Monimala (born in 1970, West Bengal) paints divine and primitive worlds, tender and cruel. On the long rolls of paper that she shows, the memory retains the power of expression, the festive exuberance and graphic freedom of the universe, that she works on to inscribe ritually, every evening, in the small and obscure space of her hut.
Continuing a painting and oral tradition, the Santals symptomize a popular and ancient Indian painting: they are Patuas, according to a term borrowed from Bengali, "pat" meaning-painted scroll,
"images-showmen-painters".According to the tradition, the Patua goes to the villages of the surrounding districts and from house to house, from hut to hut, raises his voice in a kind of mantra and monotonous chanting, thus restoring the essence of presentation of the rolls.