The Bagri Foundation is excited to invite Nikhil Chopra to be interviewed as part of our 30 Artists, 30 Years project, celebrating our 30th anniversary. We are proud to have supported his residency at The Met, New York in 2019/20 for the commission Lands, Waters, and Skies. Nikhil’s response to our invitation can be heard below, where he introduces a new radio programme led by Sergie (played by Nikhil), who interviews the real Nikhil!
Radio Radical Interviews by Nikhil Chopra
for the Bagri Foundation
Nikhil Chopra’s artistic practice ranges between live art, theatre, painting, photography, sculpture and installations. His performances, in large part improvised, dwell on issues such as identity, the role of autobiography, the pose and self-portraiture, reflects on the process of transformation and the part played by the duration of performance. Taking autobiographical elements as his starting point, Chopra combines everyday life and collective history; daily acts such as eating, resting, washing and dressing, but also drawing and making clothes, acquire the value of ritual, becoming an essential part of the show.
The artist has exhibited and performed globally since 2005. Participation in important solo and group exhibitions include Fire Water, 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, China (2018); Drawing a Line Through Landscape, documenta14, Athens, Greece & Kassel, Germany (2017); Blackening VI, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, UK (2017); Bhairav, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK (2017); The Black Pearl: the city from the river, Alchemy, Southbank Centre, London, UK (2016); La Perla Negra, La Bienal de Habana, Havana, Cuba (2016); Use Like Water, Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015); Give Me Your Blood and I Will Give You Freedom, Singapore International Festival for the Arts (2014); Inside Out, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy (2012); Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory Drawing X, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai and the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2010). The artist has also performed at Performa, New York (2008); the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); and the Yokohama Triennale (2008). Chopra lives and works in Goa.