Between 1976 and 2002, Paris based painter Velu Viswanadhan embarked on a series of five films in India about the elements that form the material basis of the universe (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether) according to the ancient Vedas. Ganga (Water) is the second film in this pentalogy where Viswanadhan traveled upstream along the Ganges River, setting out at Sagar Island in Bengal (at the confluence of the river and the Bay of Bengal ocean) and traveling to its origin at Gomukh in the Himalayas.

The film is a sensorial exploration of life that prospers on the shores of the most significant river of the Indian subcontinent – its civilizational lifeline. At various points we encounter shots of religious rituals, architecture, fishing, craftsmanship – each of them autonomous and self-fulfilled, without feeding into an overarching narrative – documentary shots that bestow poetry to the mundane.

On the soundtrack we hear singing, chanting, and field recordings that densify our reception of the image. The film evokes history and philosophy, myths and poetry, murmurs of the past resonating through the life on the coast and pointing to its perpetuity, always alert to its transformations over the ages but without any romantic allusions.

Viswanadhan spent his formative years in the 1940s in Kerala and belonged to a family of Visvakarmas (a Hindu mythological concept with Upanishadic roots meaning “architects of the world”) who were potters, blacksmiths, and sculptors.

Between 1976 and 2002, Viswanadhan made a series of five films in India about the elements that form the material basis of the universe (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether) according to the ancient Vedas. These films combined the artist’s unwavering observational and non-intrusive documentary interest in religious rituals and mechanical labor with a painterly interest in landscapes.
(Arindam Sen)

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With the support of Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds and KAAP.
A program curated by Arindam Sen.

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