JANUARY: The Lightning Testimonies by Amar Kanwar opened in October 2018 at Photo Kathmandu and remained on view at Chhaya Center, Thamel until March 2019. This extended viewing allowed for public programming that created a wide range of interactions on the issue of sexual violence with diverse publics that included school and college students, art, law, journalism and social-work students, educators, journalists and other media professionals, artists and filmmakers, theatre practitioners, researchers, activists, policy makers and the general public. The artist, Amar Kanwar, participated in several talks and discussions. This allowed for a series of interactions which became great opportunities, especially for young Nepali artists to learn about his practice in an in-depth way.

FEBRUARY: Ayushma Regmi, an independent educator and LGBTIQ activist, designed and conducted a 3-day workshop titled “Teaching Histories at The Lighting Testimonies”. It was attended by 20 social studies teachers from 12 different schools in Kathmandu. About the workshop experience, Ayushma writes; “The Lightning Testimonies has been an experience in disruption. It does not allow the viewer to sit comfortably in their own patterns of viewing linearly, chronologically, rationally. There is no system or structure to experiencing it. And so, we are thrown uncomfortably out of life-long habits of consuming the moving picture. The task, then, becomes to watch ourselves, and our unease, as much as what is laid out there in front of us. And then, to delve into a chaotic, disorderly way of viewing, listening, receiving, and participating. It requires spontaneity and improvisation. An agility of the mind and a willingness of the spirit to bend in previously unknown dimensions. It was with the intent of destabilizing history as a subject that we set out to conduct a workshop with secondary school social science teachers from private schools in the Kathmandu Valley earlier this February. The main idea was to help teachers to understand history not as a singular, linear narrative composed cleanly and clearly of reliable facts and timelines.”

FEBRUARY: In partnership with Conflict Victims Common Platform, photo.circle produced “14 Stories: Living Memories of War” an exhibition of photo stories by photographer Kishor Sharma of civilians living with conflict-related disabilities. These stories are the living histories of the decade-long armed conflict. After traveling to the home districts of all 14 survivors featured in the exhibition in 2018, the exhibition arrived in Kathmandu for the final show in February 2019. The exhibition was accompanied by public programming that included discussions, film screenings, and workshops in collaboration with different organizations. Photos: Tripty Pakhrin

FEBRUARY: A one-day workshop for performance artists was conducted in collaboration with Zubaan Books and Panos South Asia. The workshop opened with the viewing of The Lightning Testimonies. The viewing set the agenda for the first half of the workshop; to think about issues in the representation (particularly visual) of sexual violence and consider how we may break away from familiar tropes of representation. Participants identified common stereotypes through which sexual violence is visually depicted. They shared their observations on how several misconceptions about sexual violence are perpetuated through prevalent representational practices—for instance, about the nature of perpetrators and victims (concerning their age and other profiles), common locations and timing in which rape scenes are portrayed, the physical nature of the violence, the absence of women’s agency, the performance of silence or definite ruination, and so on. During this conversation, we tried to get participants to think not only about how problematic these representations are but also about how these specific modes of representation relate to actual ways in which we understand and adjudicate sexual violence, both culturally and legally. How would alternative representational strategies foster different understandings? One key takeaway from this discussion was what the insufficiencies of representational practices may have to do with the lack of vocabulary on sexual violence in our languages. How can that vocabulary be generated—especially with performance in mind?

FEBRUARY: Shikhar Bhattarai represented photo.circle at the Yangon Photo Festival and presented 2 Nepali photo projects. Photo: Shikhar Bhattarai

FEBRUARY: Team PC traveled to Dhaka for the 10th edition of Chobi Mela International Photography Festival. Chobi Mela has been a bi- annual pilgrimage for many of us where we meet old friends, reflect on on-going programs, discuss future plans, present work, make new friends. Photo: Sagar Chhetri

FEBRUARY: Many groups across professions visited The Lightning Testimonies. Among them, in February, members of the National Human Rights Commission, including previous commissioner Mohna Ansari, visit the exhibition.

MARCH: Bunu Dhungana and Sagar Chhetri traveled to Kalimpong, India to facilitate a week-long visual storytelling workshop. At the end of the workshop, they put together a pop-up exhibition and a slideshow presentation of all the works produced. Bunu and Sagar both practicing photographers themselves, also presented their personal works to a local audience in Kalimpong. The workshop was organized in collaboration with Focus Kalimpong. Photo: Ashwin Sharma

MARCH: Members of the Nepal Bar Council visit The Lightning Testimonies. Screening was followed by discussions on the challenges of dealing with sexual violence within the current Nepali justice system.

MARCH: Several student groups visited The Lightning Testimonies and each screening would be followed by discussions. This was a discussion session with students from Kathmandu University School of Law on justice and impunity in relation to sexual violence facilitated by Prakritee Yonzon (KU School of Law faculty) and NayanTara. Student groups from National Law College and Nepal Law
Campus also visited the exhibition at various points for viewings and discussions.

MARCH: Uma Bista’s exhibition “Our Songs from the Forest” opened at Chhaya Center, Thamel. This exhibition was a tender solicitation, into the hills of Achham, where we get to met a chorus of young women coming of age in a fast-changing society. These young women are learning how to navigate severely oppressive cultural practices alongside new aspirations of equality. The exhibition was curated by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati and produced by photo.circle in collaboration with the British Council Nepal through its Connecting Classrooms and Rivers of the World program.

MARCH: Manisha Nath (16) and Tejana Khanal (18) from Achham, who were both part of Uma Bista’s exhibition, came to Kathmandu and taught a workshop on how to use a menstrual cup. Tejana and Manisha are both trainers with The Rato Baltin Project and conduct workshops on menstrual health in Achham regularly. The workshop was followed by a discussion on Chhaupadi as a cultural practice and the challenges in implementing the new criminal code. The discusssion was conducted by photographer Uma Bista and Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati from photo.circle along with Manisha Nath and Tejana Khanal. Clara Garcia Ortés, founder and project manager of Rato Baltin Project and Pashupati Kunwar, project advisor, also shared updates from the ground. Photos: Tripty Pakhrin

APRIL: As a way to wrap up the 6 month showcasing of The Lightning Testimonies, we were honored to organize a special weekend of screenings of films by award-winning artist Amar Kanwar. This was a rare opportunity to view this range of works by one of South Asia’s most respected artists of our times, and was underscored further by the fact that he was present through the weekend at the screenings engaging with the audience. The screenings were in collaboration with Film Southasia. Photo: Sagar Chhetri

APRIL: The photo.circle team with artist Amar Kanwar, all still smiling after the end of a year long engagement of planning, installing, showcasing and activating The Lightning Testimonies in Kathmandu.

APRIL: We kicked off the Imperfect Solidarities seminar series in April 2019, as an inquiry into the intricate and imperfect workings of solidarity building and collective action within the feminist, women’s and other movements in Nepal. The series was specially conceived as a response to an invitation to collaborate in the Curriculum of Studies into Darkness by artist Amar Kanwar. Each “exploration” as we have been calling the seminars, has offered participants a unique opportunity to engage with peers; activists, artists, educators, journalists, lawyers, policy makers and others who have shaped, participated in and made pivotal contributions to various movements and campaigns across issues. The curricular paradigm has been exploratory – and not geared towards teaching. The intent has been to create space for difficult conversations. Imperfect Solidarities has been co-facilitated by Prathama Raghavan and NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati.

kickass group of Nepali feminists – writers, researchers, activists, educators journalists and artists who are all doing amazing work here in Nepal. It came together as a last minute thing – sorry we could not invite more of you! Next time! Photo: NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati

MAY: As part of our ongoing cooperation with Oslo Metropolitan University and the DOK festival, Norway, 2 Nepali photographers Karma Tshering Gurung and Sagar Chhetri travelled to Norway to represent photo.circle and participate in DOK Photo Festival 2019. Karma and Sagar attended various talks, presentations and exhibition openings during their visit to the festival. They also had meetings with partners, friends and various photographers from around the globe. DOK Festival also had a group exhibit and a book launch that featured the works produced during the International Documentary Workshop 2019 in China. Photo essays by 4 Nepali photographers, Karma Tshering Gurung, Sabrina Dangol, Rohan Bataju, and Shradha Devkota, along with their 16 counter-parts from Bangladesh, China and Norway was also part of the showcase.

MAY: The Feminist Memory project was exhibited at Thames International College as part of the school’s Social Work Symposium 2019.

MAY: One of our favorite workshops, our regular Introduction to Storytelling Workshop had a cohort of 11 young Nepali photographers for the Spring 2019 batch. They worked on individual photo stories/projects during the course of this two-week workshop. On the final day, all 9 photo essays were presented to a public audience at Base Camp, Jhamsikhel.

MAY: A new bundle on the block! Shuntu’s little brother Pushpayug joined the PC family!

JUNE: The 5th exploration of Imperfect Solidarities was on “Learning from the Natural World”. What if we learnt from other inhabitants of this planet, some of the oldest and wisest? What if trees and forests were our teachers? What would we learn? What would we do differently? This exploration was based on select chapters on Friendships, Social Security, Forest Etiquette, Hibernation, Burnout and others from Peter Wohlleben’s incredible book “The Hidden Life of Trees”. What can the interconnectedness of all forest inhabitants teach us about building community and taking care of each other? The exploration took place in Dhulikhel on a beautiful summer day.
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JULY: A new project was launched at Nepal Picture Library called “Indigenous Pasts, Sustainable Futures” with kind support from the Prince Claus Fund. This project is a part of NPL’s ongoing endeavor to document, archive and present Nepal’s marginalized histories. As with our other projects, we are looking for innovative ways to engage with our pasts. For this project, we began to explore traditional knowledge systems, design and material cultures, as well as a diverse selection of material objects, to examine indigenous forms of conservation and sustainability. Our goal has been to archive indigenous pasts by exploring material objects as primary witnesses to history.

JULY: Shikhar took a sabbatical and went sky diving!

JULY: Nepal Picture Library was pleased to invite Sumitra Sundar (India) and Aziz Sohail (Pakistan) for a summer Curatorial Residency to research the promise and potential of ‘queer archives’ in South Asia.

AUGUST: Mid-way through their summer residency, Sumitra and Aziz presented a one-day discussion seminar to collectively think about queer archives, art practice, and activism through conversations on how, as curators, researchers, archivists, educators, and activists, we can remember, recognize, and witness queer lives across South Asia. Photo: Sagar Chhetri

AUGUST: In collaboration with Film Foundry and Siddhartha Art-Gallery, we organized an Artist Talk by Belgian photographer Brigitte Grignet.

AUGUST: Team PC traveled to Dali, China to present the works of Kishor Sharma, Bunu Dhungana, Nepal Picture Library, Uma Bista & Sagar Chhetri at the Dali International Photography Festival. The festival also hosted the outcomes of the International Storytelling Workshop 2019 by 20 students from Bangladesh, China, Norway, and Nepal which included works of Shradha Devkota, Sabrina Dangol, Karma Tshering Gurung and Rohan Bataju from Kathmandu.

AUGUST: “What role does research play in your photography and art practice? What are the different ways research can be done?” This 3-day workshop was designed for intermediate and advanced photographers and lens-based practitioners to introduce them to research concepts and methodologies. Participants were asked to come with a project idea that they will begin to research and develop during the workshop period. The workshop was led by Sumitra Sunder, a Bangalore based independent art curator and researcher with inputs from Diwas Raja Kc, Head of Research at NPL and NayanTara.

AUGUST: Tripty Pakhrin was awarded The Alexandra Boulat Grant in remembrance of the late, prize-winning French photographer.
The grant enabled Tripty to study at the Danish School of Media & Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark this year as part of their Photo I program. Tripty became the 5th Nepali photographer to join this program in the last 7 years.

AUGUST: Exploration 7 of Imperfect Solidarities was centered on memory, memorials and memorialization and initiated conversations on the need for a broader imagination in terms of who, what, why and how we want to remember, the complexities of pain and the dangers of absolute positions. “How can we find a way to deal with different versions of history? How can we deal with different groups of people pushing for their own versions? In the spirit of Imperfect Solidarities, we discussed whether it is possible to create participatory, collaborative and collective processes, spaces and sites to memorialize, and what all this says about not only our past, but also our future, and about who we want to say we are.
Follow Imperfect Solidarities: https://www.instagram.com/imperfect.solidarities/

SEPTEMBER: NayanTara traveled to Melbourne to partake in a series of meetings, seminars and presentations hosted by RMIT University on themes around photography, civic engagement, and public histories. Photo: Shikhar Bhattarai

NOVEMBER: Rohan Bataju was announced the recipient of the 2nd Frit Ord Grant for his new proposed project “Left Behind”, that documents women in Nepali villages affected by mass out-migration. The project aims to explore how women tackle social stigma and loneliness every day, how social structures and dynamics evolve over time, and the role that the community plays. Rohan will receive 20,000 NOK to complete this project through 2020. The project will be exhibited at DOK Festival 2021 in Fredrikstad, Norway.