Mumbai and Arun Kolatkar's poems inspire this solo show by French photographer

As I playThe city slowly reconstructs itselfNumbered stone by numbered stonehelliprsquo wrote Arun Kolatkar in his famed Kala Ghoda poems Not much has changed ldquoThere is an impermanence that permeates through the cityrdquo admits photographer and artist Philippe Calia The Parisborn artistrsquos latest show The Second Law that opens this week has a deeprooted connection with the city and Mumbairsquos very own poet icon KolatkarArun Kolatkar Pic CourtesyWikimedia CommonsldquoThe showrsquos journey began in 2011rdquo shares Calia recalling the first year of his arrival in the city of Mumbai Moving to Borivli he would often spend time roaming around the city photographing its many forms ldquoIt was only in 201516 that I began putting together these photographs and videos in an attempt to make sense of themrdquo he revealsPas de Deux Jayanthirsquos translationIt was also during this time that he discovered the Bombay Poets and Arun Kolatkar in particular ldquoThe encounter with the works of Kolatkar was quite decisive for me in particular with his Kala Ghoda poems I was sensitive to his visions of the city the objects and the potential beauty of the mundane It also helped me build an understanding of the cityrdquo he saysDecisive Arrangement with Mahek and Kalim 2024Evoking found objects and installations through photography text and video Calia seeks to shape Mumbairsquos persona He views the city as illusory by nature ldquoOne day things are present the next day they disappear Photography and art is an attempt to freeze the moment and give it a certain shape even as reality tends towards decay and inevitabilityrdquo shares the artistThe show will feature Caliarsquos street photography countered against set photographs within familiar city spaces like the Bombay Natural History Society BNHS and Capitol Cinema ldquoIt is like a window into the subconscious of the city where the familiar and unfamiliar are juxtaposed improbably the way dreams appear to usrdquo he explainsThree Times 2024 Pics CourtesyPhilippe Calia and TarqThe experimentation is not limited to the visual experience Poetry also adds to the exploration A key installation is the translations of Kolatkarrsquos poem The Pattern On one level Calia wished to evoke the motif of the recurring pattern visually ldquoThis installation is made of over a hundred small photographs that embody the recurring pattern And yet each photograph will also show you a marked difference in those patternsrdquo he points outA view of the Kala Ghoda precinct File picThe second level is achieved through an exploration of the cityrsquos subconscious He got the poem translated from English to Hindi from Hindi to Gujarati and so on by legal writers across the Fort district mdash a nod to the galleryrsquos Fort location It also resulted in poems that turned Kolatkarrsquos verses into something new an homage In his artist text Calia writes ldquoIn cities like Bombay the everyday is experienced through multiple languages in the form of jumps cuts assemblage collage bricolage sometimes within the same wordhellipThe idealist mdash some would say nostalgic mdash can thus proclaim that translation is Bombayrsquos official languagerdquoPhilippe CaliaPush him further he laughs saying ldquoBeing French I remember reading Vile Parle on the station signboard and translating it to lsquocity speaksrsquo in Frenchrdquo In the end the show reflects the cityrsquos own surreal nature Scalia concludes ldquoIt raises the question of Mumbai as Mayanagari mdash what is real or unreal Photography is the perfect medium to raise this question since it enables us to create a distance from the photographed phenomena and reflect upon the questionrdquo FROM February 27 to March 29 11 am to 630 pmAT Tarq KK Navsari Chambers ground floor Fort