Selected works

Victor Chakravarty image

The Man Without Qualities

2024
Installation view at Shoreditch Arts Club, solo exhibition, London

 

The Man Without Qualities, uses Robert Musil’s unfinished novel of the same name as a vehicle for exploring contemporary sensibilities. The incomplete nature of Musil’s work was central for the creation of this piece, using the fragmented and the ruinous as the aesthetic and creative premise. It counts a total seven characters, all variations over the one protagonist, Ulrich, of the novel. Through allegories and allusions, the work explores the current condition of human culture, the instabilities of individual and collective identities, as well as the totalization of ideological space.

It was presented as a video installation and performance piece at Shoreditch Arts Club, London, in the spring of 2024.

The Man Without Qualities

2024
Installation view at Shoreditch Arts Club, solo exhibition, London

Victor Chakravarty selected works

The Man Without Qualities

2024
Still from The Man Without Qualities Video triptych, 24:53 min. 4K, 2023

victor chakravarty selected works

The Man Without Qualities

2024
Installation view at Shoreditch Arts Club, solo exhibition, London
Performance documented by Pete Spanjer

Victor Chakravarty image

The Man Without Qualities

2024
Installation view at Shoreditch Arts Club, solo exhibition, London
Performance documented by Pete Spanjer

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London 2023
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

This work consists of a transcription of the names of victims who died from Covid-19 who had

given consent for their names to be published. In total, there are over 80,000 names. 

It took me over 3,500 hours to complete this work, amounting over 18 hours of work every day for an entire year between 2022-2023.

Link to extract of the video documentation: https://youtu.be/r7_v7BXUdls

Link to the entire documentation: https://youtu.be/eUBakHRu3t4

7 panels 180x90 cm

Typewritten on Japanese woshi long fibred koshi and gongi paper 2022-2023 
Video documentation: 10 min.

victor chakravarty selected works

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

victor chakravarty selected works

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

victor chakravarty selected works

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

victor chakravarty selected works

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

victor chakravarty selected works

Temps mort – à la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 / Time out - in memory of the victims of Covid-19

2022/2023 Installation view at Goldsmiths, University of London
Temps mort / á la mémoire des victimes du Covid-19 - Time out, in memory of the victims of Covid-19
The first Covid-19 memorial in the world

Victor Chakravarty selected works

Correspondence as Praxis

About Correspondence as praxis

In my correspondence work, I am dealing with the impact of digital technology on our understanding and use of models of communication. With the birth of major chat platforms back in 2006, I decided to focus on a disappearing format, the letter. We witnessed the breakdown of a major emblem in our cultural history. During the Renaissance, initiatives such as République des Lettres and Royal Society were constituted as ways of sharing scientific discovery. It had hitherto been the medium for intimate communication over distance, sharing and voicing experiences that might be prohibited by or marginalized in society.

My praxis with writing letters, i.e. correspondence as artistic praxis, is a undergoing project, counting over a 1000 letters written between 2007 until today. As a by-product, the letters have also been an active way of practising philosophy, creating a communicative environment where it is possible to discuss ethics and minority existence, as well as engaging with literary discourses around the absence of the book or literature outside the book-medium and other non-standard formats.

Correspondence as Praxis

2013/2024

Correspondence as Praxis

2013/2024

Victor Chakravarty New filters of happiness

Correspondence as Praxis

2013/2024

victor chakravarty selected works
Poster Victor Chakravarty Moving Center Literary Festival Amsterdam

The Unknown Photographer, Learning from the archive was presented as a performative lecture at the Moving Center Literary Festival in Amsterdam 2024. Drawing from the writings by feminist geographer Gillian Rose, philosopher Peter Osborne, scholar Maria Ludovica Santini and Professor James E. Young’s writings on after-images in Contemporary Art, I produced a video work that responded critically to the visual ideology in the archive with which I was working. I bought the archive in a thrift store in Berlin 2022, no biographical details were given in it. It displayed an obsession with landscapes and power.

Along with the video work juxtaposing the archival material and my response to it, I wrote a lecture criticizing and contextualizing the unknown photographer’s obsession with power and beauty.

victor chakravarty selected works
victor chakravarty selected works
victor chakravarty selected works
victor chakravarty selected works
victor chakravarty selected works