Roll, roll, damn you!

By WAC | 4 OCT 2022

The above simple and irresistible epigraph is an introduction to the project Black Mask on Roller Skate by AMOL K PATIL.

In this artist's childhood, a friend of his father rode around on roller skates, broom in hand and radio clutched around his waist, sweeping the streets every day; but he was not welcome on the bus or in other crowded places because he belonged to one of India's lower castes. Overlapping the noise of the streets with his music, he tried to show his disagreement with the society he had to live in. On this remembrance Patil builds a hundred-day-long performance in Kassel.

The artists move through the exhibition spaces on roller skates, with cleaning brushes and with radios playing the songs —both remote and written for this occasion— Powada: a tradition of protest dating back to the 17th century and used to angrily criticise the caste system.

In another time and place, a dance marathon was for many the only chance to escape from the misery of their society. In such fiction —They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, by Horace McCoy's— the audience enjoyed contemplating the suffering of others during the long days of the event. This is not the case for those who participate in Patil's allegory, given that they are invited to roll and roll to enjoy documenta fifteen artistically.

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