Mangalyaan is an Indian space probe currently orbiting Mars in India’s first interplanetary mission. To coincide with this, Superflux Lab launched Mangala for All, a reflexive ethnographic performance. Echoing the aesthetic of the Indian street – where cheaply made plastic trinkets often attain god-like status – Superflux exchanged miniature versions of the Mars probe in return for insights into what Mangalyaan means to people they met on the streets of Ahmedabad. Recordings from these interviews brought together for this exhibition reveal the relationship between citizens and such state-funded Space Programmes. The interviews are full of poignant and surprisingly playful stories of jugaad (roughly translated as a hack or workaround), scientific innovation, resourcefulness and creativity, alongside the hidden narratives of nationhood, geopolitics and the space race. http://mangalaforall.tumblr.com/
