About

Parvez is a multidisciplinary, conceptual artist from India, with an interest in exploring identities (labels and markers) and status quo. He experiments with the form and build narratives that are often grounded in history and socio-political situations. He engages with Live Art / Performance, Installation, Video, Image and Text among others. 

He uses a variety of media that ranges from the body, Images (moving and still), Sound and Print process to found objects and industrial material. He seeks his raw material from encounters with the routine social conditions and situations in life.

He studied Medicine and then went to work in Psychiatry upon graduating from a Medical school in India in 1990. He worked at the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi and the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, Delhi. That experience played a major role in pushing him towards Media and Arts. In 1995, he left the hospital to pursue filmmaking and learnt the craft on the job. Over the years, he expanded his practice into conceptual art and evolved a unique style to articulate his narratives that are intensely experiential in nature.

Currently he is based in Basel.

2020
Shortlisted for Visarte Corona Call 
39 works (out of the 684 submissions) are selected for exhibitions across Switzerland in 2021

2013
Silver Beaver – National Science Film Festival, India

2012
2nd Best film – We Care Film Festival, India

2010
Best Film – “EIGHT” International Short Films Festival, India
Best Film – We Care Film Festival, India

2007
Best Short Film – Indian Documentary Producer’s Association Online Award 
Special Mention – WHO’s “Images of Health and Disability”  Geneva

2006
2nd Best Film – 3rd International Video Journalism Awards, Berlin
Certificate of Merit – ‘Frames of Mind’ International Film Festival, India

2002
Nominated for MITIL Awards – Switzerland

2001
Best Film – New Delhi Video Forum’s Film Festival 

Solo Shows
2021 
COMMODI-FICTION – Museum 1, Luzern. Switzerland. (Apr 10 – Oct 02, 2021)
Curated by Stephan Wittmer

2019
Q-Bar – Eck – Raum für Kunst, Aarau, Switzerland
Curated by Sadhyo Niederberger

2017
Orphaned Time l Verwaiste Zeit – Ein Fenster inmitten der Welt (A Window in the Middle of the World), Murrhardt, Germany
Curated by Copa and Sordes

Group Shows
2024
Verbinden – Helmhaus, Zurich
Of Barriers and Distances – Gallery Dotwalk, India + DOCK & VIA, Basel
15. Performance Reihe Neu Oerlikon – Oerliker Park, Zurich

2023 
Found in Translation (FIT) – GZ Hirzenbach, Zurich
BYOB – Transbona-Halle, Basel
T.E.N.D – Museum 1, Luzern
Together Elsewhere – Online Performance event 

2022
Regionale 23, We are so many here – Kunsthalle, Basel
Ich Und Die Welt (The World And I) –  Kulturhaus Helferei, Zürich

2021
Entree&hommage 2021 – Projektraum M54, Basel
Mother Earth Calling – Salon Mondial, Basel
Corona Call – Projektraum M54, Basel, Switzerland
Corona Call – Via della Gallinazza 10 und Piazzetta dei’ Capitani 3, Locarno, Switzerland

2020
Performance reihe Neu-Oerlikon, Zurich, Switzerland
Must or Not – Kaskadenkondensator, Basel, Switzerland
Visarte Corona Call – Online

2019
Short Visibles II – Wacker Art, Mühltal, Germany
Short Visibles II – Pforzheim Galerie, Pforzheim, Germany
Big Bang Good Bye – Kunstraum Waldhaus, Zurich, Switzerland
SUMME Jubiläum+Auftakt – Performance Program – Humbug, Basel, Switzerland
RE: ACT – Voltage, Basel, Switzerland
We Are The Lion / Der Löwe sind wir – Kunsthalle Luzern, Switzerland
Food Futures Art – Kunsthalle Faust, Hannover, Germany
L21 Performance series / Project L21 – Löwendenkmal, Luzern, Switzerland
Dots & lines – Public spaces, Basel, Switzerland
KW Performances – Kunstraum Waldhaus, Zurich, Switzerland

2018
platform blind_spot – Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Salon Mondial and other venues, Basel, Switzerland
Nichtganz 100 – DOCK Archiv Diskurs- und Kunstraum, Basel, Switzerland
Short Visibles II – Kunst Museum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Performance Open Air – Stadtpark, St. Gallen, Switzerland
PANCH Performance Photography – LISTE Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
Short Visibles II – Moltkerei Werkstatt, Cologne, Germany
Aufführung / Performances ‘Must or Not’ –    Kaskadenkondensator, Basel, Switzerland
Srinagar Biennale Basel (Director / Curator) – HeK and Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel and swissnex India, Bangalore

2017
From the sidelines (Curator) – FABRIKculture, Hegenheim France
Velocity.bs – eBoard des Congress Centre, Basel, Switzerland
2017 Nachtflimmern – Projektraum M54, Basel, Switzerland
Documenta 14 – Friedrichsplatz, Kassel, Germany
LEGS BASEL Performance Festival – Ausstellungsraum     Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
LEGS – Zentralschweiz aktionistisches Performance festival – Turbin, Giswil, Switzerland

2016
Regionale 17 ‘Border Crossing’ – FabrikCultur, Hegenheim, France
ONENESS – India Habitat Centre, New Delh, India
Performance in Motion – Kunstraum Ostgleis, Ostermundigen, Switzerland
Short Visibles – Stiftung Bartels Fondation, Basel, Switzerland
The Gathering Extended#2 – Neubad, Luzern, Switzerland
S W A R M – 5th Basel International Print Residency exhibition, Kaskadenkondensator gallery, Basel, Switzerland
LISTE TOTAL – LISTE 21 – Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
B#SIDE WAR – Zattere Cultural Flow Zone, Venice, Italy
…Passage… – FABRIKculture, Hegenheim, France  (Co-curated the exhibition with Janine Schmutz)

2015
Open Studios – Salon Mondial, Basel, Switzerland
Blackout Basel 2015 – Klingental, Kaserne, Basel, Switzerland
Doing Nothing Festival – Dock 18 Institut für Medienkulturen der  Welt, Rote Fabrik, Zurich, Switzerland

2014
Nachtflimmern – Projectraum M54, Basel, Switzerland
14 Rooms – Art Basel, Switzerland

2012-13
Sarai Reader 09: The Exhibition – Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India

2024
Pro Helvetia International Visual Art Residency.

2023
Kaee Kolkata City Lab Fellowship, Kaee Contemporary, India.

2020
Live Art Development Agency (LADA) Research Residency 2020 – London, UK
The residency is supported by Prohelvetia.

2016 
July 12 – 24 
5th International Print Residency at Druckwerk, Basel. 
(Site-specifc video intervention – The Box Factory)                

2014
Artist-in-Residence (Guest) Stiftung Bartels Fondation, Basel, Switzerland    

Jun 05 to 29
– Photo-documentation of 14 Rooms Workshops and exhibition of selected photographs at 14 Rooms, Venue at Art Basel       

Oct 01 to Nov 10
– Initiated a photographic and video exploration.
The first one resulted in the project ‘Being’ and the later in the
 video ‘Switzerland [15 X 20]’   

2017
Fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, Vancouver

2015
Clair-Obscur Film Festival, Markthalle, Basel, Switzerland. Oct 16 – 18

2013
6th International Documentary and Short, Film Festival, Kerala, India. June 7 – 11

2011
Voices from the Waters International Film Festival, Bangalore. India

2008
3rd Annual Migrant Worker Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea

2007
Short Shorts International Film Festival, Tokyo, Japan
XXI Pärnu International Film Festival, Estonia
Platforma Video 07, Athens, Greece
Athens Video Art Festival, Greece
International Human Rights DOCUMENT 5 Film Festival, Glasgow, UK
Indo American Art Council Film Festival, New York, USA
Carnival of E-Creativity, India.
The Open Frame (UNESCO) Film Festival, New Delhi, India
Perspectiva International Film festival, Moscow, Russia
VIBGYOR International Film Festival, Kerala, India

2006
Alternative ASEAN Film Festival on Migration, Philippines
Movie and Scientific Video Festival, Cuba
Himalaya International Film Festival, Netherland

2004
Platforma Video, Athens, Greece
Kathmandu Mountain International Film Festival, Nepal
MOSFEST International Film Festival, Moscow, Russia

2003
4th International Short Film Fest, Munich, Germany
International Video Festival 2003, Trivandrum, India

2001
Film South Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal