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Rathin Barman

RATHIN BARMAN

The Thinking Forest Is Not A Metaphor Experimenter 22 February–6 April 2019 Ballygunge Place, Kolkata
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Press Release

Experimenter is pleased to announce The Thinking Forest Is Not A Metaphor, Rathin Barman’s third solo at the gallery. Barman has long been exploring the nature of built structures and what lies beyond the visible. This exhibition is a continuation of this exploration as Barman probes how we live and finds deep connections between forests and the old homes he visits—both sustaining and nourishing those who inhabit them. Applying an anthropological lens in sculpting and drawing, Barman forms long lasting relationships with inhabitants of these old homes in North Kolkata, which are in various stages of disrepair, demolition and have long lost their past grandeur. Much like the forest, these homes are in effect, polycentric. They have multiple roots, trunks and branches, all of which are interlocked and inseparable and so are its people and their personal histories and relationships with each other. Barman explores this polycentrism of relationships and their built environments in this exhibition.

Anecdote, insight and memory play a crucial role in Barman’s practice. He assimilates memories, building fragile scaffoldings of connections between the architecture of these homes and the people who live and thrive in them. Often in doing so, Barman finds these homes and relationships to be closely intertwined, much like a forest, where each separate root feeds the trunk—a thinking, alive and rich entity, entirely unlike what it seems like on surficial engagement. The exhibition explores this inter-connectivity’s through a body of sculpture in construction materials such as concrete, iron and brass. These are accompanied by works on paper and act as both propositions and reminiscence at the same time. They stand as fluid markers between the built architecture and several transient emotions that may be evoked in living within these spaces.

The Thinking Forest Is Not A Metaphor is about the kinds of spaces that Barman researches and spends time within, their transformations and paradoxes they represent. It is about the different ways in which these paradoxes can dissolve and the challenges this poses for its inhabitants living in that coiled ecology. Barman is interested in the precise conjunction of the disembodiment of the built form and the simultaneous renewal of future possibilities.

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About the Artist

Rathin Barman (b.1981) examines the nuances of the modern built environment as a tool for understanding socio-political history. Architecture is characteristically perceived as a fixed entity, central to validating history yet simultaneously existing outside it. To Barman however, architectural form has also served as an anthropological tool, in building a collective recollection of a place and its people.

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Also Exhibiting

All Exhibitions
Rathin Barman
RATHIN BARMAN The cage broke, and I found the horizon Experimenter 15 March–14 June 2026 Experimenter Outpost, Kolkata
About the Gallery
Experimenter was co-founded by Prateek & Priyanka Raja in 2009. With a multidisciplinary approach, the gallery is an incubator for an ambitious and challenging contemporary practice. The program represents some of the most critical contemporary artists worldwide. Considered to be a ‘pace-setter’ for its region, the program extends from exhibition-making, to knowledge creation, through regular talks, performances, workshops and most importantly, through it’s much acclaimed, annual curatorial intensive, Experimenter Curators’ Hub. In 2016, its artist-book publishing wing, Experimenter Books was launched. Experimenter’s program is rooted in dialogue and dissent. In 2018, the Experimenter Learning Program (ELP) was launched. ELP enables discussion, debate and learning in fields of contemporary and performing arts, curatorship, film, writing, language and social culture. In 2019, Experimenter Outpost an iterative exhibitions program outside the physical gallery where an extension of the program temporarily inhabits disused, characterful spaces was launched. In 2020, Experimenter Labs, an inclusive, experimental, online platform in addition to the onsite gallery programming was launched. Its third space Experimenter – Colaba, established in 2022, underscores the commitment of its discursive programming to Mumbai, a city that in turn represents the diverse pluralities of the region.
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Address
45 Ballygunge Place
Ballygunge
Kolkata
India
Opening Hours
10.30 am - 6.30 pm | Tuesday–Saturday
(1)
Kolkata 45 Ballygunge Place, Ballygunge
Experimenter contemporary art gallery in Ballygunge Place Kolkata India
Experimenter
45 Ballygunge Place, Ballygunge, Kolkata, India
+91 33 4001 2289
http://www.experimenter.in

Opening hours
10.30 am - 6.30 pm | Tuesday–Saturday
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