Arts Acre

Hridaypur (Heartland)

In association with
Arts Acre
In collaboration with
Curator's Note

In Pradip Das’ exhibition, place and memory dissolve into one another, making Naktala more than just a location. It’s a repository of lives disrupted by migration. Naktala is an embodied ‘Desh’, a homeland imagined through the minds of Bengali refugees who fled East Bengal after the 1947 Partition, forced to re-root themselves in foreign soil. Through his lens, we see the invisible histories of a community navigating loss, reshaping identity, and preserving their past in fragments that defy conventional historical records. Das does not provide answers - instead, he raises questions that linger. What does it mean to live on borrowed land where memories of the home clash with the reality of a new soil? Like the hidden roots of a tree, these stories lie beneath the surface, unseen but vital, nurturing a collective memory that resists erasure. Das’s work is an invitation to see the past within the present and to understand that these invisible histories are as foundational as any recorded by history’s official keepers.

– (excerpt) Curator’s Note; Hridaypur (Heartland)