"Breaking Views. Engaging Art in Post-Earthquake Nepal" asks the question how artists look at their lifeworld after a catastrophe such as the earthquake in Nepal 2015. What does art mean in this context and what can it actually ‘do’? The book, in a collaborative effort, brings together the expertise of artists and curators, an art historian and an anthropologist, to offer a set of perspectives that reflect friction, fragility and precarity as much as perseverance and resilient strongholds.
Centre-stage of the book are the photographs, interviews and an installation of artist Sanjeev Maharjan. They are discussed as a careful reflection of those weeks and months after the earthquake hit, but beyond that also invite us to address the broader context of art’s role in society, and of an urbanising world in flux. Lastly, the different views in this book also facilitate the ‘breaking’ of dominant narratives of catastrophe that often overshadow individual experiences by means of heightened sensationalism.
The volume also features essays by Dr. Dina Bangdel, Director of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Doha, Qatar, artist Sheelasha Rajbhandari, artist Hit Man Gurung and Prof. Christiane Brosius. The volume was published with Himal Books and funded by the Mohr-Foundation, Hamburg. It was launched and presented at the Kathmandu Triennale on March 26, 2017 as part of an exhibition and panel discussion on home, city and migration. The Kathmandu Triennale is a non-commercial art event organized by Siddhartha Arts Foundation (SAF) to promote Nepali arts and culture. The event presents contemporary and traditional art by Nepali and international artists on particular edition themes. Prof. Christiane Brosius is Professor of Visual and Media Anthropology at the Cluster "Asia and Europe" and an expert in the field of contemporary urban life and visual art in India with a focus on the middle class. Sanjeev Maharjan is a freelance visual artist. He engages with a multiplicity of art forms, ranging from painting and photography to community- and research-based art. He graduated from the Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design in 2009.