as it is an archive looking at the masses, not royalty…..and is drawing attention because of this. But it is also important for its value as a resource on the movement and growth of photography as a media form in a predominantly rural area of India. Film
Question: Who are your partners and sponsors?
Kasha: The creation of the digital archive is funded by Endangered Archives Programme (British Library-Arcadia) and currently based out of the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP). The IFP also houses a physical archive of over 5 000 original prints….
Question: What were some of the key challenges and satisfactions in creating and organising break-through photographic events in South India? I am referring to such events as ADIVASI exhibition at the Old Distillery and the Water festival at the Old Port, both in Pondicherry?
Kasha: There were many challenges to PondyART’s efforts to present in public space; The first always being finding a site. We were lucky initially to gain access to residential compound walls on prominent thoroughfares thanks to the generosity of a number of home and business owners. Later it was the Government of Puducherry that offered us spaces like the 3 acre distillery site and 5 acre port complex. Another challenge was the same faced by almost anyone working in the field of arts and culture : funding. That was a particular challenge in a small city like Pondicherry where there is a limited number of businesses and industries with funding to spare for the arts
Photo:Copyright ArUn
Despite those challenges and others, the effort to meet them was absolutely worth it when team members and I saw the reactions of the public. The visual impact of the festivals especially, seemed to break down social barriers and drew people from all walks of life, young and old, locals and tourists to enjoy and learn together. Parents often came to thank us for giving their children access to this kind of experience. Community photography clubs and photo enthusiasts came en masse to experience their first-ever exhibitions.
Photo: Copyright PondyPhoto_2014
Gypsies attended the first festival, proud to be the subjects of the images on walls. Rickshaw wallahs brought their young charges on the way home from school to make sure it wasn’t missed. Residents of nearby slums acted as guardians of festival and exhibition sites of their own volition. For me the innumerable hours of work involved in co-ordinating the events and festivals, were totally worth it from the evening back in 2013 when I watched a young boy dash away from his family promenading on the Beach Road, to stand legs spread and hands behind his back in front of one of our exhibitions and study it carefully, moving slowly from photo to photo down the 60 meter wall. If that child saw the image as art or learned about the issue covered by the photographer, I don’t know. But he noticed that he had access to something and consciously took advantage of it. He surely ran back to his family with something new to think about and hopefully share. I felt lucky to be part of creating that kind of opportunity for the public and it is my greatest reward to see it enjoyed.
Beach Road Pondicherry Photo: Copyright PondyART 2015 – STARS
Question: I sense you are reluctant to call yourself a curator. Why is that?
Kasha: Although I guess at this point I am curating, but I would rather find another word for what I do. I believe that a curator usually has an art background where I do not even if I suppose my architecture degree does count on some level. Curators train in galleries and museums neither of which I did. I don’t want people thinking I feel I deserve a claim to the title. I am definitely still in TRAINING!
Question: In fact you are ‘a-typical’ in the field and a great example of breaking down old barriers and redefining roles! In 1994 you left the USA to work in Hong Kong and Paris as an architectural project manager although later in Abu Dhabi the architectural side became more event venue oriented in scale. How did this original interest in architecture lead to your becoming the “photography curator” and “event organiser” you are now? Who were your mentors and where did you find inspiration?
Kasha: Arts and culture were of high priority to my parents – my father was an architect and amateur photographer, my mother originally an English teacher who became a leader in developing gifted and talented programming in our region of New York state. I grew up renovating old buildings with my father, studying classical violin at the Eastman School of music and reading everything I could get my hands on. Given that access to international travel was limited, my parents hosted exchange students almost every year to ensure my sister and I learned about other cultures. I think these experiences have had enormous influence on my choices since I left home for New Orleans at 17, in terms of both my international and work experiences. I too chose to study architecture following my father’s footsteps and Jane Jacobs and her work with neighbourhood revitalisation was of great interest to me when I was at Tulane. My favorite project while I was in school was a neighbourhood study in New Orleans and my design development of an unused fire station into an arts and culture space in Fauborg Marigny. The project was directed by Prof Eugene Cizek. Pondicherry and New Orleans have great similarities and my work in Pondy was certainly influenced by that early period of my life. The photography focus grew organically within the PondyART initiative to promote arts and culture I started in late 2012. As part of the initial concept of creating a monthly cross city cultural event, a documentary photographer I was working with suggested hanging work on a public wall and then it just went on from there; basically in response to the public interest and the joy I got out of making something happen for both artist and public. Some months into our first exhibitions someone mentioned JR, the renowned photographer who does large scale socially oriented projects internationally, and I continue to follow his work. As the project grew, Ravi Agarwal and Pondicherry based artists Ray and Deborah Meeker of Golden Bridge have been especially important to me as mentors. I also have been lucky to have invaluable support and involvement from photographer, Pablo Bartholomew and artist and author, Waswo X Waswo. Without photographers, Yannick Cormier and Arun and printer S. Muthukrishnan on the team, our exhibitions and festivals would never have been of such great design and quality. However, it is difficult to mention just a few names.
Photo: Copyright PondyPhoto_2014
So many people have gotten involved and been supportive and also been generous with their knowledge and experience. They each contributed something special to PondyART’s development as well as my own.
Question: There has been talk of a new international project, EXPOSURE. You mentioned two new photography festival themes, Woman & Home, which you are ready to take to international venues. What are the core elements you bring to these projects? What size events are you looking at?
Kasha: Yes, I am now exploring the possibility of producing exhibitions and the festival concept outside India. I think the concept lends itself to adaption anywhere and find I am always looking out for interesting under-utilized spaces as I travel. The festival programs (ADIVASI, WATER, WOMAN and HOME) are relevant universally and can be easily adapted to be site specific and the content adjusted according to national interests. In terms of size, that really depends on the project as we have the capability to build single exhibitions, or to take it all the way up to a festival platform which could include alongside exhibitions; Photography Education, Community Outreach, Multi Media (Film/Installation), Youth Programming, Public Performance and Symposia elements. I am hoping to work with a hosting partner(s) on the long term – creating a series of events, exhibitions or festival editions. I feel that the programming possibilities are endless and I am very excited about the possibility of designing a concept that fits with the interests of a new host community and reinventing a space within that community to create a unique public arts and culture experience. The only element I feel is absolutely essential is that the project be presented in existing or newly converted public space, it integrates into the public education and event calendar and it be fully open and accessible to all.
Photo: Copyright Soumya Sumitra Behera
I admit I do think big. However, if you don’t try you never know what you might achieve. I have learned a great deal since I started PondyART and I am proud of what we accomplished for arts and culture in Pondicherry over five years. I think that experience will prove invaluable as I consider opportunities outside India and I look certainly forward to the next stage of the learning curve.
Contact: kasha.vande@gmail.com