Le Jardin de Lorixa: The Story of a Forgotten Herbal. Talk by Prof. Kapil Raj Friday April 12, 2019
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art and Ardha Matra Collective are happy to invite you to:
Le Jardin de Lorixa: The Story of a
Forgotten Herbal
A talk by Prof. Kapil Raj, moderated by
Samuel Berthet
6:30 pm | Friday, 12 April 2019 | FICA
Reading Room
at FICA Reading Room
F-213/E-2, 2nd Floor,
Old Mehrauli-Badarpur Road,
Lado Sarai, New Delhi 110030
Location pin
FREE ENTRY
Prof. Kapil Raj will present a botanical
treaty composed in Odisha and Bengal between the end of the 17th and the
beginning of the 18th century.
For the European nations that were engaged
in the conquest of the world in the early modern era, making inventories of
local flora was held in priority. Voluminous herbals were prepared by the
Portuguese, the Dutch and the English.
A French surgeon based in Orissa and then
in Chandernagore at the turn of the 18th Century also spent more than three
decades, and a personal fortune, to complete a similar project, resulting in a
14-volume folio herbal, 12 volumes of which contain 725 double-folio
gouache-and-aquarelle paintings of 722 plant species. However, his work was
ignored by Parisian savants. Why?
Ardha Matra Collective proposes a stroll
under the shade of a canopy woven by the mutual growth of nature and art. This
is the first presentation is the first of a series dedicated to our
understanding of the vegetal world.
Kapil Raj is a Research Professor of
history of science at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
He is currently visiting professor in the School of Humanities and Social
Sciences of Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida. His research is focused on
the construction of scientific and technical knowledge through processes of
circulation and intercultural encounter, especially between Europe and South
Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. He is currently completing a book on
the urban and intellectual history of Calcutta in the 18th century.
Samuel Berthet is a historian teaching at
Shiv Nadar University. He is working currently on the Indian Ocean, the
Northern Bay of Bengal, and shipbuilding.
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art
is a non-profit organisation that aims to broaden the audience for contemporary
Indian art, enhance opportunities for artists, and establish a continuous
dialogue between the arts and the public through education and active
participation in public art projects and funding.
________________________________________
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art
(FICA)
D 53, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024,
India
FICA Reading Room
F-213/E-2, Second Floor, Old
Mehrauli-Badarpur Road,
Lado Sarai, New Delhi 110030
Email: info@ficart.org | Web:
www.ficart.org
Tel: +91 11 4254 6579