Nalini Malani
Splitting the Other
Nalini Malani is one of the most important contemporary artists from the Indian subcontinent. Originally from Pakistan, her family was displaced in 1947 from Karachi to Bombay during the Partition—the historic division of India, Pakistan, and present-day Bangladesh along religious lines.
The artist continues to live and work in Bombay today. Since the 1970s, she has expressed a distinctly feminist perspective in a country torn between the lasting effects of colonialism and the ideals of a Third World social democracy. Additionally, India is undergoing profound political and economic transformations driven by the rapid advance of globalization. Drawing from characters in myths, folktales, and religious traditions from various cultural origins, while reflecting on war, religious fundamentalism, the impact of unrestrained capitalism, and environmental destruction, Nalini Malani portrays the role of women in both past and future narratives.
In the early 1980s, Malani was among the first artists in India to break away from painting, creating ephemeral wall drawings, performance works, videos, and shadow plays.
This exhibition, which brought together all these media, was the most extensive retrospective of the artist’s work ever presented in Europe.
