11th Shanghai Biennale: “Why Not Ask Again? Maneuvers, Disputations & Stories”

Curated by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta

New Delhi–based trio Raqs Media Collective bring a refreshing geographic perspective to the Shanghai Biennale, assembling an exhibition that takes the underexamined cultural nexus of India and China (and, more broadly, South and East Asia) as its promising point of departure. Yet the show is no mere regional survey. Inspired by both Chinese speculative fiction and Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (Reason, Debate, and a Story), a pioneering 1974 work of Indian New Cinema by director Ritwik Ghatak, “Why Not Ask Again? Maneuvers, Disputations & Stories” will privilege fables and narrative as well as acts of inquiry. The challenge for its participants, which include artists Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Moinak Biswas, and Robin Meier, will be to articulate hard questions, and to remember that sometimes the most rewarding queries are those for which no answers exist.