Drawing a Line through Landscape: The Tent
by Nikhil Chopra

When seen from a distance, there is a constant glow within the tent as if it has a warm light switched on. In the day, the drawing is backlit and at night, when the oil lamps burn inside, it lights up, heightening the pigments in the marks. Each drawing takes two days to complete. At every stop along the journey, the tent invites us to inhabit it. People come in and spend hours, then return again and again to see the drawing at different stages, to soak up the energies of the tent, to nap, relax, discuss, dream. There is always a little something to eat, and in each place we visit, over time we are always brought an offering—of food, drink, or fruit—by welcoming hosts or locals from the area who are intrigued by the environment in the tent. The tent is a traveling theater of calm and humble hospitality that is always grounded in the sincere effort to find oneself lost in translation. Moving between larger towns and cities, like Ioaninna and Sofia, it becomes evident that people interested in contemporary art share a common language; by contrast, in smaller towns and remote villages like Gorna Lipnitsa and Tsarino in Bulgaria, and Cozia in Romania, we appear on the scene as a mysterious crew of artists, draughtsman, and image makers, creating a special environment for a brief span, like a magical memory that could be implanted in the mind.

—Madhavi Gore