“….if history cannot solve our problems then we have to stop listening to it for solutions. For the only answer it has offered us is violence that refuses to meet, or hear, the other”

"In cities, the government had ensured that Hindu Pani and Muslim Pani were separately served at Railway stations and other public places , an arrangement that did not seem to invite popular protest"

'Punjab" by Rajmohan Gandhi

I aim to conceptualize my presentation focusing on the interplay between memory, postmemory and truth around the Freedom Struggle, Partition and subsequent events in Punjab. I deploy the trope of water to interrogate people, territories and the politics of water sharing, rivers and borders activated by the above historical moments. Drawing on local meanings of rivers and water of the land for each community and Punjabis in general, I aim explore the notion of truth within ‘Punjabiyat’ (being from The Punjab) - which both Hindus and Muslims pride themselves here and across the border. My inquiry stems from the ways in which a nexus of opacity, denial and untruth appears to mark the relationship between India and a major event such as Partition. Through my work titled “Objects of fictitious togetherness-I” I explored how this nexus has emerged, what it means to understand history and the present through this nexus, and what are the implications in the context of the present political regime.

Atul Bhalla has explored the physical, historical, and political significance of water in the urban environment of New Delhi through artworks that incorporate sculpture, painting, installation, video, photography, and performance. He is SAP’s Virtual Artist-in-Residence in Fall 2020.

His recent solo shows include “Anhedonic Dehiscence” (Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2018), “You always step into the same river” (SepiaEYE, New York, 2015) and “Ya Ki Kuch aur …” (Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2014). He was also the Mellon Artist Research Africa fellow at WITS University 2018, Johannesburg with the project “The Excavated distance of gold,” examining acid mine drainage at the gold mines. Recent group exhibitions have brought his work to FotoFest Biennale Houston in 2016 and 2108, The Pompidou Center, Paris, the IVAM Institute of Modern Art in Valencia, and the Devi Art Foundation in New Delhi. Important books on his works are Yamuna Walk and monograph 'You always step into the same river'.