TAK Contemporary, for the opening of its first space in Paris, presents “R.S.V.P.”, a group show bringing together seven artists: Salik Ansari, Sujith S.N, Abirami, Gvansta Jishkariani, Spandita Malik, Muriel Moreau, and Pavan Kavitkar.  

 

Répondez s’il vous plaît, or R.S.V.P., is a term commonly used to confirm one’s presence. With its intended pun, it is also a call to respond—to be present, to appear, and to act together in a collective space.

 

Evoking Hannah Arendt’s “space of appearance,  ” it refers to a space where individuals interact and thereby produce a shared sense of reality. The choice of appearing is never neutral. Whose presence is recognised, and whose absence remains unseen, is shaped by structures of access, dominance, and power.

 

The seven artists together evoke structures of power and dominance while also indicating how “spaces of appearance” are inseparable from struggles over land, resources, and individual survival. Alongside these acts of appearing, the exhibition considers absence as a spectre of presence: the histories of those who were uninvited, unheard, displaced, or rendered invisible.

 

The R.S.V.P. ultimately becomes a proposition. To accept the invitation is not simply to appear or be seen; it is an act of participation, acknowledgement, and at times, resistance.