Nalini Malani: Splitting the Other - Retrospective 1992-2009

This Spring the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts of Lausanne is presenting the largest European retrospective to date of this artist.

Nalini Malani is one of the most influential contemporary artists from India. She was born in what is now Pakistan. During Partition in 1947 her family was displaced from Karachi to Bombay, where she still lives. Since the 1970s, Malani has displayed her emphatically feminine stance there, in a country torn between the effects of colonialism and the idealism of a Third World social democracy, as well as being seized by the political and economic changes brought about by rapid globalisation. Employing figures from myths, fairy tales, and the religions of diverse cultures, and reflecting on war, orthodox fanaticism, the effects of capitalism, and the destruction of the environment, Nalini Malani depicts the female position in scenes past and future. In the early 1990s, Malani was one of the first artists in India to break from painting by making ephemeral wall drawings, theatrical works, and video and shadow plays. The exhibition in Lausanne is Malani's largest European retrospective to date.

Publication On the occasion of the exhibition, the museum will present a catalogue titled Nalini Malani Splitting the Other. Retrospective 1992-2009, Written in French and English, it contains essays by Whitney Chadwick, Doris von Drathen, Bernard Fibicher and Andreas Huyssen. Hatje Cantz Verlag (184 p. +DVD).

Nalini Malani: Splitting the Other
Retrospective 1992-2009