Drive by Video
event, 2015
This was an event made by the ’Famous Artist’(Leslie Johnson & Smriti Mehra) and Siddhanth Shetty on October 30, 2015 in the newly constructed but yet-to-be occupied shopping center in Yelehanka New Town, Bangalore. The video projections occupying the empty commercial space attracted a large crowd of invited guests as well as motorists and pedestrians who happened to be passing by. While individual video art works were showcased, Famous Artist Collective conceived of the event itself as a work of art.
The curation of the event was started as an open call to a limited group, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology and friends of the artists. We perceived of ourselves as artists, producers of an event that realized an artwork, rather than as idealists working for the public good. The artwork was the event. This complex work with the visuality of large format videos occupying otherwise static window displays, the possibility to interact with our expectations of the shopping experience – consumption itself was central to our idea. The overall effect could then be experienced on a secondary more focussed level - the individual video art works. Part of the event was to create a space for the public for contemplation. Surprising them with art as opposed to messages of marketing. Due to the fact that consumption is so ubiquitous we needed to occupy a massive space, all the space, to make a competitive spectacle.