CAMP
From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf
2009-2013
Multiple video formats: HDV, SDV, VHS, cellphone video and audio
83 minutes
1/3 limited editions
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme and documenta (13)
CAMP, founded by Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran in 2007, is a collaborative studio producing work that challenges the distinctions between art and non-art, commodity markets and free culture, the individual and the institutional. The three Gulfs in CAMP’s From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf (2009–2013) are the Gulf of Kutch (Gujarat, India), Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Aden. This feature-length film 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 Arabian and Aden Gulfs and along the Somali coast, show a world cut into many pieces, not easily bridged by nostalgics or nationalists. Instead, the audience follows 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.