Tarshito: On the Sacred Trail

ART, IN ITS myriad forms, is a rare avenue for declaring the oneness of humanity. As a univer­sal language, it has the power to forge connections and deliver a powerful message. Nicola Strippoli, or Tarshito, as he is better known, is an Italian architect and artist who has made it his life’s mission to do exactly this through his wide range of works, each one of which is made as a collabo­rative effort with indigenous artists and craftsmen from around the globe.

His commitment to this ideal can be seen at his ongoing exhibition with the Sanskrit title Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, meaning ‘the world is a family’. Curated by Tunty Chauhan of Gallery Threshold, the exhibition first opened at the Bihar Museum as part of the Bihar Museum Biennale last year, and is currently on display at the National Crafts Museum, Delhi. In it, Tarshito collaborates with folk artists across traditions that are on the brink of fading away due to a lack of patronage or awareness. Twenty-five dif­ferent styles have been explored includ­ing rare ones like Rogan, Mir, Nirmal, and Cheriyal and more mainstream ones like Madhubani and Warli.

Tarshito’s engagement with folk and indigenous art isn’t limited to India. He has worked with folk artists from Argentina, Uruguay, Morocco, to name a handful, and has showcased the results of these collaborations in museums worldwide. As an architect, artist, sculp­tor, gallerist, teacher and performer, his work transcends disciplines.

The seed of his fascination was plant­ed during his first visit to India in 1979. After exploring the tourist route for a while, he was drawn to spirituality with a focus on psychology and meditation. Before long, he found himself at Osho’s ashram in Pune, and it was the guru who gave him the name Tarshito, signi­fying ‘a seeker of inner knowledge’.

Chauhan writes in her curatorial note, “In a world torn by strife and borders, Tarshito stands like a colossus, whose vision matches his ambition to celebrate brotherhood through artistic collaboration. His practice is a testament to cross-cultural exchange, a celebration of common humanity, and a deep respect for India’s cultural heritage, shaping his art and life profoundly. His extensive migratory pilgrimages across India ignited a passionate journey, nurturing a valuable repository of diverse Indian folk traditions and deep spiritual understand­ing, fostering close relationships with craftsmen and infusing new energy into indigenous practices and rare crafts. Amidst fading echoes of cultures lost to time, his sojourns have helped frame a critical archive.”

The fulcrum of his practice lies in dexterously merging the essence of indigenous craft with more contempo­rary methods and expressions. To honour his intercontinental search for univer­sality and brotherhood, he documents geographies of his own making in unique borderless maps that meld continents, countries and remote villages into one. In this manner, he seeks to draw up his own idea of ‘One Family’. For him, these artistic collaborations are more than mere professional engagements—the connection is spiritual, the relationships deliberate. “Tradition is where I find the value of life. These indigenous tribes and their people teach me a lot. They know the true meaning of the earth and the sky. They really respect nature, and they in­stinctively know the symbols and rituals that I strive to learn about,” he explains.

In this exhibition, the focus is on creating map artworks where multiple hands create the final piece. The first two are Tarshito and his team’s from Italy and the remaining two belong to indigenous artists who are given creative freedom once the concept of the piece is discussed with them. The resultant imagery shows a borderless world, which is in stark contrast to today’s reality.

Though he draws on these ancient traditions, he also revives them, infusing them with contemporaneity through his own artistic expression. The works differ in scale and size. They often consist of a mix of materials and motifs, and juggle a number of metaphors to provide varied meanings. His inspiration for this fluidity in form may be ascribed to the beginnings of his practice in the 1980s. As he explains, “Earlier, there were borders—this is art, this is craft, this is design. In the ’80s, it all became very mixed, and I was very comfortable with this kind of unity. I was coming to India regularly for spiritual reasons, but I began to see the richness of the arts and crafts and I was in love with it all.”

His first artistic collaboration in India was a collection of carpets using a Tibetan technique, titled Carpets of Meditation. Artists from around the world contributed their sketches, which were reproduced as carpets. Sharing his fascination with collaborative work, he says, “It’s because I like relationships. I like the humanity of working together. I don’t like to work alone. Now when I collaborate with a brother or sister in India, Bangladesh, Peru, China, Brazil, Morocco, or Thailand, it’s so beautiful. I feel one with myself, with you, one with our roots, one with the sky, one with the artists. I am looking for the soul. The soul is beyond the colour of the skin, money, or even culture. For me, there is only one culture and the culture is love, simply love. I am travelling to different parts of the world just because I want to feel the brotherhood or sisterhood of being human—be it in Colombia or India or any­where in the world.”

Despite their collabora­tive nature, the works have distinctive portions that can be ascribed to each artist who has worked on it. Where Tarshito’s contributions are almost always depicted in black and white, the remain­der of the painting is colour­ful in keeping with the style of the folk artists. The result is an interesting balance between tradition and moder­nity, playfulness and gravitas.

Certain symbols— mostly trees and animals of varying sorts—are repeat­ed often to tell of nature’s universality. A work titled The Tree and the Snake contains Tarshito’s stark white tree with snake-like leaves, while Baua Devi’s curlicued snakes with red faces decorate its sides in typical Mithila or Madhubani style. The art made in Rogan style from Gujarat, places two trees next to each other. The first, by Tarshito, is large and sparse, and the sec­ond by Abdul Gafoor Khatri, is intricate and beautifully decorated.

Another work, Kadamba Tree and Madhubani depicts a bright yellow Madhubani scene with flourishing trees and interesting animistic figures made by Ajit Kumar Jha, while mirrored below is Tarshito’s bare black-and-white tree. The same mirroring of trees technique is used in the Kalamkari work he does with MV Reddy. A more elaborate kalamkari piece, also made with MV Reddy, is Tarshito and Kalamkari where his map, painted in black and white, occupies one half of the entire artwork. The rest is given over to a bright and beautiful forest scene made in typical Kalamkari style in hues of sunset oranges and reds.

Walking in Bengal follows the same principle where Tarshito’s elongated map shares space on a scroll with a group of master artisans—Prabir, Mantu, Sonyia, Tagar, Layla, Suman, and Mamoni Chitrakar—of the Patua style of painting. On it is displayed a procession of Hindu gods and goddesses traversing this new world in the compa­ny of vividly painted foliage and animals in a style typical of this form of art from West Bengal. Walking in Orissa follows the same principle but with a different style of art—that of Patachitra which hails from this state. Here the scene depicted atop Tarshito’s map is of dense forests, village homes and rivers painted with painstaking detail.

In the Gond artwork, Yamuna River: Liquid Love made with Kaushal Prasad, a bird-shaped rivulet splices through the map in vivid blues and greens. There is also the sedate yet striking Bhopal Landscape, which is a large scroll depict­ing animals, made in collaboration with a large team of Gond artists.

As the Indian subcontinent is a fount of craft knowledge, this exhibition isn’t restricted to paintings and drawings. Several rich pieces focus on intricate embroidery on fabric. This includes the beautiful Holy Tree made with Veerben Marvada, God with Aachar Maya Marvada and Vase of Wisdom with Geeta Megha—all of which are fine examples of Kutch mirrorwork textiles. There is also the striking Guerriero D’Amore made with Mangu Ben from Gujarat. Holy Geographic Tree 4, originates in Bangladesh where the map is painted onto a Kantha embroidered backdrop made by artisans of the Kumudini Welfare Trust of Bengal.

The titular piece of the exhibit, Una Sola Terra Una Sola Umanita, depicts Tarshito’s map on one side offset by a beautiful tradi­tional textile from Nagaland on the other.

Fabric also plays a prom­inent role in the painted tents that dot the exhibi­tion. These tents certainly are emblematic of shelter and protection but could also be a nod to Tarshito’s unusual and adventurous life. Curator and artist Kristine Michael writes in the exhibition note: “For Tarshito, the tent is a symbol of hospitali­ty and community. Protection from tents can symbolise a desire to escape from the pressures of modern life and retreat into a simpler, more peaceful existence, associated with the need for a break or solitude.”

This desire also ties in with the idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Tarshito ex­plains, “I like to work with the traditional artists, the indigenous communities, the native people all around the world. It is very important to stay associated with them. In traditional communities, before they begin anything, they start with a ritual, a prayer, like painting an ‘Om’, or offering something. This is so beautiful because it means they are living a life in continuation from ancient times, follow­ing practices that are very old, rituals that have never stopped. I like to be part of this, it feels like a continuation of the past to the future.”

(Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam by Tarshito, curated by Gallery Threshold, is on display at National Crafts Museum, Delhi, till April 15)

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