Attakkalari International Biennial 2011

Switzerland will have a presence at the Attakkalari International Biennial 2011 with the performance of NINGYO by Compagnie Nicole Seiler. [dated January 2011]

Switzerland will have a strong presence at the Attakkalari International Biennial 2011 with the performance of NINGYO by Compagnie Nicole Seiler. The Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler will also be facilitating the Young Choreographers' Laboratory, while Swiss journalist, Esther Sutter Straub will conduct a seminar on Writing on Dance. Festival schedule 28 January to 6 February 2011 Young Choreographers Laboratory "Aspects to be Explored : Encounter with Arab and African Idioms,Exploration of European Strands and Technology, Introduction to Traditional Physical Wisdom and New Directions in Indian Dance" Facilitators: Jayachandran Palazhy, Nicole Seiler, Sello Pesa , Bertram Muller and Simon Dove, Bertha Bermudez, Francesco Scavetta and Rekha Tandon.

28 January to 6 February 211
Writing on Dance Seminar conducted by Swiss journalist, Esther Sutter Straub 

Sat 29 Jan 2011 Cie Nicole Seiler / A Collecion of Films Ranga Shankara at 6pm.
Sat 29 Jan 2011 NINGYO by Cie Nicole Seiler Bangalore / Ranga Shankara at 7:30 pm
Sun 30 Jan 2011 NINGYO by Cie Nicole Seiler Bangalore / Ranga Shankara at 11:00 am Sun 30 Jan 2011 Cartographies by Cie Philippe Saire / dance videos Ranga Shankara.

For more information visit www.attakkalaribiennial.org/
  
About Nicole Seiler
Nicole Seiler, the choreographer and video artist of Ningyo studied at the Dimitri School in Verscio Switzerland followed by the Vlaamse Dansacademie in Bruges, Belgium. She later completed her dance education at the School of Maurice Béjart in Lausanne, Switzerland. She was part of many dance and theatre companies including Cie Buissonnière (choreographer Philippe Lizon) in Lausanne, Teatro Malandro (directed by Omar Porras) in Geneva, Cie Philippe Saire and Alias Compagnie, Geneva (choreographer Guilherme Botelho).

Nicole Seiler set up her own company in 2002. Her artistic approach combines dance and video and she creates dance and multimedia stage performances, choreographic installations and dance videos. In her work dance and video are equally important. Conceived together the two media dialogue constantly and this symbiosis generates new body shapes and movements. Productions by Company Nicole Seiler include Living-room Dancers, Ningyo, K Two, Je m’appelle…, Pixel Babes, 4 clips pour aufnahmen, Dolls / Dolls live, Lui, One in a Million, Madame K and Quoi?

Long Night of Literature 2011

To build audiences for contemporary writing in German the Austrian Cultural Forum, the German Book Office, Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia will host readings from prose and poetry.[dated January 2011]

The Long Night of Literature, second in the series of literary encounters on contemporary writings in German, is jointly hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum, the German Book Office, Goethe-Institute Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia New Delhi in collaboration with Religare Art Gallery. Moderated by the well-known actor and poet Danish Husain, this event of prose and poetry will include conversations and readings from books by Austrian, German and Swiss authors and will bring together literature enthusiasts.

Friday 28 January 2011, 7 pm Religare Art Gallery, 7, Atmaram Mansion, Level 1, Scindia House, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi

Schedule 
7.15 pm Welcome by Danish Husain 
7.25 pm Alex Capus with Professor Rajendra Dengle 
8.10 pm Saša Stanišić with Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar 
8.55 pm Break 9.10 pm Josef Winkler with Dr Alka Raghuvanshi 
9.55 pm Esther Kinsky and Martin Chalmers 
10.40 pm Break 
10.55 pm Franziska Holzheimer accompanied on the sarangi by Durga Sisodia

The Authors 
1) Josef Winkler / Austria Moderated by Dr Alka Raghuvanshi, writer, painter and curator. 
2) Saša Stanišić / Germany Moderated by Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet and critic. 
3) Esther Kinsky / Germany 
4) Martin Chalmers / Germany 
5) Alex Capus / Switzeland Moderated by Professor Rajendra Dengle, Centre for German Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. 
6) Franziska Holzheimer / Germany 

Moderator for the evening - Danish Husain

Dialogues on Curating (Part II)
Dialogues on Curating (Part II) is being held in collaboration between Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art and India International Centre. [dated January 2011]

January 18-19, 2011 10:30 am – 5:00 pm Venue: IIC Annexe, Lecture Hall

Collaboration between Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art and India International Centre

Over the past six months, the figure of the curator has publicly been under the lens in India. Suddenly, the curator is the subject of special issues of magazines, the theme of seminars and workshops, and the focus of an ambitious initiative by a major arts funding body. These discussions have examined the relationship between the artist and the curator; the opportunities and institutional frameworks that make curatorial work possible in India; the anxieties and challenges of curating in a 'flat' world. While these discussions map out the contemporary terrain of Indian curatorial practices, they also look back at the brief history of curating in India, seeking patterns of intention, key moments and expositions, exemplars and precursors. The field of curating plays a crucial formative role within the Indian art scene, and this dialogue is likely to afford curators the space to evaluate their spheres of operation and influence, the development of public discourse in contemporary art and he consequences these have art-historically. It is our hope that we will be able to build an exchange through this workshop between groups of curators who operate in dissimilar contexts of Switzerland, Britain and South Asia, with vastly different infrastructures, and yet are deeply engaged in similar predicaments and common concerns.

The history of museums and exhibition-making is much deeper in Switzerland and Britain than in India. Over the last two hundred years, both of these European countries have developed a fine network of institutions that provide platforms and frameworks for the exhibition of art. These range from the sanctified 'national' institutions, to old and new settings for internationalisms/globalisms; academic forums to commercial enterprises; municipal museums to underground subcultures in the megapolis. In contrast, the spaces for the viewing and collection of Indian art – especially modern and contemporary Indian art – are few. The major institutions mandated by the state have dwindled in relevance compared to the agencies of an often overheated marketplace. The imperatives of cultural diplomacy which had once created the few opportunities for 'international' exchange have now given way to busy but less predictable set of exchanges partly catalysed by the worldwide web. While India might not attempt to reproduce the complex network of art institutions found in Europe, its own network of art-related organizations seems set to grow prodigiously. The question is how does the curator seize the opportunities afforded by this moment of instability and potential? Can Indian curators gain insights not just into new possibilities for exhibitions, but new possibilities for the institutions and practices of exhibition-making itself?

Panels and Themes
January 18, 2011 Media’s Materialities In this panel, we would like to invite three curators who work in specific media – for example photography or new media - to discuss the challenges, issues and poetic possibilities of their work. Each set of mediumistic practices makes its own demands vis a vis the exhibition space and the audience while also raising specific question about ethics, about art-ness, about vanguardism and comprehensibility, about evanescence and permanence, about valuations and marketability. We invite curators who have had to deal with these issues through their long-term engagement with specific media, to share their processes and concerns with us, as well as to deliberate on the roles and challenges of institutions devoted to exhibiting and collecting specialized media – new and old. Exhibition in Process Circuits of exhibition tend to be event-oriented, where the exhibition as the product towards which all curatorial work should be geared. However, in actual practice, for the curators, artists, designers, and others involved in the making of exhibition, the greatest gains may be intangible. The shifting geographies and the ever-expanding networks lead to new encounters and open up new possibilities; as the curator pulls together the exhibition that he promised in his concept note, his mind may already be racing ahead to new possibilities. The exhibition as an event makes discursive and critical engagements possible, which may well exceed the exhibition's own horizons. The exhibition becomes a transitional moment in a longer life of an idea.

January 19, 2011
Representations and Responsibilities For many curators, major exhibition opportunities are 'officially ' sanctioned ones. When one is conscious of representing one's nation, say, or an 'outsider' perspective – does this weigh upon the curatorial project, or does it give clarity and sharpness to the work at hand? If one is working in an institution with a celebrated history, how does one position oneself in relation to its, and one's own, past? What is the role of individuals and institutions in maximizing the possibilities of intercultural exchange, working as they do through the many and sometimes conflicting mandates. Publics for Art Even as the parameters of public art are being widely debated, there is an inverse interest in how art converses with its publics. These range from the kind of initiatives made by curators and art educators within art institutions to reach out to the viewer, to a whole range of participatory and collaborative practices set afloat by curators and artists alike in the public domain. In many cases you see the curator taking on the role of an art educator, exploring the didactic potential of the exhibition. How do curators work with this nebulous category of the audience and how does it inform their making of the exhibition?

Speakers and Moderators
Nancy Adajania, independent Art Critic, Curator and Cultural Theorist, Mumbai
Daniel Baumann, Art Historian, Writer and Curator of Carnegie International 2013 in Pittsburg
Christiane Brosius, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg, Germany
Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts, Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, Zurich
Sorcha Carey, Director, Edinburgh Art Festival
Susan Hapgood, Art Historian, Curator and Senior Advisor for Independent Curators International, New York
Geeta Kapur, independent art critic, curator and cultural theorist, New Delhi
Helen Legg, Director, Spike Island
Andrea Rose, Director, Visual Arts, British Council
Sabine Schaschl, Director and Curator Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel
Kavita Singh, Art Historian and Associate Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi Gayatri Sinha, independent curator and art critic
Urs Stahel, Director, Curator and Author of Fotomuseum Winterthur
Raqs Media Collective, artist collective/ curators/ media practitioners
Mirjam Varadinis, Curator, Kunsthaus Zurich

(Conceptualized by Dr Kavita Singh and Vidya Shivadas)

Cultural Policy & Curatorship: Perspectives from Switzerland

Cultural Policy & Curatorship: Perspectives from Switzerland by Sabine Schaschl, Director and Curator, Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz/Basel and Mirjam Varadinis Curator, Kunsthaus Zurich. [dated January 2011]

Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council and Jamia Millia Islamia Centre for Culture Media and Governance invites you to a Symposium "Cultural Policy & Curatorship: Perspectives from Switzerland" by Mirjam Varadinis Curator, Kunsthaus Zurich Marianne Burki, Head, Visual Arts, Pro Helvetia 20 January 2011 Time: 10.00 am Venue: Tagore Hall Date: Prof Zargar Zahoor Dean of Fine Arts, Jamia Millia Islamia will chair.

Mirjam Varadinis
Mirjam Varadinis is art historian and curator at Kunsthaus Zürich since September 2002. She is in charge for contemporary art and has organized various exhibitions, among others the group show “Shifting Identities – (Swiss) Art Now” and solo exhibitions with Adrian Paci, Mircea Cantor, Runa Islam, Tino Sehgal, Erik van Lieshout, Aleksandra Mir, Nedko Solakov, Urs Fischer, David Shrigley. She has published numerous catalogues and artist books. In 2006 she co-curated the festival “Printemps de Septembre” in Toulouse. In 2005 she launched together with Annie Wu the Internet-Platform www.azple.com.

Marianne Burki
Marianne Burki, lic.phil.I, Studies of History of Art and Architecture, University of Bern, Switzerland.1996 practical studies at New York Film Academy , 2002 Culture Management at Stapferhaus Lenzburg, Switzerland. 1982-1990 freelancer for art section of the daily journal „Der Bund“, 1993 -1996 scientific collaborator at the Paul Klee Foundation, Bern; 1994 Project Manager of the Catalogue raisonné Paul Klee. 1989- 2001 various lectureships for History of Art and Architecture, among others at the College for Architects, Biel and at Bern University of the Arts. 1999 bis 2005 director and curator of Kunsthaus Langenthal, priority contemporary art. 2003 Culture Award of the Canton of Bern and the City of Langenthal. Since November 2005 Head of Visual Arts, Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia 2002 Production of the film „Mariann Grunder. Bildhauerin“, which is show at Swiss Television and at the Solothurn Film Festival 2003. Publication of text to themes concerning contemporary art. Selection: 2005 for Memoriav „Die Vergänglichkeit des Reproduzierbaren. – Videokunst und neue Medien zwischen Archiv und Gegenwart“ (Video art and New Media between Archive and the Present) and for „Neue Zürcher Zeitung“ „Zwischen Ausstellungsraum und Atelier. Unabhängige Projekträume beleben die Kunstszene Londons“. (Between exhibition space and studio. Independent artist run project spaces make London’s art scene lively)

Programme "Cultural Policy & Curatorship: Perspectives from Switzerland" a symposium by two specialists from Switzerland
10.00 am – Tea
10.30 am - Welcome by Suchismita on Curatorship project
10.40 am - Introduction by Prof Zargar Zahoor, Dean of Fine Arts, Jamia Millia Islamia
11.00 am - Talk by Marianne Burki - ‘Exhibition Practices and Cultural Policy’
11.30 am - Talk by Mirjam Varadinis - ‘Curatorship and Multiculturalism’
12.15 pm – Discussion
12.45 pm - Vote of thanks by Chandrika Grover Ralleigh, Director, Pro Helvetia
1:00 pm - Refreshments

IFA's Curatorship Programme is supported by the Jamsetji Tata Trust (JTT) This Programme is supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council

Khoj Marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans-Ulrich Obrist, a contemporary art curator, critic and historian of art is the author of The Interview Project and is in India to present the first Marathon interviews of Indian specialists. [dated January 2011]

A series of public conversations on Saturday January 22, 2011 at Lodi – The garden restaurant courtyard Lodi Road, Opposite Mausam Bhavan from 1.45 PM to 11.00 PM (Entry is free. Seating is on first come first serve basis)

The Khoj Marathon is a series of twenty minute public interviews with 25 leading intellectuals - thinkers, social philosophers, political analysts and artists by a compelling authority in the art and intellectual world, Hans Ulrich Obrist. Programme: Opening of the Khoj Marathon by Francesca Von Habsburg followed by interviews of Dayanita Singh, Vivan Sundaram, Homai Vyarawalla, Sheba Chhachhi, Urvashi Butalia, Shilpa Gupta, Gulam Mohammad Sheikh, Vandana Shiva, Geeta Kapur, Sheela Gowda, Dileep Simeon, Bharti Kher, Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam, Nivedita Menon, Kiran Subbiah, Jitish Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Anita Dube, Sundar Sarukkai, Sudarshan Shetty, Bijoy Jain, Ranjit Hoskote, Sadanand Menon, Raqs Media Collective and Subodh Gupta. Hans Ulrich Obrist is one of the most prestigious and sought after curators of contemporary art in the world. The Marathon series of public events, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Stuttgart in 2005, are landmark public interviews which initiate some of the most scintillating and exciting conversations of contemporary times. The first in the Serpentine series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007; in 2008 the Manifesto Marathon showcased different generations of artists alongside practitioners from the worlds of literature, design, science, philosophy, music and film who were experimenting with the historical notion of the manifesto; the Poetry Marathon in 2009 featured unique performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars and musicians and more recently the multi-dimensional Map Marathon in 2010 that featured non-stop live presentations by over 50 artists, poets, writers, philosophers, scholars, musicians, architects, designers and scientists. The Khoj Marathon is the first Marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist to be held in the subcontinent. The Marathon is being organized by KHOJ International Artists’ Association. The Marathon is being held in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Austria which was founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg. It is being supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council, The British Council, CoCCA-Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Arts, Goethe Institut-Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay Sapphire and Arts Collaboratory, The Netherlands. The interviews of The KHOJ Marathon will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA). Fore more information visit: http://www.khojworkshop.org/node/10584

NINGYO by Cie Nicole Seiler

Pro Helvetia presents NINGYO, a multimedia dance performance by Company Nicole Seiler of Switzerland in Bangalore at Ranga Shankara and in Mumbai at The Experimental Theatre, NCPA. [dated January 2011]

Pro Helvetia presents NINGYO, a multimedia dance performance by Company Nicole Seiler of Switzerland in Bangalore at Ranga Shankara and in Mumbai at The Experimental Theatre, NCPA.

Bangalore / Ranga Shankara
Saturday, 29 January 2011 at 7:30 pm and
Sunday, 30 January 2011 at 11:00 am

Mumbai / The Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Wednesday, 2 February 2011 at 7:30 pm and
Thursday, 3 February 2011 at 7:30 pm

Credits
Choreography, video Nicole Seiler
Dance performance Chiharu Mamiya
Live Music Letizia Renzini
Costume design Claude Rueger
Light design Stéphane Gattoni
Stage design, technique Julien Grob Dramatist Simona Travaglianti
Video assistant Vincent Deblue

Ningyo is no ordinary contemporary dance performance. It is a tribute to our complexity. Swiss choreographer and video-maker Nicole Seiler continues to question us right through the hour long piece. With Ningyo, a piece she created in 2008, Nicole Seiler talks of the necessity to be indecisive. Why must one feel the need to choose between life forms? Between the body and the mind? The question about ideal beauty is central in Nicole Seiler’s work. In Ningyo, she continues to look at the limits between attraction and repulsion, and beauty and monstrosity. The title of this piece is significant. Ningyo is a Japanese word composed of nin (man) and gyo (depending on the pronunciation fish or shape.) So Ningyo means mermaid or doll. Ningyo does not chronologically tell the story of these half-human, half-animal creatures. The structure of the piece is a performative process which questions the duality of this aquatic creature. “A mermaid embodies an ambivalent femininity. A mixture of seduction and danger. She slides through the nets of categories: a woman-child in between waves, femme fatale at the crest, sometimes prey but often a huntress. Mermaids escape nets; it’s their privilege.” - Nicole Seiler At the beginning of the piece, Ningyo plays with the audience’s perception. The stage is submerged in darkness. Slowly, a being appears. The form does not match that of the mermaid we know of. She is neither graceful nor seductive. Then she emerges out of her natural environment, the water body. At first, the stereotype of ideal beauty is forgotten and a rarer or less well-known aspect about mermaids is told. In certain legends they are described as ugly, repulsive monsters living in the unexplored, scary depths of the sea. The ambiguity of water, sometimes associated with destruction and sometimes with regeneration, also influences Ningyo’s direction. Thus the water’s duality evolves alongside the mermaid’s duality which gives of a powerful force of attraction and at times disgusts and terrifies.

With the help of video projections, Nicole Seiler creates atmospheres which explode the conventional space of a theatre stage. The character in this solo finds herself little by little closed in and projected outside. She repeatedly multiplies herself and is reflected by the water’s surface, which also serves as a tool for the video projections, a multiple mirror. In one scene the dancer plays with her shadow on the back wall, she dissolves it and then escapes from it. Later she is captive of an image projected on the ceiling, from which she flies away using a visual effect created by video. In Ningyo, the dance and the video have the same importance. Created together, these two expressive mediums underline the mermaids dual personality. Ambiguities and dualisms are revealed and eluded to. The stage direction continually integrates opposites like black and white, visible and invisible, singular and plural, animal and man, beauty and monstrosity and shows the blurred limits between attraction and repulsion. Nicole Seiler, the choreographer and video artist of Ningyo studied at the Dimitri School in Verscio Switzerland followed by the Vlaamse Dansacademie in Bruges, Belgium. She later completed her dance education at the School of Maurice Béjart in Lausanne, Switzerland. She was part of many dance and theatre companies including Cie Buissonnière (choreographer Philippe Lizon) in Lausanne, Teatro Malandro (directed by Omar Porras) in Geneva, Cie Philippe Saire and Alias Compagnie, Geneva (choreographer Guilherme Botelho). Nicole Seiler set up her own company in 2002. Her artistic approach combines dance and video and she creates dance and multimedia stage performances, choreographic installations and dance videos. In her work dance and video are equally important. Conceived together the two media dialogue constantly and this symbiosis generates new body shapes and movements. Productions by Company Nicole Seiler include Living-room Dancers, Ningyo, K Two, Je m’appelle…, Pixel Babes, 4 clips pour aufnahmen, Dolls / Dolls live, Lui, One in a Million, Madame K and Quoi? Ningyo comes to life with a brilliant solo performance by Chiharu Mamiya. Japanese by birth, Chiharu studied at the Rosella Hightower School in Cannes. She has worked with choreographers Nicole Caccivio in Berlin, Gilles Jobin in Geneva, Katarzyna Chmielewska in Gdansk, Poland and Estelle Héritier and Nicole Seiler in Lausanne, Switzerland. At dancer Chiharu Mamiya’s side is another presence on stage, a DJ. Mixing tables and many different cables contrast with the natural element of water. Letizia Renzini’s music underlines the atmospheres created by the dance and the video projections. For more information on Compagnie Nicole Seiler visit www.nicoleseiler.com

India Art Summit 2011

The Speakers’ Forum at the India Art Summit 2011 brings together renowned curators, critics, artists, galleries, auction houses, art professionals, and collectors. [dated January 2011]

The Speakers’ Forum at the 3rd edition of India Art Summit in January 2011 brings together renowned curators, critics, artists, galleries, auction houses, art professionals, and collectors from India and around the world, including Switzerland. Sessions will focus on key issues and dialogues concerned with art production and reception in India, critical dialogues and the art market.

The following Swiss curators will be visiting India in January 2011 and will be accompanied by Marianne Burki, Head Visual Arts, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Zurich: 

Daniel Baumann - CV (word doc) 
Urs Stahel - CV (word doc) 
Mirjam Varadinis - CV (word doc) 

SPEAKERS’ FORUM SESSION 

Saturday, 22 January 2011 
Time: 10.00 - 11.30 am Topic: Contemporary curatorial practices: the changing role of the curator Participants: Gayatri Sinha, Independent Critic & Curator Ranjit Hoskote, Cultural theorist, poet, and independent curator Daniel Baumann, Director, Adolf Wolfli-Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts in Bern Latika Gupta, Curator

Sunday, 23 January 2011 
Time: 11.00 - 12.30 pm Topic: Shifting cultural contexts and the role of the museum 

Participants: Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator, Tate Modern Urs Stahel, Director, Curator and Author of Fotomuseum, Winterthur Kiran Nadar, Founder, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Hou Hanru, Director, Exhibitions and Public Programmes, San Francisco Art Institute Moderator: - Kavita Singh, Associate Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU

IMPORTANT 
You are required to register as a delegate to attend the sessions of the Speakers' Forum. 

To view a detailed schedule of the Speakers' Forum to be held on 21, 22 and 23 January 2011, as well as to access the registration form click here. (PDF) For more information on the India Art Summit 2011 click here.