Afghan artist Amanullah Mojadidi born in Jacksonville in the US, works from Kabul, Afghanistan where he campaigns for freedom through his art. In his homeland, Amanullah has received critical acclaim for his radical post-modern and conceptual art that draws from the current social realities of Afghanistan. Archaeology has become a tool of interactive art for the artist.
Amanullah has presented a multi-media land installation art at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in which he has replicated an archaeological dig - on an 8 X 10 sq ft plot of land - at the Aspinwall House to explore the threads between migration, dislocation, subversion of history through archaeological manipulations and clash of Sufi and Sunni Islam.
The shallow horizontal mud basin hosting the remains of a home supposedly belongs to an "exiled Afghan businessman". The camp office next to the dig - made of tin and mud - serves as the node through which information is disseminated to reach the viewers through a human liaison, who is the official tour-guide and dig supervisor. The guide anchors the landscape and is the interactive element of the project. Few odd specimens of ancient Chinese pottery shards on display gives temporal specificity to the venue - which dates back to the early Jewish migration to Kerala a millennium ago. The home and its occupant are the leading characters of a fictional narrative - a story-telling device that Amanullah has used to lend fleshy substance to his abstract concept.
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