Driven by passion in the service of art field

Bhargavi Gundala, a post-graduate from the fine arts department of University of Hyderabad started "Dhi ArtSpace" as a one point platform for artists, art researchers and all other art related activity. Bhargavi, in an exclusive conversation with The Hans India, shares about her journey. Let's have a look in to it.

My visit to MS University in Baroda made me feel jealous and start this artspace. Bhargavi says, "The inspiration to start art space is very different as there was no intention of starting any gallery at all but while I was a student and collecting art, I used to visit MS University, Baroda every year. It's been almost two and half decade I have been visiting every year. Whenever I go for final display in Summer, I always had a very wonderful experience there and at the same time I was jealous about it because you know there was a unique way, I never understood why India has so many artists from Baroda University why not from other places, I always had this question in my mind.

Why the Baroda University has the unique style. It was not the style of the University or any kind of school which taught something like that but it was an interesting way of teachers who practice there. So, while I was going in Summers every year, they used to practice in the morning and by evening it was like everybody would sit groups including professors, talk, chat, discuss about everything in the art world. For me coming from different place, it looked very different which is not a practice in Hyderabad. That's when I came to know and understand why the Baroda School was so different They had knowledge about everything and anything in the space around them."

"So when I came back from Baroda each time, I was always disappointed because I was also a student here by then and I would see there was not much happening. There was no access to the teachers or with the professors much here where we could talk or interact or even have a discussion. Okay, we would have wonderful classes. Apart from that, we never had this, a fantastic experience of being understanding and knowing things without any rules. So that's when I came and I thought I should have an interactive space where we can have discussion, talks and lectures and simple fit with a cup of tea. And that's when I started this space with the intention to start something like where you have a group of people sitting and talking and pick up a book. So I set up a printmaking studio at a library, a very good collection of books with library. And I started with we wanted to start with digital library as well, where we had lot of access to getting wonderful videos and lot of material which can be watched, which is not very accessible in those days without Internet. But we had access to a lot of those things today," Bhargavi added.

Speaking about the state of art in Hyderabad, Bhargavi said, "The state of art in Hyderabad those days was very minimal especially for the contemporary art where people expose to traditional art forms and the folk art forms but for contemporary art it was not much exposed and not much acknowledged that when it gave me a thought you know that we should start lot of art appreciation session. One should know how to appreciate art but how do you appreciate them, how do you look at them, how do you practice them. Many come and have look at the gallery in minutes and then come and say we don't understand art. They would want something representational, or an art of era and that disappointed me a lot. So that's when I decided to hold sessions on appreciating art let it be contemporary or any sort as such but appreciating an art in necessary. We started inviting people and had interacting sessions especially with younger students, having panel discussion to understand how to promote art. I wanted to bring all these people under one roof, that was my idea. I do about four shows in a year, don't do many and rest of time I do come up with lectures, series of talks which help understand art better."

She said, "But now the situation in Hyderabad is changed. We see many Hyderabadis moving and going to Delhi and visiting art fair there and contemporary art has been highly appreciated. Especially the young are coming forward to look at an art and understand an art, trying to find out how to proceed and how to collect. They start with basic and they improve so well. And now I see many groups are making tours to art fairs.

Speaking about her love for art, Bhargavi says, "This gallery only runs on passion and nothing else. Its highly passion driven. It's an art community wanting certain change in the city, intellectual, growth of our city in art. It's just beginning and we just started to work. I am only concentrating on contemporary art. When I look back after all these years, the artists are doing phenomenal works at international level. Speaking about family support, Bhargavi says, "Me like this without my family support is impossible. My parents, my in-laws, my child who is a doctor everybody supports me. I started my career very late after my son moved away from home, It's not something deliberate but I am happy with I am doing and totally enjoying what I am doing. I like curate it in a way rather than just doing the work as it seems. I like to curate the thing and things happen in the ways it has to happen."