Indian Artist Looks to Bring Works to the Everyman

MUMBAI - “I wasn't interested in contemporary art, and I never thought I would become an artist,” said Asim Waqif, whose debut European solo show, “Bordel Monstre” (Monstrous Mess), opens at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris on Friday.

The Indian artist Asim Waqif with his elaborate sculpture "Bordel Monstre," at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.  The work is made of materials including plastic waste and wiring.

"Zuk 1," a site-specific installation, draws on the multiple ways bamboo is used in India.

But Mr. Waqif, a former architect, said he felt limited designing within the confines of an office, and about seven years ago he started producing avant-garde installations.

For the Palais de Tokyo display, which runs through Jan. 21, Mr. Waqif, whose previous works have incorporated video, sound, dance and sculpture, has used unconventional material, weaving debris - like discarded wood panels, wiring, plastic waste, metal and dry waste - into an elaborate, interactive sculpture.

The 34-year-old multidisciplinary artist described the exhibit as a “means of making people aware of their own movement, to take into account an element of risk in their lives, of being careful and conscious.”

In an effort to stimulate all five senses, he built mechanical pedals and electronic panels into the mazelike structure so that spectators could actively engage with the work.

“People will be actors in the work, which includes light and sound,” said the show's curator, Daria de Beauvais, by telephone. “It will be a unique experience for the audience because they will be able to hear, see, walk, feel and smell the work.”

“Bordel Monstre” is the culmination of Mr. Waqif's fall residency in Paris, which was supported by SAM Art Projects, and is the first exhibition to be displayed in the recently expanded Palais's Music Temple room, a space originally dedicated to creating electronic music. Describing the large room as “challenging to work in,” Ms. Beauvais said she was impressed by the artist's ability to make it his own. “The way some people work with canvas, Asim works with space,” she said.

Mr. Waqif's art is deeply informed by his background. “Because Asim trained as an architect he has a strong understanding of materiality and space,” said Pooja Sood, who runs the artists' association Khoj, based in New Delhi.

Sunita Choraria, a prominent Mumbai-based contemporary art collector, whose garden displays the artist's large-scale bamboo and rope sculpture “Zuk 1,” agreed. “He gets scale, volume and how to intervene in large spaces,” she said.

“Zuk 1,” a site-specific installation meant to act as an entrance to Mrs. Choraria's garden, draws on the multiple ways bamboo is used in India, including scaffolding for construction projects. Light but extremely durable and able to handle weight, bamboo is considered a pedestrian material in India because of its abundance.

The use of bamboo underscores Mr. Waqif's specific interest in vernacular architecture - the creation of innovative constructions using traditional, local materials - as well as in environmental sustainability. Since his initial foray into art seven years ago, he has built an oeuvre that comments on India's consumerism and its effect on the environment.

His focus on India's rapid economic development reflects a wider concern here about the price of such growth. Two years ago, Mr. Waqif created “HELP, Jumna's Protest,” with his own funds, spending about 60,000 rupees, or $1,100, to install a work made of plastic bottles, LED lights and a metal frame spelling out “help” on the heavily polluted Yamuna river flowing through Delhi.

“We have such a strong association with water bodies in Indian culture but modern Delhi has been designed with its back to the river,” said Mr. Waqif. “The sheer amount of waste and sewage that is dumped into the city has obliterated the river. I tried to recreate the persona of the river goddess coming back using new-age technologies like LED lights.”

At a summer residency last year at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he was one of 65 artists selected from 2,041, Mr. Waqif deconstructed a studio space and transported the walls to an old, partially open-air shed on campus, where he reinstalled them, and then placed dead wood, moss, leaves, blankets and plastic around the work, to document the way these elements had been incorporated and absorbed, said Sarah Workneh, the co-director of the school, via e-mail.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 6, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.