Nilanjan Bhattacharya
Talk
Nilanjan Bhattacharya is a documentary filmmaker, Artist, Writer and a Scavenger of Knowledge who now lives between Leipzig and Calcutta. For many years, he has been
exploring the Indigenous knowledge about biodiversity and food in India and produced
several films and installations. He has also been engaged in many artistic collaborations,
initiated and implemented several interdeciplinary projects like, Interpretative Interactive
Archive on Calcutta (with Praneet Soi) and Neighbourhood Eco-Media Lab with a group of
local children). He was the creative consultant for the first-ever online version of the Indo-
European Art Residency programme in Calcutta (2021). Nilanjan writes on food and
Calcutta’s public culture.
His works have been showcased at Mumbai International film Festival, RAI International
Festival of Ethnographic Film, Goteborg International Film Festival, Les Rencontres
Internationale at Centre Pompidou Paris, Wellcome Collection Gallery London, Experimenter
Art Gallery Calcutta, European Kunsthalle, and Frankfurter Kunstverein.
Twice (2005 & 2010) he received the National Film Award of India.
At present Nilanjan is curating (with Jörn Schafaff and Araine Beyn) an art project relating to
the cultural effects of migration and situated in India, Colombia and Venezuela, Japan and
South Africa. He is also working on a video installation titled, Who Looks at Whom, which will
be installed at the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig.
