From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf, 2013

Feature-length film by sea between western India, eastern Africa and the Persian gulf. First shown at a purpose built outdoor cinema on the creekside in Sharjah in 2013, where many of the sailors gather. Shown in Documenta 13 in an abridged form, as part of the installation The Boat Modes.

83 mins. Original format(s): HDV, SDV, VHS, Cellphone videos (variable). Stereo audio and in-cameraphone music.

A boat has many powers: to gather a society in its making, to distribute goods, to carry people and ideas across places that, it seems to us, are more different than ever before.

The widely travelled feature-length film From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf; a vast, undulating, and musical spatio-temporal journey through the Western Indian Ocean, is a result of four years of dialogue, friendship and exchange between CAMP and a group of sailors from the Gulf of Kutch. Their travels, and those of co-seafarers from Pakistan and Southern Iran, through the Persian and Aden Gulfs show us a world cut into many pieces, not easily bridged by nostalgics or nationalists. Instead, we follow the physical crossings made by these groups of people who make and sail boats. And who also make videos, sometimes with songs married to them.

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf was awarded the Jury mention at Festival International de Cinema, Marseille and the New Views Prize, Olhar de CInema, Curutiba. It was the opening film at Images Festival Toronto, and has been screened at BFI London Film Festival, the Viennale, MoMA, Flaherty Seminar, Shanghai Biennale among other venues. It showed in Bombay and Sharjah in purpose-built cinemas; one inside a public museum and one on the waterfront and was on display at the Tate Modern 2019 - 2021.

This film is part of a broader multi-year Indian Ocean project, see Wharfage.

Filmography

2024
Heavy Metal Containers, Spectacle Cinema, Brooklyn
What the Cameras Saw and Remembered, Two films by CAMP, Capitol Cinema, Melbourne

2023
Afterimage: M+ Collections


2022
In The Heart Of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination In The Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Scoring The Words, SEOUL MUSEUM OF ART (SEMA)
MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai
Collections display: Media Networks, Tate Modern
Passages Through Passages, Sharjah Art Foundation, solo

2021
Collections display: Media Networks, Tate Modern
Museum of Contemporary Art & Design, Manila
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
Watch and Chill, M+ Hongkong
South Asia Foreground - Labocine

2020
Collections display: Media Networks, Tate Modern
Punto De Vista International Documentary Festival of Navarra, Pamplona

2019
Body Building, Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai
40 Films: An inventory of Contemporary Cinema, Festival des Trois Continents, Nantes

2018
An Oceanic Feeling, Len Lye Center Cinema, New Plymouth
Lahore Biennale 01, Alhamra Art Center, Lahore
The Ocean After Nature, The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, New York
Face Value, Transmediale, HKW Berlin

2017
Sekula beyond Sekula – Okeanos, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, TBA21, Vienna
Keimena, Documenta 14
Water in Indian Cinema, King’s College, London
The Ocean After Nature, Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide
Grossman Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, London
Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane

2016
Transactions, Manifesta Parallel Exhibition, University of Zurich
The Ocean After Nature, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Mosaic Rooms, London

2015
After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997, Queens Museum, New York
As If – III Country of the Sea, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum (solo)
Mobile M+ Moving images, M+ Hongkong

2014
Shanghai Biennale
Rupert, Vilnius
Porto Post Doc
Musée de la Chasse et de la
Flaherty Seminar, New York
Olhar de Cinema, Curutiba
Opening Films, Images Festival Toronto
Ann Arbor Film Festival
Tales from the Networked Neighbourhood: The Cinema of CAMP, Palestrina Cinema, Milan
FICUNAM Mexico
Mirage Cinema, March Meeting, Sharjah
Dhaka Art Summit

2013
Migrating Forms Film Festival, New York
Cork Film Festival, Ireland
Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival Doc Lisboa, Lisbon
Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival
Underdox, Munich
BFI London Film Festival_
Festival Internationale de Cinema (FID), Marseille
Le Pont, Museum of Contemporary Art, Marseille
Sharjah Biennale XI, Sharjah

2012
Documenta (13) as 'The Boat-Modes'

Credits:

Direction: Shaina Anand, Ashok Sukumaran.

CAMP, Siddik Umar Sanghar and Junas Salemamad Bhagad present:
Kutchi Vahan Pani Wala (From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf)

Camera: Siddik Umar Sanghar, Mrinal Desai, Junas Salemamad Bhagad, Ashok Sukumaran, Shaina Anand, Sulaiman Haroon Raja urf Dada, Jabbar Hassan Chingda, Ismail Haroon Ghandhar, Mohammed Rafik, Sulaiman Wahab Sumbhania, Abdul Majid Chauhan, Mehboob Abbas Sanghar, Hakimuddin Lilyawala, Anonymous.

Editor: Sreya Chatterjee.

More at: Indiancine.ma

Recent venues:

Tate Modern, London (on show through 2021)
Opening film, Documenta14 Kiemena program (on Greek Television) 2017

Gallery: From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
What the Cameras Saw and Remembered

Two films by CAMP
Al Jaar Qabla Al Daar (The Neighbour before the House)
From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination in the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection

Featuring From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
Organised by Deichtorhallen, Hamburg and Sharjah Art Foundation, curated by Omar Kholeif.

Scoring the Words

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
&
Wharfage

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

South Asia Foreground
Labocine, June 2021 issue

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

"Watch and Chill"
83 mins
2013
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, and online.

Passages through Passages الرفيق قبل الطريق

A survey exhibition of the spatial, technical and cultural imaginations cultivated by CAMP.
Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

Watch and Chill
M+
West Kowloon Cultural District

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

Watch and Chill
MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

On Display at Tate Modern, Media Networks, till November 2022

Wharfage

At first, a project on the creek in Sharjah in 2009, from where a large number of ships leave for Somali ports.

Festival des Trois Continents

Celebrates its 40th year with an inventory of 40 films and a publication. CAMPs From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf along with films of Wang Bing, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-Liang, Lav Diaz, Akram Zaatari, Lucrecia Martel, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Abbas Kiarostami...

Viennale Vienna International Film Festival

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
at Viennale

2nd and 5th November, 2013

Images Festival, Toronto

Opening Film
From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
10th April 2014 7:00 pm
The Royal, Toronto

BFI London Film Festival

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

83"

at
BFI London Film Festival
(moved to NFT 1)
South Bank, London
13th October, 2013
6:30 pm

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf


From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
2009-2013
Sharjah Biennial 11
March 13- May 13 2013
Film screening every evening 8 30 pm
at an open-air cinema on the corner of Bank Street and Corniche Road, Sharjah
Run-time 80 mins

Kino Museum Festival 2014

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
at
Museum for Modern Art in Warsaw
Sunday, March 23 2014
7:00 pm

Festival International de Cinema, Marseille

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
is showing at FID Marseille

July 2-8, 2013
Update: is awarded the Jury special mention
(International competition)

Cork Film Festival

Double Bill: Two films by CAMP


From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (83 mins)
and
The Neighbour Before the House (60 mins)

at the Cork Film Festival
November 12, 2013
Curated by Vassily Bourikas

52nd Ann Arbor Film Fest

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
Friday, March 28th 2014
3:00 pm
Helmut Stern Auditorium
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor

THIRD LITTLE CINEMA INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Opening Film
From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
Goethe Institut, Kolkata
3 December, 2016
6:00 pm

Masterclass with Shaina Anand
TENT
(Theatre for Experiments with New Technologies)
4 Bipin Pal Road
4:00 pm to 8:00 pm

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

The Ocean After Nature
Grossman Gallery
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
January 26, 2017 – March 18, 2017

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

At Body Building
Ishara Art Foundation

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf

Punto De Vista
International Documentary Festival of Navarra
Retrospective: Oceanic Feeling

7th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
83 mins

At Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival
Greek Film Archive Screening Room B
20:30 pm, 22nd October, 2013

At MoMA, New York

Screenings of three CAMP films

June 21 to 29
MoMA, New York
Flaherty Seminar Program

and
Modern Monday
June 23, at 7:00 pm

Lahore Biennale 01

CAMP at Sheher o Funn, the inaugural biennale of the city of Lahore with From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf.

Country of the Sea

As If – III Country of the Sea
DR. BHAU DHAJI LAD MUSEUM, Mumbai
February 21 - April 2 2015

A journey with CAMP’s five-year Wharfage project and related maritime explorations.

Sekula beyond Sekula

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
Film Program
Allan Sekula - Okeanos
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
TBA21, Vienna
Artists lecture
31st March, 2017

Olhar de Cinema

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
at
Curutiba International Film Festival
New Views, International Competition
Curutiba, Brazil
28th May to June 5, 2014

Update: awarded the New Views prize.

Unpacking "Country of the Sea"

A non-imperial view from the 'Other Boat', counter to images of the 'distressed seas'. With a presentation and screening of From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf at Transmediale 2018.

An Oceanic Feeling

CAMP’s From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (2013) at the Len Lye Center Cinema, New Plymouth

Country of the Sea

CAMP at Transmediale 2018, Berlin with reprinted Wharfage, The Annotated "Gujarat and the Sea" Exhibition and The Country of the Sea cyanotype.

The Country of the Sea

Single exposure solar cyanotype print on cotton fabric
CAMP with Shunya collective and Clark House Initiative 22 x 5 feet
An image of the sea as its own “country”, with frontier towns at its edges disorients an easy reading of this territory

As If - III Country of the Sea

A journey with CAMP’s five-year Wharfage project and related maritime explorations.

FIDADOC

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
at
Agadir International Documentary Festival
Algeria
28th april to 4ht May, 2014

Tales from the Networked Neighbourhood: The Cinema of CAMP

Five films by CAMP curated by Vassily Bourikas and Filmmaker Festival

21st march
6:00 pm Khirkeeyaan (2006) 17 mins
and Hum Logos (2012) 45 mins
at Careof DOCVA, Milan

22nd March
Cinema Palestrina, Milan
5:30 pm
The Neighbour before the House (2011) 60 mins
7:30 pm
From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (2013), 83 mins
22:00 pm
The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories (2011), 60 mins

Verzio Budapest

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
at
Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival

Budapest, 11 to 16 November, 2014

After Midnight: Indian Modernism To Contemporary India 1947/1997

Queens Museum, NY
Mar 8 2015m - Jun 28 2015

From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (83 mins)
and Stuffing and Destuffing (4 channel looped video 9 mins)

The View From The Other Boat

Outlook Magazine: A group of artists, filmmakers and technologists from Mumbai works together with a group of sailors to produce a feature-length experimental film.

At the Flaherty...

Turning The Inside Out
The 60th Robert Flaherty Seminar

June 14 to June 20, 2014
Colgate University, Hamilton, New York

CAMP was one of the featured artists this June. Films screened include Hum Logos, CCTV Social - Capital Circus, The Neighbour before the House, and From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf.



Bombay Tilts Down, 2022

13m 14s looped, seven channel environment with music
2022
Filmed by CCTV camera from a single-point location in South-Central Mumbai.

In Cameras Res, 2019

De Appel, Amsterdam

On three screens, a city-symphony filmed by automated CCTV cameras in Amsterdam. The optical and motor capacities of these cameras are pushed to an extreme. Certain human subjects reappear near or far in the images, suggesting a form of reciprocal knowledge or intent, a secret pact between cameras and people.

A Photogenetic Line, 2019

A 100-foot long sequence of photo-cutouts, first shown at the Chennai Photo Biennale, March 2019

Matrix : Skulptur Projekt Münster, 2017

MATRIX
Of mother, womb, array, environment in which more specialised structures can grow.

Theater Münster
Neubrückenstraße 63
10 Jun - 1 Oct, 2017
Site-specific installation with Electric cable, switches, speakers, monitors, custom electronics.

Men-At-Work with Boxes in Stereo

20 mins, HD. 2 - channel installation
Cantonese, Mandarin
Filmed in Guangzhou at the Zhuhai International Container Terminal

Descendants, 2014

A three-channel installation from 8mm film From the Clark House family archives, sequenced in a timeline as above. Each screen is a different part of the same 8mm frame, usually a face.

Destuffing Matrix

4 channel HDV, 8 minutes

Swearing-In-Whispers, 2011

A screenplay in Courier 12pt melodramatic format, spanning the first three days of lobbying for cabinet spots, in the wake of the Indian general elections of 2009. The dialogue is entirely from phone taps made by the government. The screenplay slows them down and asks: what kinds of environments and scenes may lie behind them, and how are they connected?

Printed screenplay and IVR-based phone line, audience can type in scene numbers to hear dialogue in the original voices. Also performed as a reading.

Hum Logos

Act II (Hum Logos) is a 45-minute audio film spliced from the Pad.ma collection of the Radia Tapes. It covers two months after the Indian general elections of 2009, with the new cabinet in power. The film asks: if debate around these tapes was about whether they are edited or not, or as Justice Mukhopadhay put it, "splice has been added", then what can further editing do?

All Works