The artist and photographer Gauri Gill has been examining the everyday life of the rural population outside India’s urban centers for over two decades now. Her quiet, concentrated photographs focus the viewer’s gaze on barely perceived peripheral areas in Indian society. In an open, collaborative process that eschews documentary conventions, she has dedicated herself to concerns related to survival and self-assertion, identity and belonging, and also to conceptual questions of memory and authorship.

The SCHIRN is presenting Gauri Gill’s multilayered photographic work for the first time in an extensive survey exhibition, bringing together about 200 pieces from pivotal series. The temporal dimension and the serial continuity, as well as perseverance and empathy, are decisive factors in her artistic practice. Serving as the bedrock for a large part of her work since 1999, as well as the genesis of several photo series, is the long-term archival project "Notes from the Desert", in which Gill has used photography to engage with marginalized communities from Western Rajasthan. Particularly underscored here, as across the artist’s entire oeuvre, are her long friendships with women, whom she highlights in intimate portraits. As a counterpoint to her projects in the desert, the photo series "The Americans" (2000–2007) is dedicated to the diverse lifeworlds of the Indian diaspora with respect to migration, home, and cultural affinity. The exhibition also places a particular focus on the artist’s collaborative approach, as seen most recently in her ongoing conversations with often overlooked rural artists.

An exhibition of SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT in cooperation with Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek