That is not all. Other works that reflect a clear predilection for the human being are the Cuban group, Los Corpinteros, whose wood and metal works are a fine tribute to the artist as handyman.

A similar concern with the human hand--that both feeds and protects civilisation--is visible in the work of Paris-based Touhami Ennadre. Ennadre reminds one that only those who suffer inhumanities--and the people of the west coast of Africa and the Caribbean had more than theirshare of them--can really appreciate the need for humanity. One has only to think of how a trade in human beings was carried on from Africa for nearly three centuries as the basis of plantations. Families were torn apart. Men and women were bred and tested like animals. The worst kind of slavery emerged with the first phase of capitalist accumulation in Western Europe.

Today, its decadent phase is likely to see the same sort of inhumanity gain ground in promoting neo-colonialism.

While artists in this exhibition appear to see the threat of destruction inherent in the opening up of agriculture to global trends, they are much less aware of the dangers of consumerism. And many of them, like Rauschenberg, have internalised it in their work. This pitfall must be guarded against and consumerist and plundering art, which appropriates even the cultural freshness of the very people it destroys, is something to look at and stand up to. This exhibition is a good exposure of all sorts of resistance from all overthe world. Definitely a show to see.

--Suneet Chopra