Prasiit Sthapit’s “Moonsongs for Earth” at Photoville

Magnum Foundation and PhotoKTM, in collaboration with Aperture, are excited to present Moonsongs for Earth by Prasiit Sthapit at Photoville, curated by Sarah Perlmutter and Tif Ng. This exhibition accompanies the Spring 2024 issue of Aperture magazine, “Counter Histories,” produced in collaboration with the Magnum Foundation.

From 1996 to 2006, Nepal was in the grips of a war that pitted the government forces against the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist). This period was marked by intense violence that left at least thirteen thousand dead, thirteen hundred disappeared, and thousands displaced and disabled.

For the Maoists, music emerged as a powerful tool during the war, serving not only as propaganda but also as battle cries and catharsis. Musicians poured their hearts into their words and melodies, singing of fury, bullets, bombs, and the struggle of war, as well as love, smiles, embraces, and the blossoming of life itself.

With the war’s end, the monarchy abolished, and the Maoist party transitioning into mainstream politics, disillusionment grew. Feeling betrayed by the war’s resolution, many of the musicians came to realize that their songs only dreamed of a revolution but could never bring about the changes they had so desperately hoped for. Moonsongs for Earth offers a musical exploration of the decade-long war in Nepal and the dream for a just, egalitarian society, subsequently betrayed.

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Prasiit Sthapit (born in 1988) is a visual storyteller based in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Magnum Foundation Fund Grant and was selected for the World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass. He is currently associated with Fuzz Factory Productions, a multimedia collective based in Kathmandu; and photo.circle, a platform for photography in Nepal and Photo Kathmandu. He is also the director of Fuzzscape, a multi-media music documentary project. In 2022, he was Magnum Foundation Counter Histories Fellow.

Magnum Foundation expands creativity and diversity in visual storytelling, activating new audiences and ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grants, mentorship, and creative collaborations, they partner with socially engaged imagemakers exploring new models for storytelling. Since their founding in 2007 by members of the Magnum Photos cooperative, they have made more than 600 direct grants to visual storytellers from over 80 countries. To find out about upcoming exhibitions and events, learn about grant opportunities, or join their community of support, please visit magnumfoundation.org.

PhotoKTM is a festival that creates time and space for image-makers and others to come together to describe the world and discuss the world with shared concern and agency. Organized every two years in Kathmandu by photo.circle, the festival platforms several collaborative artistic, research and pedagogic initiatives that attempt to feed into ongoing local and global conversations and campaigns. For more information, visit photoktm.com

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Image Caption: Prasiit Sthapit, Laxmi Gurung at her apartment, Kathmandu, 2022, from the series Moonsongs for Earth, 2022–ongoing. Courtesy the artist