From 12–14 August 2026, the Museum of Goa (MOG) in Pilerne hosts A Voyage to Permanence, a three-day exhibition that invites viewers to experience cinema as environment rather than mere projection. Centred on the independent filmmaker Purandar Chaudhuri, the project gathers experimental films, photographs, sound and visual essays to explore migration, labour and the fragile search for continuity in a world marked by movement and impermanence.
Conceived by curator Jooby Yohannan and curated by art critic and curator Johny ML, with exhibition visuals by designer and photographer Prakash Braggs, the exhibition revolves around three of Chaudhuri’s seminal works: Impressions of Mingling, Tremors and Dhushor. Instead of following conventional narrative arcs, these films employ monochrome imagery, minimal dialogue and a shifting play between still and moving images to evoke states of uncertainty, dislocation and memory. The result is a cinematic language closer to visual poetry than reportage, where abstraction opens onto the emotional and philosophical dimensions of migration and the human condition.
The exhibition unfolds as a time-based programme over three days. On 12 August, Impressions of Mingling plays on loop within a gallery setting alongside photographic works and alternative prints that extend the film’s visual vocabulary into still images. On 13 August, Tremors takes over the space, allowing viewers to enter and exit the film at different moments, echoing its concern with instability and the subtle shocks that unsettle everyday life. The final evening, 14 August, centres on a special screening of Dhushor in the museum auditorium, followed by an audience interaction with members of the creative team, turning the viewing into a shared conversation.
Beyond the films, A Voyage to Permanence deepens its engagement with image-making through the launch of the Goa Cyanotype Notebook, a publication that celebrates alternative photographic processes and the history of light-sensitive printmaking. A conversation around the photobook and the larger project brings together journalist and writer Jayanth Kodkani, who has long-standing interests in cinema and literature, and visual artist and curator Nemiraj Shetty, a founding member of the INTACH Mangalore chapter. Their dialogue links Chaudhuri’s practice to wider questions about archives, place and the role of images in bearing witness to change.
The curatorial team describes the exhibition as an attempt to expand the experience of cinema beyond narrative, into an encounter with image and time itself. Visitors are encouraged to slow down, sit with silence and pay attention to the intervals between stillness and motion — the moments when a frame lingers, a sound dissolves, or a gesture repeats. In this slowed-down register, migration appears not only as a geopolitical fact but as a more intimate condition: the way people, memories and images move, settle, and sometimes fail to arrive.
A Voyage to Permanence: An Exploration of Cinema and Migration
Venue: Museum of Goa (MOG), Pilerne, Goa
Dates: 12–14 August 2026
Programme:
– 12 August: Impressions of Mingling (loop screening)
– 13 August: Tremors (loop screening)
– 14 August: Dhushor – special screening followed by audience interaction
Additional highlights:
– Launch of the Goa Cyanotype Notebook
– Conversation on the photobook A Voyage to Permanence with Jayanth Kodkani and Nemiraj Shetty
Cover image: still from Dhushor
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