Bharat Sikka "Indian Men"

The Gallery Z2O is proud to present the first of a series of exhibitions by young, already
affirmed Indian artists, that of the photographer Bharat Sikka (New Delhi, 1973).
There are many ways of represent the changes that have occurred in India over the last
decade and Sikka has chosen a particular, unusual perspective, one that abandons
traditional clichés with which India is often represented: the portrait of that Indian
social class that - for better or worse - is determining the profound change.
The work presented at Sara Zanin’s Gallery, "Indian Men", is made up of a series of
colour portraits, taken over the last five years, of mainly middle-aged, upper-middleclass
men.
Looking at these men, photographed inside their own homes or in other family contexts,
details stand out - their attire, the objects surrounding them, the interiors - they
combine to tell their story: who they are, how successful they are, the wealth they have
accumulated or inherited. Yet, in the powerful humanity of Sikka’s pictures, there is
something more: the vision of contemporary India. Through his detailed and broadranging
portraits he describes the great change sweeping crossing India: the constant
attention to traditions that come into contact with the attractions of modernity
everyday, in the attempt, absolutely congenial to Indian culture, to integrate the one
with the other.
Enigmatic, complex, contradictory, fascinating, proud: through the faces of these men
Bharat Sikka is offering a contemporary vision of his Country.