Overview

Nikhil Chopra performed in Berlin at Gropius Bau as part of ‘Indigo Waves and Other Stories: Re-Navigating the Afrasian Sea and Notions of Diaspora’. Curated by Natasha Ginwala and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, with Michelangelo Corsaro. This exhibition takes the stories and histories of the Indian Ocean as its departure point to bring together thirteen contemporary artists, historians, filmmakers, musicians, writers, and thinkers.

In his two-day performance and spatial installation – One Water, Many Lands – Nikhil evoked ecologies of water cycles that interlink the Indian Ocean with the lands it laps against. Water connects us all. In its liquid state, in its vital connection to life and civilisation, as it flows through, along and against land and air, it carries with it narratives of love and war, displacement and settlement, trade and exchange, adventure and fear. 

During the performance, Nikhil dwelled on a floating platform, painting waterscapes on canvas sheets with deep blue pigments and ochres obtained from clay. With this series of works, one realised that for every hour of the performance, Chopra created twelve islands, each with its own image of water, land, and sky. After the performance, all elements were left behind, coming together in an installation. Chopra’s body acted as a catalyst, transfiguring the architecture of the Gropius Bau with representations of the sea, celebrating the oneness of water, the connectedness of its ecologies and its eternal cycles.