Overview

Chatterjee & Lal is pleased to present the world premiere of Avikunthak’s new film, Rati Chakravyuh. It includes a single shot of 102 minutes devoted to a conversation among thirteen individuals. This extraordinary piece will be screened three times a day at the gallery.

On a lunar eclipse midnight, in a desolate temple, six young newlywed couples and a priestess meet after a mass wedding. They sit in a circle and talk. This is their last conversation – an exchange about life, death, beginning, end and everything in between. Theatrically the films employs a typical form of community gathering in Calcutta – the ‘adda’ – a freestyle intellectual exchange among groups of students, poets, activists or artists.

Ashish Avikunthak is an experimental filmmaker who has been making films in India since the mid nineties. His films have been shown worldwide in film festivals, galleries and museums. Notable screenings include the Tate Modern, London; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, along with the film festivals of Berlin, Locarno, London and Rotterdam amongst others. He is currently assistant Professor of Film Media at the Harrington School of Communication & Media, University of Rhode Island.

Avikunthak was included as a ‘Future Greats’ artist for 2014 by ArtReview magazine and his last two solo exhibitions at Chatterjee & Lal have garnered considerable critical reception both in Indian and international media.

To read full essays, click here, here and here.