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VOICES AND NOTES

7 N&N 1034 - 4 July 2024

ARTISTS IN RESPONSE

A sphere 1 meter in diameter, composed of approximately

1500 palmyra seeds and suspended like a satellite among the

trees, welcomes us to a collective exhibition put on by 24

Aurovilian artists, and organized by no one knows who, no one

knows exactly how and where.

There were no announcements, no flyers printed, zero

communication. Word spread among friends and in a week the

exhibition was visited by more than 300 people.

The exhibition was in the forest, in an Aurovilian territory of

great importance for some, because from there the first

pioneers started to "build" Auroville, but of no significance for

others because it is not part of the coveted city center.

And then metal sculptures like still-life emerging from the earth,

wooden masks camouflaged like dancing sprites, and panels,

photographs, ceramics, paintings, around fifty works giving new

life to the forest and turning it into an active museum, a place of

exchange, a living nature.

The exhibition is entitled "Artists in Response" and the works

on display try to respond to the current critical situation and to

play with frustrations, hopes, foolish choices, abuses, utopias,

and everything that makes us participate today in this endless

adventure.

The exhibition winds through the forest and reveals itself

gradually. Here and there, small white ceramic Peace Warriors

show us the way. We come across an apocryphal altar

dedicated to the great god of the golden chicken, a Milky Way

that dialogues with the Crown Road, tiny JCBs that work to

play down our nightmares, interactive installations that invite us

to write down our thoughts and to remember that we are all

here for a very particular reason. There is even an installation

that takes us back to the prison where Sri Aurobindo was

locked up, and a mirror that takes us behind those bars. Luckily

we are surrounded by trees and not by walls!

Along with the exhibition, small events entertained visitors

every evening. Little theater plays alternated with screenings of

short movies or photographic collages, and then juice, biscuits,

and chatting in that peaceful atmosphere that we all need now

more than ever.

And on the last day, as in a sort of unexpected closing

ceremony, more than one hundred Aurovilians gathered there

and went beyond the exhibition area, further into the forest, to

get together in a magical clearing dominated by a large banyan

among whose branches a magnificent palm-leaf dragon was

floating. Nothing special happened, but we were just there,

sitting in a semicircle, listening to the sound of the leaves, the

birds, and our breathing.

A great adventure, indeed.

- Submitted by an Aurovilian