The Supreme Court’s May 4 verdict on Bahria Town’s illegal procurement of land for its housing projects gives added meaning to the exhibition ‘Groundtruthing’ and the launch of the book Exhausted Geographies II, held at AAN Gandhara Art Space, Karachi from April 19 to May 10.

The two participating artists, Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani, present a thoughtful and thought-provoking exhibition, the result of an extensive collaborative investigation of displacement in the wake of aggressive urbanisation, symbolised by Bahria Town.

The artists suggest that developers first declare a space as banjar, ghair-abad aur ghairmehfooz (arid, unpopulated and insecure) quoting a Bahria Town report, and then promise to develop the very opposite — green, well-populated and safe residential spaces. But within this banjar ghair-abad space, Ranjani and Malkani have uncovered old settlements, legends and folk stories and a history they believe is soon to fall victim to development. The symbol of the road or railway is central to the work on display — straight, uncompromising, undeviating, unaccommodating lines that are juxtaposed with meandering rivers and naddis (streams) and dusty wind blasted natural landscapes.

An exhibition investigates displacement in the wake of aggressive urbanisation

The exhibition consists of two main videos and three smaller screens. These are accompanied by a set of books in four pairs — each pair has text in one and images in the other, titled ‘Jinnah Avenue’, ‘Churawaro’, ‘Borders’ and ‘Rakshas, Railways and Unruly Lines’. Perhaps the books are the main artwork and the videos accompany the texts.

Exhausted Geographies is a term borrowed from Irit Rogoff, a highly influential thinker, who encourages a subjective approach to re-interpreting the interconnectedness of art, geography and globalisation. Ranjanii and Malkani apply this subjective investigative methodology in both their publication, Exhausted Geographies I and II.

‘Jinnah Avenue’ describes a journey with a guide who tries to describe Ali Muhammad Goth, now lost in the grid of tarred roads. One can no longer “listen to what the ground is telling you”.

A place called Churawaro is renamed Ali Villa. The accompanying book, Zikr, has pictures of rivers and naddis now in Bahria land. And we are made aware of the loss of natural herbs used by locals, many of which emerge after the rains.

The symbol of the road or railway is central to the work on display.

A video shows Pahwaro Jabal where, legend has it, Sassui crossed in search of her lover Punhu. Another tells the story of Lalla Pir from Kerman, Iran, who dug a well and found water.

While the ‘Jinnah Avenue’ and ‘Churawaro’ investigations are poetic, exploratory and carry the voices of the land and the people they met, the ‘Borders’ and ‘Rakshas’ are more the voice of the activist artist.

The artists state, “Sometimes screen is a mirror and sometimes a lens.” The texts of ‘Borders’ and ‘Rakshas’ are clearly a lens through which the artists express barely veiled outrage at the sites of Gadap and Malir as “kill and dump” sites, controlled by security. Disused railways are Rakshas, evil cannibalistic ogres of Hindu mythology, emblems of colonial power and a parallel is made with CPEC.

The funders, the Graham Foundation established in 1956 by a group of architects, offers grants for projects that “expands the boundaries of thinking about architecture”. Gandhara Art itself is a curatorial and art publishing organisation with an international presence and there is a sense of the exhibition reflecting the current international dialogue on development.

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 13th, 2018