Research and Documentation
In India, GBI assists curators, scholars and artists in research projects relating to art. We do this by means of field research, library research, charting, mapping, research aggregation, and other media.
Curatorial Research
With in-house expertise on art and artists, GBI facilitates research for exhibitions.
Still from documentary film, Darpan (2019),
photo courtesy: Green Barbet, India
The Mirror in Indian Art and Culture
2019
For the Indian section of the exhibition, THE MIRROR– Our Reflected Self at the Museum Rietberg, GBI undertook research in the field, identifying sites, museum and private collections relevant to the curatorial theme. We also identified resource people, communities, and cultural traditions that were significant to the exhibition.
Short Films for Exhibition
GBI has produced a series of documentary films, capturing art forms, history and tradition through interviews.
Mirrors of Malabar, Documentary Films
2019
With material gathered through field research and interviews, GBI produced, directed and edited four short documentary films on rituals involving mirrors practiced by the people who lived along the Malabar coast .
Given the expansive nature of the topic, making these films involved extensive travel and research on the often fluid or interpretative understanding of ritual practices surrounding mirrors
The films were presented at the international exhibition, THE MIRROR– Our Reflected Self, (2019) in Zurich. Since then they have been screened at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, ABI, Varanasi, and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, between 2019 and 2020.
Short Films for Being Jain, Art and Culture of an Indian Religion
2022
GBI has directed and filmed a series of 6 short films around Jain practices and traditions in India over the past two years.
The films which include themes like pilgrimage, asceticism, writing of Jain manuscripts, are made for the upcoming exhibition at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, Switzerland.
Coming Soon
17th November to 30th April, 2022-23
Craft Documentation
We at GBI have an enduring love for the crafts and have made it one of our objectives to document the expressions of India’s varied artisanal cultures.
pataṅg, e-learning platform
2020
In the winter of 2020, Green Barbet, India in collaboration with the Alice Boner Institute (ABI) and the Goethe-Institut e.V, launched pataṅg, an online platform that explores a heritage of craft with Varanasi’s finest artisans.
Publications
Reach out to us to publish research and new scholarship on art and culture in India. With our connections in the world of academia and design, we furnish writers with the resources they need to produce quality research. Our publication volumes are available at the Harmony Bookshop.
Alice Boner Dialogues, publication series
2020
Born out of the Dialogues on Alice Boner seminars, where scholars deliberated on the significance of Alice Boner’s work, this series was launched to cover the diverse topics that her work encompassed and the equally diverse voices and opinions she inspired.
The Alice Boner Dialogues are a series of single volume articles published by the Alice Boner Institute, Museum Rietberg and GBI, that present discussions related to Alice Boner’s body of work. Scholars and artists contribute to its editions, exploring her manifold legacy. Volumes 1 and 2 of the series were published in 2020.
Vol.2 of the Alice Boner Dialogues, photo courtesy: Green Barbet, India