In "A Gift or a Theft," artists Poras Dhakan, Julia Obermaier, and Anvita Jain present a dialogue exploring issues of colonialism and stolen Indian artifacts. Dhakan's work offers both a defiant response and conceptual weight, from 'weapons' against colonial impact to photographic explorations of manipulated narratives. Obermaier's pieces directly confront the question of restitution, while Jain critically re-evaluates appropriated cultural symbols. It responds to the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow’s plea:

“I appeal with special intensity and hope to artists themselves and to writers, poets and singers, asking them to testify that nations also need to be alive on an imaginative level.”

The show will include a documentary screening on looted artifacts, followed by a panel discussion with the artists on the subject and in respect of their works, moderated by Julia Wild.

Show dates.

July 9

Achathotel "Zum Schwan"

Hauptstraße 25

55743 Idar-Oberstein

September

Köln

Venue and dates to be confirmed shortly

“One of the most noble incarnations of a people's genius is its cultural heritage, built up over the centuries by the work of its architects, sculptors, painters, engravers, goldsmiths and all the creators of forms, who have contrived to give tangible expression to the many-sided beauty and uniqueness of that genius.

The vicissitudes of history have nevertheless robbed many peoples of a priceless portion of this inheritance in which their enduring identity finds its embodiment.

The peoples who were victims of this plunder, sometimes for hundreds of years, have not only been despoiled of irreplaceable masterpieces but also robbed of a memory which would doubtless have helped them to greater self-knowledge and would certainly have enabled others to understand them better.” (M’Bow, 1921)