Chander Haat is an artist collective and community space situated in Sarsuna, on the fringe of Kolkata. Its uniqueness emerges from deep socio-political and ecological engagement with local communities as well as a long-standing involvement with designing Durga Puja. Each of its members also has their own independent artistic practice. Chander Haat was awarded the Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art in 2024.
Ritika Biswas is an independent curator and artistic researcher from Kolkata who lives and works nomadically. Her praxis focuses on ecological justice, necropolitics, and experimental media. She was a curator at New Art Exchange in the UK from 2019-2021 and Artistic Director for the Busan Biennaleβs 2021 Sea Art Festival as its youngest and first female, foreign director since 1987. Recent projects include exhibitions curated at Project 88 Mumbai, the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Fondation Fiminco Paris, and 421 Abu Dhabi.
For the second iteration of the Bengal Biennale, we find ourselves within the entanglements of ππ’π―π’ππ’π΅π’ (pronounced ππ°π©-π―π°π©-ππ’πΈ-π΅π©π’π©). Referencing both the iconic figure in Jibanananda Dasβ poem ππ’π―π’ππ’π΅π’ ππ¦π― and the ecology of wild forest-vines (π£π’π―-ππ’π΅π’), we delve into subterranean worlds and buried histories across Kolkata and Santiniketan. ππ’π―π’ππ’π΅π’ dwells within a once-prison, old houses, and a wild park, among other nodes. By tracing underground networks of kinship and contending with plural darknesses, we find poetic strategies that allow us to rest, resist, and create joy amid our current necropolitical landscapes. To become indestructible through symbiotic interrelations, to entwine with our allies, and to insist on living on, together.
– Chander Haat & Ritika Biswas | Co-Curators, Bengal Biennale 2026-27
