The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Maidan & XX, a two part solo exhibition of photographer Amartya De. 

On March 9th, viewers are able to begin their investigation into the photographic installation in its starting point with only a handful of photos on view. Over the weeks leading up to April 13th, De will be printing negatives in the Ely Center Basement Darkroom that he spent the previous year creating as well as making archival digital prints. Viewers will get a glimpse into De’s process which has grown out of his years growing up in Kolkata and the time he has spent travelling across the United States. Highlighted in Maidan & XX is a juxtaposition of time and space so viewers have a longer spectral dimension that holds their time - forcing them to be in the moment and retrospective simultaneously.

The photographs in this exhibition were mostly taken in 2023 but the film was only processed in February of 2025. “This latency became an inevitable part of my practice over time as I learnt the capabilities of the medium and the underlying subject matter and its relationships with formal compositional strategies, capacity, and the theme of national identity, borders, friendships and alienation.”