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Raqs Media Collective Transforms Unfinished Film Project into Art Archive
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Firstpost•04-10-2026, 10:27
Raqs Media Collective Transforms Unfinished Film Project into Art Archive
- •Raqs Media Collective's 1994 film project "Black Waters" (Kala Pani) set in the Andaman Islands, though never completed, has been reimagined as an art archive.
- •The archive, titled "Black Waters: An Event Shaped Hole," is currently featured in an exhibition at the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong.
- •The exhibition, "At 25: Artists' Early Worlds," highlights artists' early careers and the increasing trend of presenting archival research as artwork.
- •Assistant curator Christina Bartosch emphasizes the importance of archives in providing context and making history alive within art.
- •The artwork comprises a collage of notebooks, photographs, correspondence, video material, drawings, and an unearthed 16mm film reel from the original 1994 research trip to the Andamans.
Key Questions Answered
The exhibition is titled Black Waters: An Event Shaped Hole, showcasing the collective's revived Andamans research archive.
The artists traveled to the Andaman Islands to research a film about nationalism, war, and the history of the penal settlement.
The archive is part of the Asia Art Archive series named At 25: Artists’ Early Worlds, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the institution.
