Monument of arrival and return
by Basir Mahmood, 2016, 10'
COURTESY: the artist    

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film
Presented at Directing the Real. Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s, 2017
 
The artist worked with the Kullis of Lahore’s railway station, whom he saw and observed while growing up in the same city. The Kullis were luggage-carriers and porters in England, and came to Lahore when the British brought railways to the Indian subcontinent in the 1800s. He saw the Kullis as persons who move but do not go. To make the work, the artist only sent the instructions and the work was made in his absence allowing the participants to both create and witness creation. As the work begins the participants gather in a group and lift personal belongings of the initiator to carry towards him, covering a distance that equals the distance between them and the initiator. 

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