Pradip Das is a Kolkata-based Indian site-specific installation artist, painter and printmaker, known for his career-long exploration of new materials, ideas, approaches, and techniques. While formal art education equipped him with technical skills and theoretical knowledge, it was the dynamic cultural atmosphere in Behala, South Kolkata, that truly nurtured his inner artistic voice—enabling him to create works in which people, places, and their layered cultural heritage are inextricably intertwined.
Das’s practice engages deeply with Bengal’s cultural and political histories. Themes of displacement and migration are etched into his work, revealing how the past continues to shape the present. One of his most significant site-specific installations, Hridaypur (2024), was the result of a three-year research project in Naktala, South Kolkata, developed as part of the Bengal Biennale. The work explores the memories of refugee migrations during the 1947 Partition and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Transforming an ordinary municipal locality into a charged site of contested history, Das uses architectural structures, paint, recorded oral histories of local residents, text, and collected objects to craft an archive of trauma. These elements render the intimate histories of displacement as sensory experiences—tactile, auditory, and visual—blurring the boundaries between homeland and exile.
Drawing inspiration from both literature and film, Das captures the delicate connections between the past and the lived presence—through the lens of historical trauma, memory, and the everyday language of the people. His multimedia practice—spanning image, found and crafted object, sound, and text—weaves together complex cultural narratives in profoundly thoughtful and evocative ways. Rooted in Kolkata, Das’s work reflects how the city and its margins are shaped by people and their cultures, transcending fixed geographic boundaries. His enduring interest in memory, history, and community is also evident in his large-scale public works created for Durga Puja, Bengal’s most celebrated cultural festival.
