Conversation with Navjot Altaf — Samtal Jameer | Samtal Jameen (Equal Terrains, Equal Selves)

About the contributor:

Navjot Altaf
Artist
India

Navjot Altaf, often referred to simply as “Navjot,” is an artist, currently based in Bastar and Mumbai, India. Over the course of her four-decade career, Navjot has worked in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video, installation, mixed-media, and public art. Navjot’s art draws from an extensive knowledge of art history, as well as an understanding of the tribal craftsmanship of India, particularly of the Bastar region. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including at Tate Modern in London, the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, at the XV Sydney Biennale, in Sydney, Australia and at the Talwar Gallery in New York City and New Delhi.

About Samtal Jameer, Samtal Jameen (Equal Terrains, Equal Selves):

Project Samtal Jameer, Samtal Jameen (Equal Terrains, Equal Selves) brings together a diverse group of participants to discuss and elaborate on a wide array of subjects centered on ecology, enviromentalism, research and art practices. The project will explore ideas of multispecies worlds and to present understandings of what a multispecies world would look like from the perspectives of thinkers, academics, artists and activists, who are engaged in this issue.

Specifically, the project “aims at a radical re-thinking of human and non-human relationships. It seeks to expand the idea of democracy and sustainability through understanding the complexity of such lived relationships and the idea of justice and agency in a multi species world and the un-alienated life.”

The project has been developed and moderated by artist, curator and activist Ravi Agarwal and is comprised of 21 conversations recorded on video where Agarwal engages with each of the participants in the project on a variety of topics and shared areas of interest and expertise. The project branches further by presenting the work of the participants as it relates to Samtal Jameer, Samtal Jameen and the series of ideas, research and practices shared in common. Such work includes profiles on each participant, a bibliography of texts, works, photography, videos and other media relevant to this project. Each conversation found on this website reflects the critical and creative engagement of each participant as it relates to the themes, subjects and ideas that are central to Samtal Jameer, Samtal Jameen.