Bengal Biennale Nov 29, 2024 - January 5, 2025

Source Bengal Biennale
In Bengali, ‘Anka’ signifies both the act of drawing and the drawing itself. It is when thought becomes visible, and the hand traces the contours of imagination. ‘Banka,’ on the other hand, speaks of something aslant, indirect. It suggests a deviation, a path that meanders rather than rushes straight ahead. The phrase ‘Anka-Banka’ conjures the image of a winding river or a serpentine path, forever shifting. It is an apt metaphor for life and art, where the journey is often more significant than the destination, where meaning is found in the curves and bends rather than in a straight line. This edition of the Biennale embraces this very spirit with a contemporary outlook. It embodies the idea of always finding a way, of moving forward through twists and turns and celebrating the vitality that emerges from such movement. Here, in this gathering of artists and their works and installations, we witness the spirit of ‘Anka-Banka,’ the relentless pursuit of expression marked in the journey.
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Art across arenas

Source The Telegraph by Srimoyee Bagchi
Art biennales, beginning 130 years ago in Venice in 1895, are, today, global cultural showcases, bringing together contemporary artists to display innovative works and foster artistic dialogue and creativity. The first edition of the Bengal Biennale: Anka Banka — Through Cross-Currents, which is unfolding across at least 27 venues spread out through Calcutta and Santiniketan, is no different. The overwhelming message of the Bengal Biennale is perhaps this: art should be accessible to everyone, not limited to galleries. It needs to be seen and experienced in everyday life. Take, for instance, Paresh Maity’s giant jackfruit installation, which sat squat outside Victoria Memorial Hall and bewildered unsuspecting visitors (one of whom marvelled about whether it might have been the favourite fruit of Queen Victoria). Inside the hall, Robert Clive proudly guarded a nakshi kantha of tales from the Ramayana, while visitors tried to decipher the chiaroscuro of Jorasanko’s interiors as seen in Gaganendranath Tagore’s cubist works, displayed alongside the most magnificent watercolours of the Arabian Nights by Abanindranath Tagore.
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