Basement 21 – a group of creative artists based in Chennai –
Basement 21 is a group of creative artists based in Chennai, investigating contemporary thought and action by focusing not just on the artistic ‘product’ but the artistic process and the surrounding discourse, thus providing a necessary context often in need to be reconstructed. It is run by practitioners, informed by practice, and therefore committed to enabling and strengthening the growth of contemporary arts practice.
Founded in the year 2011 by Padmini Chettur, Preethi Athreya, K. Pravin and Maarten Visser – artists based at Chennai – Basement 21 hosts improvisation sessions involving artists from various discourses and presents performances, workshops and lectures on contemporary art. Krishna Devanandan, Natesh Muthuswamy, Meera Krishnamurthy, Vijay Boothalingam, Madhushree Basu, Anoushka Kurien, Sharan Devkar Shankar are among the many Chennai-based artists, who continue to be closely associated with Basement 21.
This blog aims to be a space for sharing thoughts, news and study materials on contemporary art – in the form of articles and visual media – with a primary focus on the Indian panorama. This blog is run by members of Basement 21. We feature artworks associates of this group created both independently and through the Basement 21 platform, but we are primarily interested to establish a free space to discuss art that we encounter and that stimulates our mind – not just as a form of entertainment, but the history, anatomy and politics behind it.
Basement 21 