‘Burning Speeches’ by Amol K. Patil:
Mumbai – Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary artist, Amol K. Patil, weaves sound, sculpture, and performative traces into a haunting spatial choreography. Titled ‘Burning Speeches’, Patil’s presentation at Sophiensæle, a former theatre turned art venue with a radical history, quietly but powerfully confronts the erasures of speech, memory, and marginalised lives. Drawing from the political texture of Mumbai’s BDD chawls – dense tenement housing for industrial workers in the early 20th century – Patil parallels these spaces with Berlin’s own charged past of political unrest and repressed expression. “The history of migration, labour, and performance sparked a deeper interest in how such spaces become alive through collective action. In my practice, I’m using the image of the hidden figure (visible in my paintings and other works) to represent those unheard voices. The hidden figure becomes a symbol of silent presence, producing voice, text, and community relationships beneath the surface”, shares the artist.
The installation is deceptively simple: a radio crackles and emits fragments of fiery speeches by B.R Ambedkar and Rosa Luxemburg, an old typewriter hammers out a relentless clatter beneath the glow of a video projection titled ‘Is it a Failure to Fail Life?’. “The cassette recording on the radio acts as a kind of memory of the very act of my father recording it. It helps ground my speech in something tangible, turning the radio into an object of protest. It ties into the older idea of silent protest, using the radio as a quiet but powerful medium for expression”, shares Patil. The elements don’t spell things out for the viewer—they murmur, stutter, and dissipate. It’s this minimalism that gives the work its depth. Silence is not absent here, but the result of suppression, exhaustion, or exile.
