Sahil Ravindra Naik

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Productions will create a series of architectural sculptures based on memories, oral narratives and legends of people from the submerged Kurdi village in Goa. Sahil Ravindra Naik is the Coordinator for this project.

Sahil is a visual artist based in Kavlem in Goa. He has a Master’s degree in Visual Arts – Sculpture, from the M S University of Baroda. His works have been exhibited across the country in prestigious venues such as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, Experimenter in Kolkata and so on. He was awarded a Residency at the Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan, the Peers Emerging Artist Residency in New Delhi, and received the Five Million Incidents Fellowship in New Delhi. He was listed in the Forbes 30 under 30, Asia in the Visual Arts category. Given his experience, he is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

On December 19, 1961, Goa was organised as a centrally administered Union Territory under Operation Vijay, ending colonial Portuguese occupation. This independence came over a decade after the rest of India gained sovereignty from British rule. Bhausaheb Bandodkar, the first Chief Minister envisioned a progressive, forward-looking agenda for Goa. The Selaulim dam thus emerged as an ambitious dream project – a monument to liberation and development. The dam was meant to solve Goa’s water woes. However, in doing so it would also submerge a large cover of sacred forests, lakes with unique ecosystems and mangroves along the ancient villages of Kurdi and Kurpem in the Sanguem district. The people of these villages agreed to make this ‘sacrifice’ for the sake of the people of Goa. The construction of the dam began in 1977, displacing over 3000 families and eventually submerging the villages. The villagers had to abandon their homes overnight and relocate to higher planes.

Several returned in the following months to look at the reservoir that had now enveloped their homes. In March 1978, a ‘miracle’ occurred. The waters of the reservoir receded with the onset of summer and the entire village emerged out of water for three months. The villagers returned to temporarily occupy their homes and offered prayers. Since then, each year, the villagers have returned to their homes with objects and offerings; they clean the remains of their homes, perform rituals and pray.

In the recent times, most people remember their homes only as memory, as the structures are fast deteriorating. The sudden displacement of the people of Kurdi left little time for documentation of their ancient settlement which also housed structures from the early Kadamba period and early Portuguese occupation. Several villagers still continue to fight for their rights and justice and for their stories to be told to the government.

This project titled All is water, and to water we must return, will result in a series of architectural sculptures. By sculpturally reconstructing remembrances it attempts to resist erasure and re-frames memory coming to terms with loss. Over the past six years, Sahil has worked extensively with families from Kurdi to document the landscape, structures, oral histories and songs. As part of this project, he will conduct interviews with the villagers to draw ‘portraits’ of these homes, wall by wall. Once the image has been drawn, he will translate them into architectural sculptures, lending a certain tangibility to memory. The interviews corresponding each structure will bring forth stories of their unique ways of life that was sacrificed for the greater good, and then systematically erased. The outcome of the project will be the series of sculptures. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be still and video documentation of the process and the architectural sculptures.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it pushes the boundaries of content, form and medium. It offers a fresh, alternative artistic methodology for preserving memory and documenting forgotten histories. There is an urgency to this project currently since the villagers who knew Kurdi before its submergence are at an advanced age and their narratives largely remain undocumented. Also, the waters that had preserved the structures are now turning warmer, leading to faster deterioration of these structures.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.