Unspoken Stories

Artist: Baptist Coelho
Discussant: Deepanjana Pal

December 19, 2014 | 6.30 pm
Visitors’ Centre, CSMVS, Mumbai

Baptist Coelho incorporates installation, video, sound, photography, found objects, site-specific works and public art projects in his art practice. His projects frequently merge personal research with collaboration from people of various cultures, geographies and histories. Throughout his practice, he employs the use of atmospheric stimuli and residual work, such as found objects, to engage the viewer into the story and allow them an interactive space to reflect on their own surroundings and predicaments.

As immersive experiences, his projects take on the mode of being ‘works in progress’, which become the foundation for long-term projects. His work takes the form of various media which often contend with history, conflict, gender and emotions. Exploring the multiple possibilities of new media and conjuring meaning out of raw experiences, Coelho articulates unspoken stories that have local contexts but describe global perspectives. The artist will be in conversation with author and journalist, Deepanjana Pal, who has written extensively on his work.

Baptist Coelho received his Masters of Arts from the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, BIAD, UK (2006). Since then, he has exhibited worldwide in museums, galleries and film screenings, and has also participated in various artist residencies; conducted workshops, artist talks and panel discussions in India and abroad. Solo Exhibitions include Pump House Gallery, London (2012); Grand Palais, Bern, (2009); Project 88, Mumbai (2009); Visual Arts Gallery, Delhi (2009) and BIAD, UK (2006). In 2015, he will have a solo exhibition at the Ladakh Arts and Media Organization, Leh. Baptist is the 2015-16 Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Works developed from this residency will be included in a major exhibition, scheduled to take place at King’s College in the Autumn, 2016. The artist lives and works in Mumbai, India.

Deepanjana Pal is a Mumbai-based author and journalist. She’s a senior editor with Firstpost.com and has written about Indian contemporary art for a variety of print and online publications, including Wallpaper*, Caravan, Business Standard, Mint Lounge, Tehelka and ArtSlant. She edited Time Out Mumbai’s Art section for four years, was the Books Editor for the newspaper DNA and has written a book titled, ‘The Painter’.