Game for Thukral and Tagra?

On Thursday Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra made cement look delicious It was the preview of their interactive project Memoir Bar and visitors to Chatterjee and Lal tried to be on their best behaviour as they queued up to put it mildly to make a tile each We were instructed to first jot down our memory on pieces of paper called lsquomemory cardsrsquo then shred them and mix the torn bits with cement to make a hexagonal tile Each tile looked like a cheesecake swirl with colours corresponding to six emotions related to the memories Playfully made with poignant material over 350 such tiles were made by Friday night making them the first batch of building blocks for the artistsrsquo project Emotional Pavilion at Dubai Design Week in October 2016Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra PicsSneha KharabeLooking back we recall some of the tilegames we played mdash Scrabble Mahjong and Dominoes Was it just us or did Memoir Bar just pun on tilegames Cheeky Thatrsquos Thukral and Tagra for youMemoir Bar is their latest performative art project and is derived from memorygames As one of Indiarsquos foremost names in contemporary art the duo has already created nine projects related to games while their popquixotic oils on acrylic have done very well at auctions Their first The Beautiful Game devised in 2011 travelled to five cities across the world It combined billiards with ideas of safe sex It saw 30000 players and went on to be used for HIV campaigns Last year they created Walk of Life which also comes in a water version at a residency in Khoj Delhi the project travelled to Manchester Museum last month Two more are in the works mdash one in which heartbreak becomes a form of currency and a war game which has to do with the consumption of food and the egoKnown to play with multiple mediums the duo is asking this question What if the playing field was a gallery and artworks were units to toy with ldquoTo us aesthetics come naturally and we have a distinct visual vocabulary However while we make visuals we also got wondering how to make people enter them physically mdash to be immersed in these visuals mdash and thatrsquos what these games and performative projects are about We want to make a new stage for people and move away from the traditional ways of approaching artrdquo says TagraFor Memoir Bar Thukral and Tagra have collaborated with a name that pops up often when we mention heritage in the city Bharat Floorings and Tiles Bharat Tiles founded in 1922 is a much soughtafter name when it comes to restoration work be it at Crawford Market or the BMC officeTheir collaboration began when Firdaus Variava CEO of Bharat Tiles spotted their work Letrsquos Dye for Each Other made of socks and boxer shorts at India Art Fair last year Variava wondered if the artists would hop onboard to collaborate on designing a tile or two as have othersStrangely Thukral and Tagra were interested in the process rather than the finished product ldquoWe wanted to see how we could get people to interact with these tiles explore their memorieshellip These tiles also have to do with nostalgia Emotions and nostalgia mdash these are a common currency for people rightrdquo says ThukralBut Variava has a simpler explanation ldquoThey want to make people cryrdquo he laughsWith Memoir Bar like with their other projects the game lies in losing control to the participants ldquoThis surrendering to audiences is the key variable that differentiates a designed object from an art object Art has its own flow you donrsquot know how itrsquos going to turn outrdquo says TagraWith Thukral and Tagra their love for games and their art is tied up with each other you have to keep looking out for clues At Memoir Bar for instance they left hints to their other games Stacks of white sacks mimicked cement bags for the tiles a war bunker for their upcoming war games or pillows to cry into about their upcoming game on heartbreakThursday also saw the preview of their ldquoplaybookrdquo made along with game theorist and curator Prayas Abhinav It introduces The Pollinator ldquoa new model that uses game design and aesthetics to formulate new ideas Game theory has been used before in management but this is the first time it is being used in aestheticsrdquo says Tagra The Pollinator says Abhinav could be a new intervention and a new curriculum in design theory which has become dated in India The Pollinator documents Thukral and Tagrarsquos gameprojects which keep getting added by the dozen ldquoWe donrsquot know when to stop There will be chapters and extensionsrdquo says Tagra