About the Medicine Corner:
Medicine Corner is a project that explores India’s rich plurality of cultures in medicine, healing and well-being through a series of cultural activities that include electronic music, live events and exhibitions.
The centrepiece of this programme is a major exhibition titled "Tabiyat" that explores the history of medicinal practice in India through the ages at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai, in early 2016.
About "Tabiyat: Medicine and Healing in India": an exhibition of historical approaches to medicine in India at CSMVS, Mumbai
Through an array of antiquities and contemporary material culture, the exhibition (12 Jan - 28 March, 2016) explores the history and modern practice of sustaining health in India. The exhibition spans four locations: The Shrine – to encounter the role of spiritual belief in healing; The Home – examining lifecycle and the family as the key transmitter of values and practical knowledge for living well and living long; The Street – charting public health, the hidden histories of health commerce and cultural practices such as chewing paan; and The Clinic – treating India as a key site in world history for enquiry into the nature of body for different analytical models of treating the body.
The exhibits include: sculptures, clothing, textiles, decorative wrestling clubs, manuscripts, intimate personal items such as combs and foot scrubbers, medical instruments, domestic utensils, oil paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, plaques and board games (including a snakes and ladders board from late 18th century - the game has Indian roots).
About Jeevanchakra: modern influences to interpret Indian medicine- at the Akar Prakar Gallery, Kolkata
This exhibition (18 Jan - 15 Feb, 2016) looks at the work of contemporary Indian artists between the period of 1990 to 2015 to interpret Indian medicinal practices. It consists of photographs, video, paintings and multi-media installations. A set of exquisite silver gelatine prints by photographer Gauri Gill shows the key, intimate moments as a child is born on the sandy floor of a desert home in remote rural Rajasthan.
The child is born at the hands of a dai, a traditional midwife. One of these photographs, showing the moment the umbilical cord is severed, is exhibited at majestic scale at Tabiyat in Mumbai, both to resonate with the sequence shown in Kolkata and as a work in its own right, highlighting the role of the dai in Indian civilisation.
Trick or Treat by BLOT!: British Council, New Delhi
A day-long event will kick off with a series of sessions and workshops that look at inviting medical practitioners, scientists and researchers to discuss key findings about the future state of healthcare in India.
The workshops will culminate in a multimedia musical evening with BLOT! and other artists. Two media installations will be presented, which have been created using documentation from the project.
Each installation features audiovisual art presented within a unique artefact inspired by the context of research.