00:00I'm Mithu Sen. I'm a visual artist. I try to conceptualize each of my projects and then
00:09execute in some kind of visual art form or performative form.
00:14I am Olchiki. It's kind of a declaration and reclaiming of the Santali script Olchiki.
00:37Here I try to kind of create with my team like my collaborative artist Sonnashi Lohar
00:46and the research assistant Bodhi Baske with this community. I try to kind of explore my
00:55long-term journey with language and also with the lingual politics over decades.
01:03So when I was invited by the Bengal Biennale, of course I was overexcited and then I was given
01:12freedom and therefore I was also given some venues which are like very art venues like
01:20you know kind of Swad or Gaba or different art spaces. But somehow I had a dream in my mind that
01:29because Biennale means Biennale is a movement and Biennale means you know to spread
01:34art over everyone like you know like it is a public event. So I was dreaming that I get to
01:43work in a village especially the Santal village nearby the university Shantiniketan and our
01:51department Kalabhavan and I approached the curator Siddharth and he said absolutely it is possible
01:58and he got permission of some houses from here. The people here are extremely kind and their
02:05welcoming was heart-warming like I cannot tell how it is like last couple of weeks and days.
02:12And about Olchiki is like I personally experienced the power dynamics through
02:18language and the lingual politics and confronting with like Hindi or English was not very smooth.
02:26So I had to experience the dominant power of hierarchies and dominant languages
02:37especially English and I literally started thinking about the language and exploring
02:44language and language to me is like a poetry, the sound, the script, the you know that basic
02:51you know the fundamental meaning of language. It all to me is like poetry and through poetry
02:59we can communicate with anybody and everybody. So I took language on like as poetry and poetry
03:05as my mother tongue and therefore I started researching and exploring language in my
03:11my own way. I tried to intervene you know like you know different parts of the world
03:16and how the communication is possible. I tried to even deconstruct the idea the monolith of
03:24the dominant languages and I call them in my own way un-languaging or non-language.
03:33Some language they imposed you know on us and how we feel the breathlessness and that
03:40discomfort and the struggle. The same way I see the Santali language which is an existing language
03:48over you know like maybe thousand and thousand years since they this tribe belongs to this
03:54earth and their script was invented by Pandit Raghunath more than hundred years ago
04:01or like nearly hundred years ago like next year it will be the centenary 1925.
04:08But still after hundred years we cannot really see these people have their own script they can
04:14write in this script all cheeky but they still speak. It was a oral language and it is
04:20continuing as oral language in their home and in their you know like the locals but they don't
04:26really know how to write this language and it is a very emotional kind of you know feeling
04:32than when you see that kind of unfamiliarity with their own thing that is
04:40belong to them. So I just thought of bringing the script which are beautifully you know like
04:48with a beautiful calligraphy and graphic with 30 letters the whole alphabet to bring back to their
04:54own space and it looks like a decorative but it is not really decorative it's more like a declarative.
05:00So it is their own voice it is saying that we are here and this is our language and we belong to
05:06this soil and this is who we are and that kind of you know like you see that you know that the
05:12cultural loss and that the erase memory is everything how passes by for over 100 years
05:19but still what is what remain is like their soul and their passion and their
05:24their desire to have their language. Sometimes it was ignorant that they did not really know
05:31that they have their own language. When we proposed this project and got the permission to paint a
05:38couple of houses in this village we are very excited and we took some local artists and
05:44villagers and research assistants and we started making a team so that we can start like working
05:51with them and spread that you know like what is going to happen among the villagers much before
05:57the project started working and we are using like all local materials like organic materials there
06:04is nothing like no chemicals we have used and so we have Sannashi Lohar for that he's technically
06:12very sound because he comes from this community. We are always engaged and I was making the design
06:17of each houses which are you know like becoming like a blackboard in the school under the sky
06:25like how usually we used to get classes like 30 years ago in Shantiniketan that very romantic
06:32idea of getting classes in the nature. I hope like they will celebrate things because they already
06:37started feeling and my most joyful thing is like working with them for last couple of days
06:42and the whole village is like engaged because they are trying to read them even not knowing
06:49sometimes a single letter so they are asking the young kids who started going to the school
06:55and who still can read a little bit because it's very very foreign to them it's their own language
07:01but it's very foreign to them and so that that kind of trying and then that kind of joy and then
07:07making fun on each other with the with the script and you know that it's becoming very playful
07:14but also celebratory. Along with this script like the Olchiki script I also tried to extend this
07:21project in two different parts like one is like introducing some digital image and icons like
07:29smileys and QR codes because that is like one of the most universally accepted language and another
07:36is a little booklet it's called I am Olchiki and to distribute it among the villagers we are doing
07:46a very simple book with all the letters in it each page has the letters and the numbers
07:55with a hope that it will become like a part of the educational it will become an educational tool
08:01I painted each letters with the blood red the passion of love and labor this time it is just
08:08the letters you know very straightforward alphabets on the wall but the young kids like girls and the
08:16boys who worked with me they even promised the next time I will come they will write poetry
08:21instead of just the alphabets so that is a dream and I hope that dream will come true.
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