Art exhibition at Kalimpong house that was Tagore’s favourite

EOI, SILIGURI, JUNE 19, 2023 : The Big I Art Foundation Siliguri initiative held during the weekend a multidisciplinary art project at Gouripur House, Kalimpong,

A heritage site, Rabindranath Tagore used to frequent here and several of his wrote several of his compositions here. 

The 78th birthday of the poet was celebrated during his stay in Gouripur. Tagore himself had recited his own poem over the telephone
which had been broadcast by the Kolkata Centre of All India Radio. This is considered the first step in communication between Kolkata and Kalimpong over the telephone, according to the West Bengal Heritage Commission website. 

Dr Nilratan Sarkar and Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy had asked the poet not to go to hill stations, but he again visited Kalimpong on September 20, 1940, and fell ill during his stay at Gouripur Bhavan. He had to be shifted to Kolkata. 

In 2018, the West Bengal Heritage Commission declared Gouripur Bhavan as heritage. This kind of modern art project that the Foundation held at Gouripur Bhavan is said never to have been undertaken in the area.

The primary goal of the project was to use contemporary art to illustrate various facets of the architecture of the historic Gouripur House as it currently existed.

Temporary installations of site-specific art were seen on the balcony wall, the fireplace in the hall room, and the side of the stairs leading to the second floor. An antique mirrored artwork was mounted on the centre wall of this ancient wooden stairway, and the reflection of the identical staircase was also shown in this mirror art work. 

The inanimate walls of the house were revealed through a few randomly selected rectangular paper frames; this was similar to a finding where the deterioration of the present spoke of the past.

Gouripur House in Kalimpong has a beautiful architectural design that features multiple square, colorful glass windows to let the daylight come from the wooden ceiling. 

On May 17, 2023, a clay empty vase with the words "birthday” was placed in Tagore's bedroom to symbolize the reunion of the historical phenomenon with the emptiness of the current Gouripur House through "Project Gouripur House (PGH). 

The house also has an abstract protagonist standing in static mode as a metaphor for an unknown story in the empty room. In the frigid light, the architecture of the vacant Gouripur House occasionally shows a dramatic or intellectual tone.

The artists who participated in the project were Rajesh Barman, Sudeb Ghosh, Susanta Paul, and Amit Sutradhar.