About the Actant
© Maksud Ali Mondal
Maksud Ali Mondal was born in Bankura, West Bengal. He finished his BFA and MFA from the Department of Painting, Kala-Bhavana, Santiniketan (2019) and did a semester from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Netherlands (2016). He deals with biological and feral life by observing growth and transformation over a period of time interacting with the materials. His site-specific installation Nature Unconditioned, won an award in the Kochi-Muziris Students' Biennale (2019). He is the recipient of the national scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, The Government of India (2018). Heparticipated in a residency supported by Feudo Maccari, Sicily, Italy (2018), numerous group exhibitions in India and the Serendipity Art Festival collaboration with Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, Goa 2019. His recent works are concerned critically and creatively with the ecological debates and crisis that surround us today. Maksud currently lives in Santiniketan.
© Maksud Ali Mondal
Fungal Garden is inspired from underground termites’ colony where they nurture ‘fungus garden’ for their survival.
Fungal Garden intends to further the conversation and interplay between nature and culture in the current ecology by bringing scientific experiments into an accessible space. Aspects of modern agriculture and urban gardening will be part of the conversation. Here, witnessing the micro process of nature’s growth becomes a metaphor for everyday life.