Parisian massacre hits visual art fest

The recent massacre in  France has obviously sent tremors in faraway Kolkata where photographers, sculptors and visual artists have  put together a visual art festival that denounces the bullets unleashed on unsuspecting Parisians last week.

The Third eye photography group — opening their 17th festival on Tuesday at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture is representing 23 artists this time via 40 exhibits — both published and unpublished works — which have been put up on archival canvas.

The talking point of the festival is obviously a Sanatan Dinda Installation depicting the artist’s angst against global terrorism. Dinda creates a 3 D triangle filled with shoes owned by nobody symbolising death and destruction as evinced in the recent Parisian carnage.

The only light is faint — from the filament of a bulb and the rest is covered in darkness — symbolising the destruction that terrorism brings on. “I feel that terrorism is totally man-made. We create the AK 47, and we light the candles in memory of the dead. My installation  symbolizes Paris — it could be the Eiffel tower or a glass house — now a symbol of global terrorism,” Dinda told Millennium Post.

Dinda — became famous for his body painting shows abroad. 

Visual artists Atanu Pal,  Manash Ray, Shyamal Das, Sraboni Ganguly, Sujoy Chatterjee, Aditi Sinha,  P K Debnath, Suman Kalyan Malaker, Soumyabrata Das and Sanjib Das are participating in this exhibition.

“So what are the subjects? Nature, wildlife, landscape, anything that describes creative photography has been included. We follow the National Geographic code of conduct that allows only 2 per cent cropping or change on what you shoot,” said Atanu Pal, whose work depicting a silvery lotus being plucked at dawn featured in the 2016 National Geographic calendar. 

Sculptures in terracotta and bronze will also feature in the exhibition along with installation and photographs.