Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art – India

SSAF offers an abbreviated set of propositions that will, they hope, generate well-developed project proposals and a critical discourse.

Installations foreground material structures, sometimes articulated as object configurations and dispersed fragments and at other times, architecturally. Within the parameters of the concept and term, an installation may construct a mise-en-scène for sculptural staging. It may present archival (photographic and documentary) data for conceptual and pedagogical purposes. It may succeed in imagining community and provoke social action.

On another plane, an installation may create a fluid spatiality, a phenomenology for heightened affect. This may entail additional use of film and video, multimedia, including computer-generated fictions, kinetic forms, light, sensors and sonic elements – technologies designed to draw the spectator into an immersive and interactive environment.

Installation projects are often contextual; in selected instances – when the elements deployed are inalienable from the selected site (whether warehouse, museum, landscape or ruin) – an installation may be considered site-specific. This is a distinctive feature of installation art but not definitional, nor is it a mandatory condition for the Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art.

Grant Details

• The duration of the grant is 18 months.
• The comprehensive grant amount is up to INR 8 lakhs. This amount is expected to cover all expenses pertaining to the project including research visits, production, shipping/freight, installation and de-installation.
• A maximum amount of INR 1.2 lakhs may be included in the budget as artist’s fee for the entire duration of the project.
• The project must be located in India. Location details, if the project is site-specific, need to be specified in the proposal.
• The proposal should include as much information about the work as possible, enabling them to gain greater clarity about the potential and practicality of the project.
• The proposal must include a concise schedule and detailed budget for the research, production, installation and de-installation phases of their proposed installation projects.
• The project should be feasible in terms of costs and scale, and should meet the dates set in the timeline by the artist.
• While the selected project will receive financial support from SSAF, all logistics related to the project will be the responsibility of the artist. Arrangements and negotiations relating to the selected site, as well as the execution and display of the installation, will be carried out by the artist. The durational aspect of the display of the work will be proposed by the artist in consultation with SSAF and on-site/institutional administrators. The installation in all its constituents will belong to the artist and the artist will be responsible for the de-installation and storage of the work.

Deliverables

• The selected candidate will be expected to:
  • Submit regular, quarterly written updates that include details of the budgetary expenses and a narrative description of the progress of the project.
  • Be responsible for maintaining budgets according to the financial guidelines set by SSAF.
  • Submit a final written report and photo documentation of the completed project.
  • Submit a utilization certificate verified and signed by a certified chartered accountant at the conclusion of the project. All bills and vouchers must be retained for a period of one year after the conclusion of the project and SSAF reserves the right to check these in that duration.
  • The Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art must be credited in all future exhibitions and publications of the project.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art invites applications from artists or artists’ collectives of Indian origin who reside in India. Preference will be given to applicants who lack access to networks of national and international sponsorships.
• The Vivan Sundaram Grant for Installation Art will support an individual artist or an artists’ collective to conceptualize and produce a new work within the broad parameters of installation art as outlined above.
• Artists who currently do not hold a grant or a residency where the proposed project has been developed.

For more information, visit SSAF.