Alice Boner Gallery, Benaras Hindu University
Showcasing the works and life of Alice Boner, a Swiss artist and scholar, the Alice Boner Gallery, Varanasi reopens to public. [dated September 2008]
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council cordially invites you to view the new Alice Boner Gallery, Kala Bhavan, Benaras Hindu University on Friday 26 September 2008 at 10:00am.
Alice Boner
Dr Alice Boner (1889-1981) a Swiss artist and scholar gravitated towards this great cultural and religious centre, and in 1935, she chose to settle here in a modest house on Assi Ghat, on the banks of the river Ganges. Her experiences of the city and its life, recorded in her diaries, reflect her journey in search of the ‘beyond’, a realm of artistic freedom, deeper experience and consciousness. Once in India, she turned to art studies and studied principles of Indian art and architecture. She came to be known as one of the outstanding scholars and interpreters of Indian sculpture and temple architecture. Her research led her - to not only the significant discovery of the principles of composition in Indian sculpture, but also to a search for the meaning of its content.
Her creative exploration of the “language of form” in Indian sculpture and temple architecture led Alice Boner to move from live practice to the interpretation of Indian art. Seeking confirmation of her own theoretical discoveries in the Sastras and comparing them with the extant monuments in all their dimensions, she combined the interpretive, visual method with the textual and traditional approach. Her understanding and research is reflected in the ‘Principles of Composition in Hindu sculpture’, which is her unique contribution to the study of Indian art. Alice Boner’s pioneering research on Indian art has been widely acclaimed throughout the world.
For her unique contribution to the understanding of Indian art, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, an Indian civilian award that is awarded to recognise distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field, by the President of India in 1974. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Zürich.
Alice Boner Foundation, Varanasi
The house of Alice Boner in Varanasi is supported by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. Writers, scholars, artists, dancers and musicians from India and abroad are invited for a creative stay and are provided a residency with basic, but comfortable facilities. This old and atmospheric house on the bank of the Ganga accommodates also the Alice Boner Institute with its library for research on Indian arts. Through its academic activities and exhibitions, the Institute furthers Alice Boner’s own research and also perpetuates her memory.
Centenaire - Alain Daniélou (1907 - 1994)
'Indian art and music: a critical survey of Alain Danielou's Contribution' [dated September 2008]
Alain Danielou India Committee and The Indian Music Society along with Pro Helvetia and a host of other partners present 'Indian art and music: a critical survey of Alain Danielou's Contribution'
24 - 26 September: Varanasi - Alice Boner Institute
27 September: Delhi – India International Centre
Programme: An international seminar A Photo Exhibition Music Concerts Inauguration of the new Alice Boner Gallery Film Screenings
For programme details click here
Photo credit: Jacques Cloarec Copyrights Alain Danièlou Centre
Alain Daniélou (1907-1994): scholar of Indian languages and religions, painter, dancer, musician, and photographer, linguist and musicologist, is the author of over forty books on Indian religion, music and culture translated in a dozen of languages. Daniélou lived in Santiniketan and participated in the educational programmes of Rabindranath Tagore, where he orchestrated the Indian national anthem and the national song. Daniélou studied Sanskrit and Hinduism with pandits in Varanasi and Indian classical music with Shivendranath Basu, he learnt to play the rudraveena. With Omkarnath Thakur he set up the Department of Musicology at Benares Hindu University.
From l954-56 he headed the Library at Adyar and from there moved to the Institut Français d’Indologie at Pondicherry. In the 1950s he recorded music all over the world which was published by UNESCO in their Atlas of World Music. Danielou was an honorary member of the International Music Council and founded the Institutes of Comparative Music in Berlin in 1963 and Venice in 1970. In 991 he was elected fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademy and Emeritus Professor by the Senate of Berlin. Daniélou was an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur, Officer of the Ordre National du Mérite, and Commander of Arts and Letters. In 1981, he received the Unesco/CIM prize for music, in 1987 the "Kathmandu" medal from Unesco.
Laurent Aubert to lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Laurent Aubert, curator of the Geneva Ethnographic Museum to lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University on his book. [dated September 2008]
Pro Helvetia New Delhi presents a lecture by Laurent Aubert on his book 'The Music of the Other - New Challenges for Ethnomusicology in a Global Age'
Venue: Commitee Room. Centre for the Study of Social Systems Jawaharlal Nehru University
Date: Monday 22nd September at 3 pm
Lecture heading: 'The Music of the other - New challenges for Ethnomusicology in a Global Age'
The lecture is open to public
Laurent Aubert, doctor in anthropology, is curator at the Geneva Ethnographic Museum and director of the Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie (Ethnomusicology Workshops), an institute dedicated to the dissemination of world music, founded in 1983.
Besides field research, particularly in India, he also works on questions related to music and migration. He is the Secretary General of Archives internationales de musique populaire (Int. Archives of Folk Music, AIMP) and editor of its CD collection, founder of Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie (formerly Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, since 1988), and author of many articles and CDs, as well as several books, including Les feux de la déesse (2004) et Musiques migrantes (2005) and The Music of the Other (2007).
Lecture presentations in India by Freitag brothers
Lecture/presentations by Markus and Daniel Freitag on 'some waste, a sewing machine and one idea’ - how FREITAG became a worldwide known brand. [dated September 2008]
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council presents lecture/presentations by Markus and Daniel Freitag on ‘some waste, a sewing machine and one idea’ - how FREITAG became a worldwide known brand.
At Max Mueller Bhavan/ Goethe-Institut, Bangalore Date: Saturday, 6 September 2008 Time: 4: 00 pm Open to public
At Srishti School of Art Design & Technology, Bangalore Date: 8, 9 & 10 September 2008 Time: 10:00 am For Design students only
At National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi Date: Friday, 12 September 2008 Time: 10:30 am For Design students only
Freitag – the international brand
It was 1993 when Markus and Daniel Freitag, both brothers and graphic designers, were in need of a bag. Zurich locals ride bicycles and they get rained on a lot. So the Freitag Brothers wanted a functional, tough, and water-resistant bag to carry their designs. Inspired by the colourful traffic on the highway extension in front of their apartment, they sewed together a messenger bag from an old truck tarp, took seat belts for straps and used a spare bicycle inner tube to keep the edges from fraying. Quite unintentionally, the brothers landed a hit. Today FREITAG products are sold and copied all around the globe. Since the original messenger, Markus and Daniel have put out more than 40 different products, with more in the pipeline and even more up their sleeves. Nevertheless, FREITAG products are still produced in Switzerland, next to that same highway extension.
In the presentation Markus and Daniel Freitag will present the company history and point out the success-factors, how they managed to grow a "student-project" into a "known" Brand.
Facts & figures about FREITAG
Headquarter: FREITAG lab. ag / Maag works, Zurich, Switzerland
Founding year: 1993
Founders & Owners: Markus and Daniel Freitag
Workforce: about 60 employees in Zurich, Davos, and Hamburg
No. of shops: 3 own flagship-stores (Hamburg, Davos, Zurich), over 350 point of sales worldwide Material use: 200 tons of truck tarps = line of trucks 50 km long; 75,000 bicycle inner tubes; 25,000 seatbelts No. of models: over 40 items For more information on Freitag visit: www.freitag.ch
The presentation is being held within the context of the ongoing exhibition CRISS + CROSS design from Switzerland 1860 – 2007 Curated by Ariana Pradal, Köbi Gantenbein & Roland Eberle Exhibition on view from 6 - 20 September 2008 10:30 am - 6:30 pm (Mon - Sat) 10:30 am - 5:00 pm (Sun)
Venue: Goethe-Institut Bangalore /Max Mueller Bhavan The CRISS + CROSS exhibition and the Freitag lectures in Bangalore and Delhi are supported by: Pro Helvetia – the Swiss Arts Council Goethe-Institut Bangalore, Max Mueller Bhavan, BangaloreSrishti School of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi
Tree trunks and fly-overs
A photographic intervention by Swiss artist Rahel Hegnauer who was in Bangalore on a residency programme. [dated September 2008]
Rahel Hegnauer, a visual artist from Zurich was in Bangalore on the artist-in-residence programme. As a culmination of her residency, Rahel put together an exhibition titled 'tree trunks and fly-overs - a photographic intervention.'
Rahel has studied at the Department of Environmental Art, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. Following which, Rahel did her postgraduate studies in Art in Public Sphere (Master of Art) in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Extract from the report:
The trees are victims of the ever fast growing, developing town. It is as if they have been taken over by the attributes of a busy city. They lie as dead bodies along the construction sites of the fly-overs with their roots exposed to the air. The fate of the trees is one visual example among many others to prove how an alien element - the fly-over, can disconnect or interrupt a homogenous system (the daily life in a communal area).
The photographic exhibition was followed by talks by: A N Yelappa Reddy, conservationist and environmentalist Sursh Jayaram, art critic and art historian H S Sudhira, Directorate of Urban Land Transport, Government of Karnataka
Important links:
Bangaluru Artist Residency One (bar1)
Rahel Hegnauer
