Unjustified | A Presentation by Birender Kumar Yadav | Project Showcase@IFA | January 31, 2023

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA)
invites you to
Unjustified
A presentation by Birender Kumar Yadav
Followed by a discussion with Prof YS Alone
(The session will be conducted in Hindi and English)

Tuesday, January 31, 2023 | 06:00 PM Onwards | Zoom and Facebook Live

What happens when a contemporary artist meets a group of migrant brick kiln workers who are from his hometown of Dhanbad? In what ways can the artist and the group of brick kiln workers engage in a conversation over a period of time, especially when both of them work with the same material—clay? What kind of collaborative work can be imagined between the artist and the workers amid the workers’ difficult socioeconomic conditions?

Join us to listen to Birender Kumar Yadav, about the IFA implemented project Unjustified, which is premised on the irony of the working conditions of women labourers in the brick kilns of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, which produce a brand of bricks called Durga, the Goddess often invoked as an image of women’s empowerment. Birender created a set of artworks in collaboration with the workers that highlight this contrast. The evening’s discussion will examine the precarious living conditions of the migrant workers, who are traditionally from marginalised castes, and face discrimination in a society where inhuman practices like untouchability still continue. 

Birender Kumar Yadav is a Delhi-based contemporary artist who has participated in the 12th Berlin Biennale curated by Kader Attia. 

Prof YS Alone is an art historian who teaches at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. 

Birender Kumar Yadav is Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in 2021-22, under the Arts Practice programme, made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.

This session is organised as part of the Project Showcase @ IFA, a series of online presentations to showcase, discuss and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support and implement across programmes. 

Image Credit: Birender Kumar Yadav, From the series Durga Portraits

Click here to register for the presentation on Zoom.

The session will also be streamed live on our Facebook page, for which no prior registration is required.