Pors & Rao (Aparna Rao and Søren Pors) is an Indo-Danish art duo based in Bangalore, India. They work with objects and installations, often incorporating elements of lifelike movement and responsive behaviors.
Many of their works are conceived as a kind of sentient 'being' that lives in the space, exhibiting various behaviors such as shyness, fatigue, and dependency. Often, works imply a kind of pre-conceptual way of perceiving the world, where emotions and thoughts are animating the things around us — as if everything was conscious.
Exhibitions include My Rhino Is Not a Myth, Art Encounters Biennale, 2023, Visions From India, Pizzuti Collection, 2017, The Setouchi Triennale, Japan, 2016, the 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Whorled Explorations, India, 2014/15; METAMATIC Reloaded, Museum Tinguely, Switzerland, 2013; 21 Rooms, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2011; Pors & Rao, CAB – Centro De Arte Contemporaneo, Burgos, Spain, 2011; Indian Highway, The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. Oslo, Norway, 2009, and the 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan, 2009.
After toiling with computer simulations, the internet, and game design in the early 2000s, they both abandoned the screen to work with objects and environments that engage the body. They crossed paths in Italy and started collaborating as a duo in Bangalore, India, in 2004.
Since early 2017, the two formed their own robotics research project: PATHOS at Wyss Zurich, Switzerland. The focus is to develop tools and interfaces that enable them (and others) to work with the medium of physical animation without depending on engineers. In 2020, they formed the 2 year Robotics Aesthetics & Usability Center (RAUC) at ETH, which is since is ongoing at their studio in Bangalore, India.