Cross-disciplinary artist Goshka Macuga simultaneously assumes the role of curator, historian and designer to question historiography, political structures and the pressing issues of our time. Rabindranath Tagore (Blue) (2022) includes a plaster head of Indian polymath and Noble laureate, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) as a flower vase. The work relates to her larger series of 73 bronze sculptures 'International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation' depicting 61 historical and contemporary figures in imaginary dialogue across cultural and temporal divides. Tagore was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India and is known for his experimental outdoor school, Visva-Bharati in present-day West Bengal, India. He had a particular sense of ecological philosophy and ethics, influenced by ancient Indic thought. For Macuga, Tagore’s partial colour vision deficiency, and how this impacted his writing and his art, is of central interest.
