My second week in Switzerland was spent getting acquainted with its world-renowned train networks and its clockwork synchronicity. I find myself in an almost hypnotic state, every time I board the train, speeding through green fields by the Toss River, back and forth to Zurich, attending artist talks and visiting museums. While Winterthur has a seasoned, laidback rhythm, blanketed in a calm atmosphere, Zurich feels pulsating with youthful energy and activity. Even the ducks in Lake Zurich wade erratically, trying to keep up with the strong water currents.
I was also lucky enough to befriend two other South Asian artists on residency with Pro Helvetia in Switzerland, Pulak and Madhukar. And soon enough, between the three of us, there was the easy reassurance of free-flowing conversations, an art adda, if you may, as we explored the graffiti at Rote Fabrik, the former factory turned art centre in Zurich.
Communal wall exposing the gritty, rebellious, and urban aesthetic at Rote Fabrik, Zurich
This week, I also welcomed the Bengali new year with a visit to the Black Madonna at Einsiedeln Abbey, a fifteenth-century Benedictine Monastery. As someone who likes to micro-dose on religion from time to time, I have always found faith reassuring, especially when I felt a little unmoored, far away from all the festivities, friends and family.
A view of the Einsiedeln Abbey, housing the Black Madonna in the Chapel of Grace
The highlight of the week, of course, was being invited to Hyderabad-based visual artist Madhukar’s open studio. I was able to get a peek into one of the leading anti-caste voices in experimental artistic practices in the work of at Gleis 70. Leather becomes a tool of resistance in his hands. By crafting it into a thing of beauty, he subverts notions of pollution and purity, and a simple material turns into a complex metaphor.
Installation view of Madhukar Mucharla’s work in his studio at Gleis 70
In contrast to my first week spent in solitude and quiet introspection, the second week brought many conversations, new connections and a host of new inspirations.
