Shubham Lodha

Shubham Lodha
India
Born in 1994
Self-taught
Lives and works in Mumbai ,India
Shubhamlodha@live.com
IG:@shubham_lodha
Website : www.shubhamlodha.com

Half-finished Heaven
explores Auroville, an experimental township in Tamil Nadu founded in 1968 to realize a model society inspired by the writings of poet-philosopher Sri Aurobindo. Over five decades, the eco-community, together with nearby villagers, transformed a barren plateau into a lush forest through an ambitious restoration project. Drawn by the vision of a new beginning, three thousand residents from over sixty countries lived under a governance model close to socialism, but in recent years their collective power has been increasingly undermined by the involvement of central authorities. What was imagined as a refuge for new ways of living now wrestles with the contradictions of its founding dream.
The project examines the city frozen in this time of crisis, unpacking what it means to maintain a utopian vision while negotiating two realities: the materialised and the one that is imaginary.
Contemplating the persisting motif of paradise, it visualizes a search for an ideal forever lost. It also reflects on how this aspiration coexists with political pressures, environmental challenges, and unresolved social divides marking Auroville today. At stake is not a final state, but the constant work of prefigurative politics—the attempt to inhabit the future in the present.