Anuja Dasgupta (India)

Exhibition in Lavertezzo, 2024
in collaboration with Pro Helvetia New Delhi

Anuja Dasgupta

In an image-driven world, Anuja situates her practice in the elementary aspects of making images. Her work takes shape from the vantage point of Ladakh in the remote roof of the Indian Himalayas, which underpins her camera-less and analog photography, bookmaking, and mixed-media installations.

Ladakh as a lived experience has enabled her understanding of the world as one that does not exist of its own accord, but one that is dependent on causes and conditions. Witnessing the lingering uncertainties of mountain communities against the planet’s ailing health has profoundly informed her practice over the past few years—over which she has committed herself to studying the region’s history, geomorphology, and ecology. As an educator and social entrepreneur at Ladakh Orchards, she also continues to learn from the youth, elders, farmers, scientists, and spiritual practitioners about the interconnectedness of the visible and invisible eco-cultures of the trans-Himalayas.

Anuja now endeavours to create new lenses for the climate crisis to produce visual notes and experiences of the often unpronounced rhythms of nature and their interconnectedness with cultural configurations. Through this, she appeals for a re-imagination of established ways of seeing and imaging life on earth to suture the growing ruptures between fundamentally harmonious coexistences.