Thursday 31 December 2009

Season's Greetings and best wishes for 2010

Pro Helvetia New Delhi wishes you all a happy New Year. Thank you for your support during 2009. We look forward to a productive and inspiring 2010.

Pro Helvetia New Delhi wishes you all a happy New Year. 
Thank you for your support during 2009. 
We look forward to a productive and inspiring 2010.

Image: Atul Bhalla, New Delhi (INDIA)

The image used is extracted from Basel Walk by the Indian visual artist, Atul Bhalla which he created during his Residency at iaab, Basel, Switzerland in April 2009. He is often called a ‘new media practitioner' who employs video, photography, performance (performative photography) and sculpture within his works or installations.

TITLE-Basel Walk
(30th April 2009 / 13:26 pm to 3:38 pm
RESERVOIRSTRASSE to WASSERSTRASSE) 

I attempted a walk, as one of my works during my Art Residency at iaab Studios, Basel with Pro Helvetia. This walk started from the Bruderholz Reservoir. Bruderholz is situated on a picturesque hillock above Basel. It has a water reservoir, which was built at the time, only for the upper class people in the neighbourhood. I started walking from the street named Reserviorstrasse to Wasserstrasse. Wasserstrasse is a small lane ending at a dead end in the ‘lower’ end of town which is going to be demolished for ‘better’ low cost housing, by a huge multi national pharmaceutical company based in Basel.

Water flows downhill; and would from Bruderholz to Wasserstrasse. Walking downhill from Bruderholz to Wasserstrasse I photographed all the “wasser” caps, that came along my way during my walk, which one would find all over the Basel roads and lanes. The ‘wasser’ caps or ‘water caps’ are iron caps, about 4 inches in diameter covering the actual control points of pipes which supply water to the city. So they are the main points from where water distribution to the city is controlled. This ‘performance’ materialized in a work consisting of 96 enlarged photographs transcending themselves from what they actually were, of all the ‘wasser caps’ I photographed during my walk displayed in chronological order. This sociological exercise turned out to be extremely interesting as I got a deep insight into the city and its history of functioning and water sharing.

This lead me to other water reservoirs of the city, old and new, abandoned and still to be commissioned. My practice as an artist interested in water was further enhanced with perspectives and insights from a different culture and a different city.

ATUL BHALLA
2009
Launch of India Habitat Centre's Annual Arts Journal 2009

The Journal is a collaboration between Pro Helvetia New Delhi and the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre with essays by Swiss and Indian leading theorists on New Media.

The India Habitat Centre along with Art India brings together the fifth Annual Arts evening to be held on December 10, 2009 at the Amphitheatre of the IHC. This is also supported by Pro Helvetia- Swiss Arts Council and the Delhi Blue Pottery Trust.

This year the Visual Arts Gallery will unveil a special journal focusing on New Media art co-edited by Dr Alka Pande, Consultant Art Advisor and Curator at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre and media theorist Dr. Nils Roeller, Professor for Media and Cultural Theory at the University of the Arts, Zürich, where he is co-director of the special field of Media Art.

The Journal is a collaboration between Pro Helvetia New Delhi and the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre to co-produce the first of its kind journal with essays by Swiss and Indian leading theorists on New Media. The journal explores how in the genre of New Media, technology is being used to express cultural constructs and how it is based on adapting innovative technology as a tool for artistic exploration. It is an attempt to explicate this concept from the different points of view that run across cultures and disciplines.

The publication will carry contributions by Swiss theorists of New Media as well as their Indian peers, including curators, art historians, artists, scholars and writers.

This will be followed by a piano performance titled Hits/Stills by the Swiss artist Claudia Rüegg.
MIMETIC participates in Global Groove

Global Groove the first electronic music festival & convention in India is scheduled to be held in New Delhi. Ajoint initiative between Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi and Entertainment Media Services Pvt. Ltd.

Pro Helvetia New Delhi presents
MIMETIC at Global Groove, the electronic music festival & convention
Global Groove the first electronic music festival & convention in India is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from 17 - 20 of December 2009. Ajoint initiative between Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi and Entertainment Media Services Pvt. Ltd., Global Groove seeks to connect the International electronic music Industry & musicians with their counterparts in India

The convention 
This will be held on the 17 - 18 of December 2009,where there will be an opportunity for the International music professionals to interact with Indian labels, clubs, music TV and radio channels, promoters and of course musicians.  

The Festival
Scheduled for 19 - 20 December 2009, this will be a multi-stage festival featuring Indian and International artists. The festival will offer a perfect chance to see a cross section of Indian electronic artists as well as International artists

About MIMETIC
Jerome Soudan started music at the age of 5 years old in the Conservatory of Chambery France. He learned consequently orchestral percussions, clarinet and later on acoustic and electronic drums. He obtained a Master degree of Musicology of the 20th century at the University of Lyon France with congratulation of the jury in 1993. 

He then settled in Paris where he worked with numerous composers such as Kasper T.Toeplitz for the GRM (Maison de Radio France) or with rock bands such as LES TETINES NOIRES or Industrial bands such as VON MAGNET. In 1996 he moved to Berlin where he started to work as composer and percussion player with the experimental band COLUMN ONE. In 1998 he started his own solo project named MIMETIC. 

In 2000 he then settled in Geneva Switzerland and began to work with the contemporary rock and new music formation ART ZOYD in France. Since then, Jerome released numerous CD’s or vinyl’s with various bands on different labels such as ANT ZEN, HANDS, PARAMETRIC, MOLOKO+, PRIKOSNOVENIE, ORKHESTRA, SCULTURED SOUNDS, KK RDS, THISCO, SPECTRE, etc… and was participating to several concerts, live acts, dj sets or performances all over the world (Europe, USA, Mexico, Canada, Japan,…).

Since 2000 he is one of the official composer for the choreograph Carol Brown (coming from New Zealand but established in London UK) for whom he composed for dance performances as well as for video installations. Other choreographs with who Jerome have worked are Jan Linkens (Comic Opera of Berlin) and Lionel Hoche (Neerdeland Dans Theater 2 in Den Haag NL).

In 2005 he won the best design and artwork packaging for electronic music at the French QWARTZ awards for the cover box of MIMETIC DANCING “The Changing Room” released on HANDS in Germany and designed by Nicola Bork. In 2006 he released his first DVD with MIMETIC on the German label ANT ZEN. Today, he is still working with ART ZOYD for different special shows such as METROPOLIS (with the movie), THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (with the movie), LE CHAMP DES LARMES, EYE CATCHER (with Cecile Babiole) or for a collaborative project for the American composer GLENN BRANCA. One of his newest projects is the danceable WAI PI WAI he founded together with Herman Klapholz from Ah Cama-sotz.

For more information on MIMETIC click here.
For more information on Global Groove click here.