Four Anthems, One Lifetime: Panjeri Artist Union’s Art of a Divided History

KOCHI:
Those above the age of 75 in Habra of West Bengal are people who have sung four different national anthems in a single lifetime. This uniqueness forms the core of the works by the Panjeri Artists’ Union at the sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

On display at the 110-day festival are stories of their own community, forced to witness their lives being divided repeatedly even after Partition. Their lives have unfolded across shifting national identities: from British India to East Pakistan to Bangladesh and, eventually, to independent India.

The artworks by the Panjeri Union are exhibited at the Coir Godown at Fort Kochi’s Aspinwall House. This four-year-old art collective, with its origin in Banipur not far from Kolkata, comprises 14 artists drawn from diverse fields including visual art, design, literature, cinema, photography and music.

Jute is the primary raw material used in the artworks. There is a reason for this, says Bhaskar Hazarika, a member of the collective, founded in February 2022. For centuries, jute cultivation was the main source of livelihood for the people of the region. Then, from the mid-19th century, began industrialisation — first under the imperial British and later with the arrival of modern products in the market. Eventually, globalisation since the 1990s dealt a severe blow to the jute industry, according to the collective.

The 1947 Partition meant that this community became residents of East Pakistan. Twenty-four years later, the 1971 India-Pakistan war led to the birth of Bangladesh. Amid a surge in the civic conflict in the nascent nation, the community’s members crossed to border to arrive in India’s West Bengal as refugees.

“These lived hardships have deeply influenced our artworks,” says Bhaskar. “Net-like grids recur frequently in the works, symbolising an unstable and uncertain life.”

Bright, shimmering garments draw from Hindu ritual art in Assam, which emerged as a form of resistance by the people against Brahminical dominance. “Through this, oppressed castes assert a cultural resistance, claiming their own right to radiance and splendour,” notes Bhaskar.

Each artist in the collective has transformed chapters from their personal life experiences into works of art. The Panjeri Union will remain part of the biennale over the next three-and-a-half months. Beyond the exhibition, they seek to communicate their ideas to art-lovers and, through them, to the wider public, using video works, performance art and presentations.

The sixth edition of the festival here, organised by Kochi Biennale Foundation, is curated by multidisciplinary artist Nikhil Chopra with HH Spaces, Goa. It has ‘for the time being’ as the curatorial title. On from December 12, the event is being held in 22 venues in the twin towns of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, besides downtown Ernakulam and the Willingdon Island across the creek. It features work by 66 artists and collectives from over 25 countries, reflecting a broad spectrum of contemporary practices.