The performance, that took place last week, was the result of an intensive 10-day body workshop and residency hosted at HH Art Spaces, Goa, run by Chopra and his wife Madhavi Gore, and was supported by Japan Foundation where six artists practising different artforms came together and were led by Berlin-based Kaseki. The 90-minute piece was a result of the workshop and served as an exploration and response to the landscape of urban India. At this point, amid the monsoons, the city’s picturesque lush green environment was juxtaposed against viewings of strewn garbage, slums and indiscriminate construction.

“We reacted to the narrow gully in Khirkee. The performance interacted with the people who’d gathered. We are interested in bridging the gap between elite art spaces and the street. The divide is only getting deeper and the sparkling mall across the road stands as testimony to that. We were also reacting to urban squaller, the mass consumption that so many of us are hypnotised by and the mismanaged trash that remains strewn, festering in the monsoon rains. This is even more apparent in Delhi as it is still a city with a significant green cover,” said Goa-based Chopra.

The 90-minute piece was a result of the workshop and served as an exploration and response to the landscape of urban India.
The 90-minute piece was a result of the workshop and served as an exploration and response to the landscape of urban India. - Dressed in a white cotton costume, bearing imprints of being rubbed vigorously in muddy water so that it tells of the prevailing monsoon season, Goa-based performance artist Nikhil Chopra slowly snaked his way out of Khoj Studios in Khirkee Extension and into the street. He quietly observed the audience, his curious eyes looking at those present, including noteworthy names from the art world, including Subodh Gupta, Vivan Sundaram and Bharti Kher.