Monday 31 December 2012

Kolkata and Delhi to host PARALLEL CITIES (CIUDADES PARALELAS)

A project curated by Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias, PARALLEL CITIES (CIUDADES PARALELAS) invites artists to devise interventions in public spaces that exhibit parallel existences.

A project curated by Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias, PARALLEL CITIES (CIUDADES PARALELAS) invites artists to devise interventions in public spaces that exhibit parallel existences. Kolkata and Delhi are scheduled to host the project in December 2012 and January 2013 respectively.
Hotel rooms, shopping centres, factories... these are functional places, not usually thought of as interesting to the outside eye. But without them life in the city would be uninhabitable. Their ubiquitous, parallel existences the world over mean these places are instantly recognisable, each modelled on similar rules but displaying a local face.
For “Ciudades Paralelas”, Lola Arias and Stefan Kaegi have invited several artists to devise interventions into these kinds of spaces. Six artists have each chosen a location in the city as observation stations for urban phenomena. Some of them chose to work with radio receivers or headphones, others with people in their workspaces.
The pieces vary in form: You can listen to some of them, others you can read or touch. Some are for a single, others for 100 spectators. The performers include factory workers, cleaners, a blind musician, writers, passers-by or even the audience itself.

Gerardo Naumann’s factory workers take viewers on a subjective journey along the production line at their place of work.
Via headphones, Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells whisper to us over the silence of a library reading-room.
Mariano Pensotti turns four authors into literary surveillance cameras who describe scenes in a Metro station as they happen. The viewers read the texts as a novel unfolding live on large screens over the heads of its real-life figures.
The Ligna activists choreograph their listeners in a shopping mall, turning their movements into a conspiratorial radio ballet.
Lola Arias presents hotel rooms haunted by the stories of the cleaning staff – ghosts who appear when nobody else is there and clean up after the guest has left.
And, late in the evening, Stefan Kaegi invites you to a roof with a view over the city to review all these experiences with a blind artist. Rewinding the experiences from her perspective you find yourself wondering what you will remember of the day.
The projects make theatre out of public spaces used every day, and seduces the viewers into staying long enough for their perception to change. They invite you to subjectively experience places built for anonymous crowds.
“Ciudades Paralelas” offers six perspectives on one city. A festival that doesn’t transport stage sets or companies of actors but ideas.. Via location scouting and casting sessions the six artists are networked with each city. In this way, Ciudades Paralelas wanders from country to country as a mobile research laboratory, building up an archive of guerrilla tactics for appropriating cities.
Ciudades Paralelas is a coproduction between HAU Berlin and Schauspielhaus Zürich, in collaboration with Goethe- Institute India, Teatr Nowy and the foundation of Teatr Nowy. Commissioned by Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council.
Kolkata Schedule:
11 to 18 December 2012 Factory- La fabricà / Monginis Bakery Kolkata 
11 to 18 December 2012 Library- The quiet volume / Ramakrishna Mission Library 
11 to 18 December 2012 Station- Sometimes I think I can see you / Park Street Metro Station 
11 to 17 December 2012 Hotel- Room Service / Taj Bengal 
11 to 18 December 2012 Roof- Review / Everest House
11 to 18 December 2012 Shopping Centre- The first international of Shopping Centers / South City Mall
After Kolkata, Ciudades Paralelas wil be presented in New Delhi in January 2013.
More: 
http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/kol/en10108358v.htm 
www.ciudadesparalelas.com
LAYOUT 2, a location based collaborative construction

Swiss artist Navid Tschopp collaborates once again with Indian artists Sayantan Maitra Boka, Susanta Mandal and M. Pravat to present LAYOUT 2, a location based collaborative construction as part of the Kochi Biennale.

Swiss artist Navid Tschopp collaborates once again with Indian artists Sayantan Maitra Boka, Susanta Mandal and M. Pravat to present LAYOUT 2, a location based collaborative construction as part of the Kochi Biennale. The project aims to create spatial voids deliberately rather than incidentally during the process of construction.

“Layout02 ” is a location based 'aesthetic construction' , that interrogates the standard engineered urban space, in this case an urban Kochi landscape . Four artists make a partnership seeking to transform and mutate the typical architectural process using four distinct approaches. The resulting convergence of these four unique eccentricities is seen to function as one self-contained artwork and the product of the interaction is a source of discovery for both the artists and the audience.

Within the dynamic morphology of cityscapes, any attempt at forming representational models to reflect that dynamism poses a number of challenges, more so because any city itself is largely constituted by innumerable layers of images and imaginations. Whereas many images find a picture-plane, there are imaginations, desires, and resentments that gradually seep into fissures and cracks to form a different substrata. With excavation and archival retrieving as the most commonly spoken-about tropes today, could there be other ways to illuminate that which is beneath? This initiative aims to delve into that substrata, albeit not with a mind to excavate but to 'project onto' through the diverse approaches of 4 creative practitioners from India and Switzerland. Such a process of discovery aims to unravel the various layers defining the semantics.

Layout is an artist collective which was born in November 2010, at an artist studio space in New Delhi, India. All were interested in making site specific art installation working mostly with construction material, partially influenced by the DIY culture . The artists are concerned with a specific cultural landscape whose character is influenced by the geological structure , history and culture into which they integrate their work. The group draws inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that is solely expressed through hypothetical projects. The members are M Pravat , Navid Tschopp , Sayantan Maitra Boka and Susanta Mandal.

M.Pravat is a prolific painter who studied from Baroda and participated in innumerable shows in India and abroad. Currently he has been meditating on the notion of flexibility of the designed space, and his prior works dealt it by creating 'fake' architectural blueprints.
Navid Tschopp , is a Swiss artist and his artistic approach is in the field between orient and occident and contains the many layers between image and action ,his research is about identity in the field of transcultural images and in context art. He has studied architecture and art.
Sayantan Maitra Boka is an architect and scenographer by qualification, and a career in art by choice. He heads an interactive design firm , Illusion In Motion and is an active member of the NGO, Shelter Promotion Council (India) , through which he has started producing and curating Public Art Festivals in different parts of North East India to identify issues and questioning them through the medium of contemporary and new media art.

Susanta Mandal's recent art practice is involved with the issue of energy; whether it’s pipeline politics or other form of mechanism involved with energy. His mixed media installations, which often utilize spotlights and kinetic mechanisms seem playful, but are actually uncanny and ultimately disconcerting constructions.

The collective is currently working on the Sarai Reader Show 09 in Devi Art Foundation , Gurgaon and Kiran Nadar Museum , Noida .
Parallel Cities - Time Out Delhi Photo Exhibition

Parallel Cities - Time Out Delhi Photo Exhibition / Call for photo submission.

It’s no secret that despite their banal uniformity, malls are no longer just shopping centres, but social areas that are firmly integrated into Delhi’s cultural landscape. They’re not just places where you go for retail therapy, but for catching a rare documentary, cutting-edge art, talks, performances and of course, chit-chat and people-watching. 

Time Out Delhi, in collaboration with Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Bhawan, invites professional and amateur photographers to submit photographs that capture the inside of a shopping mall. Twenty images will be selected for a forthcoming exhibition in early January, while eight of the best images will be published in Time Out Delhi. 

The Delhi exhibition is an extension of PARALLEL CITIES, a project curated by theatre professionals Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias from Switzerland and Argentina respectively. The duo have previously worked with artists in cities such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, Warsaw and Zurich to devise interventions in public spaces for their Parallel Cities project. These interventions have included a radio ballet in malls, a walk through an installation composed of the biographies the invisible cleaning staff in hotel rooms, and a journey through the production line of a factory, with a focus on its workers. The curators will stage interventions with local performers in Delhi as well. Be a part of exploring these “parallel cities” and, next time you’re in a mall, start clicking away.

For information on the Parallel Cities project visit www.ciudadesparalelas.com. 
Exhibition dates: 10 - 12 January 2013
Venue: Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhawan, New Delhi 

Selected eight images will be published in the January issue of TIME OUT DELHI. 
Selected twenty images will be exhibited in the PARALLEL CITIES - TIME OUT DELHI PHOTO EXHIBITION 
Theme: The inside of a shopping mall. 
The images should offer different perspectives of the inside of a mall.Images should be illustrative, conceptual or offer a symbolic representation of the shopping mall. 
The publication looks forward to receiving images that showcase the photographer's unique interpretation of the subject.   

Manner of submission: 
Via e-mail: parallelcities.timeoutdelhi(at)gmail.com 
Specifications: low-res jpeg images / 200dpi.  
Hi-res images will be requested for if selected for the exhibition or for publishing.  
The submission should be accompanied by a few lines introducing the photographer and the image(s). 
Last date for submission: 25 December 2012 
Photographers of selected images will be notified via email. Time Out Delhi and Parallel Cities reserves the right to make the final selection.  
There is no fee provided for the images that are published or part of the exhibition.  
All images will be duly accredited. 

PROJECT PARALLEL CITIES (CIUDADES PARALELAS ): DELHI JANUARY 2013  
A project curated by Stefan Kaegi  and Lola Arias, PARALLEL CITIES invites artists to devise interventions in public spaces that exhibit parallel existences. Ubiquitous locations, like the mall and the library have been chosen in Delhi as observation stations for this urban intervention.  In Delhi the project is jointly presented by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan. PARALLEL CITIES is a coproduction between  HAU Berlin and Schauspielhaus Zürich, in collaboration with Goethe-Institute Warschau, Teatr Nowy and the foundation of Teatr Nowy. Commissioned by Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and Goethe Institut Buenos Aires. 

For more information: www.ciudadesparalelas.com/ 

Friday 30 November 2012

Nicole Seiler to mentor young choreographers at FACETS

Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler will participate as a mentor at FACETS, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts’ International Choreography Residency, in Bangalore.

Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler will participate as a mentor at FACETS, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts’ International Choreography Residency, in Bangalore, India from 8 December 2012 to 11 January 2013.  

Residency dates: 5 December 2012 to 23 January 2013
Venue: Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore.   

The Residency will act as a mentored production period in which 16 emerging choreographers will benefit from Nicole Seiler’s expertise and experience. The outcome of this mentorship will be a new quality performance piece in a creative environment that will premiere at the Attakkalari India Biennial 2013.  

Names of other mentors at FACETS:
Sankar Venkateswaran, theatre 
Jatin Vidyarthi, sound and music
Lars Erik H. Bratlie, light designer from Norway
Margie Medlin, digital artist from Australia
Helena Waldmann, choreographer from Germany
Gideon Obarzanek, choreographer  from Australia

About Nicole Seiler
Nicole Seiler, a Lausanne-based dance and theatre performer has collaborated with dance companies such as Buissonnière Co., Teatro Malandro, Alias ​​Compagnie, Compagnie Philippe Saire and Massimo Furlan. In 2002, Seiler founded her company whose research combines dance and multimedia video. Her research has given form to dance multimedia, videos and choreographic installations and in recent years has continued his explorations between image and sound. In 2009, Seiler received the cultural prize for dance from the Vaudoise Foundation for Culture.  

For more information on Compagnie Nicole Seiler visit: www.nicoleseiler.com   
For more information on FACETS visit: www.attakkalari.org 

Organiser/ Partner: Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore 
3 Profiles - sound installation by Bernd Schurer

'Sound Reasons Festival' for sound art and electronic music presents 3 Profiles: Vector Streaming Waveform Segregation Version - a sound installation by Bernd Schurer.

'Sound Reasons Festival' for sound art and electronic music in collaboration with Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and British Council New Delhi presents
3 Profiles: Vector Streaming Waveform Segregation Version 
a sound installation by Bernd Schurer   

Opening on 16 November 2012 at 7 PM at the British Council, 17 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi. Installation on exhibit from 16 - 20 November 2012   

Brief on installation: 
"3 profiles" presents 3 different segregated audio stereo- streams that run in parallel, each of these 3 in turn get visualized by the vectorscope. The image is written into a matrix, that is used to modulate the sound profiles' properties of frequency, phase and amplitude and therefore create a recursive audiovisual system.

Examining a shared interest in the inherent connection between auditory and visual elements, the contrasts of sensory aspects constitute the foundation for these audiovisual studies, generating “beautiful” visual displays from the combination of basic synthesized waveforms through the lens of a vectorscope (an oscilloscope’s x-y mode). This metering device originally used in audio engineering for the process of vinyl mastering, where the precise parallel correlation of phases is essential for record pressing, is a common device, that has since been integrated into stereo image monitoring equipment to deliver a graphic representation of the stereo signal.  

The meter displays a two-dimensional rectangular coordinate system. The device can visualize three different attributes of sound - it’s amplitude, frequency and phase correlation. Here, the left channel of sound is represented by one axis and the right channel by the other. The resulting visual output is affected by the difference of the input signals, and something referred to as lissajous patterns appear and move on the display, which was what ultimately drew my curiosity.    

Throughout the experimentation phase, the idea of the image as a functional accompanist to the sound was abandoned and the audio element was subordinated in favor of the image, which creates an aesthetics that is otherwise mostly absent from technical audio metering.   

Bernd Schurer 
Schurer’s artistic focus lies on the work with sound in a broad spectrum of different contexts: a constant shift, although, mostly investigating the experiential relationship between sound and what one would generally describe as space and the body. There is a strong fascination in the study of the perception of sound and our interpretative patterns, and there has been done artistic research in the domains of Psychoacoustics, Architecture, Auralization, Sonification and Audio- Visual Representation Systems. Presentations may vary from Computer Music Diffusion to Installation work to abstract Sound Art. Some of it has been exhibited internationally on various scales, from micro galleries to public space, from “art at home” to the Venice Art Biennial. Since 1996 he is co-editor and curator for electronic sound pieces at the domizil.ch imprint in Zürich, together with Marcus Maeder.  

Bernd Schurer was born 1970 in Zurich, and currently lives in Berlin. He studied Philosophy and Film Science at the University of Zurich and Visual Art at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He is currently a Masters student in Electroacoustic Composition and Theory at the Zürich Univeristy of the Arts with Professors Germàn Toro- Peréz and Dr. Martin Neukom.  
More:
http://heterophenomenological.net/
 http://domizil.ch/
Sound Reasons Festival' for sound art and electronic music

Swiss musicians Bernd Schurer, Jasch, Robin Meier and Thomas Peter will be participating in the 'Sound Reasons Festival' for sound art and experimental electronic music.

The 'Sound Reasons Festival' for sound art and experimental electronic music will take place in Delhi from 4 - 22 November 2012.

The festival comprises of sound installations, live music/ sound performances and workshops that are spread across November and are happening in Delhi and Banglore. Swiss artists participating in the festival are Bernd Schurer, Jasch, Robin Meier and Thomas Peter.
Music composed in collaboration with Hans Koch will also be presented.
PERFORMANCE DATES:  

7th November |  Alliance Française de Delhi ,  72, Lodi Estate, Delhi | 7 pm |  Wednesday |Live Performance | Thomas Peter | Jasch | diFfuSed Beats |da Saz | Robert millis | 

9th November | Goethe Institut, Max Muller Bahwan, Kasturba Gandhi Marg/ Delhi | 7 pm | Friday |Live Performace | Jasch | Petri Kuljuntausta | Robert Millis | edGeCut | da Saz | 

10th November | Jaaga, Banglore | 7 pm onwardsThomas Peter | Jasch | diFfuSed Beats | Robert Millis | Masta Justy | Yashas Shetty | 

INSTALLATIONS BY SWISS ARTISTS:

Bernd Schurer | 15th November – 21st November | Queens Gallery, British Council, KG Marg /  

Robin Meier + Ali Momeni | 6th – 12th November | Whats up Bharat, 1 Hauz Khas Village | 

The festival is supported by : Pro-Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Sarai-CSDS,  Japan Foundation, Goethe Institut/ Max Mueller Bhawan, British Council and Alliance Francaise de Delhi.
More:  http://soundreasons.in for the updated schedule.
Confluence, the coming together of two maestros

The legendary Indian musician Dr. T.V.Gopalakrishnan and the multifaceted European maestro Siegfried Kutterer will be performing in Chennai on 18 November 2012.

Confluence is a unique effort to connect different musical and cultural genres, conceived and composed by Dr. T.V.G and Siegfried Kutterer. The logic and discipline of Indian classical music connects with the free improvisation and movement of jazz and percussion. It is a fine play and balancing act between the similarities and accruals of the two musical genres. 
The concert is supported by Pro Helvetia-Swiss Arts Council and the Goethe-Institut.

The famous T.V. Gopalkrishnan has helped to tirelessly shape the dialogue between east and west through his concerts with George Harrison and representatives of free jazz, and now with Vein, a popular trio from the Swiss jazz scene and DeciBells, a percussion trio from Germany that plays avant-garde music. Siegfried Kutterer has studied Mridangam and the theory of Carnatic music for many years. 
Duration: 90-100 minutes 
Dates & Venue: 18 November 2012, Chennai, Music Academy - Book tickets for Chennai show 

Programme 
1. Kanakangi - Golden Shawl All artists 
2. Straight Inside DeciBells & Vein Jazz and Western Percussion 
3. Mallari Saxophone, Violin, Keyboard, Percussion 
4. Indigo DeciBells & Vein Jazz and Western Percussion 
5. Chaturangam Rhythmical musical composition Raga - Swara - Bols - Paran 
Voices and Instruments 
Intermission 
Global premiere of Confluence in Raga Resikapriya, a blend of European and Indian raga and tala
Artists from Europe:
DeciBells (Siegfried Kutterer, Szilard Buti and Domenico Melchiorre)
Jazz Trio VEIN (M. Arbenz/ Piano, T. Laehns/ Bouble Bass and F. Arbenz/ Percussion) 

Artists from India: 
T.V. Gopalkrishnan, Vocal, Mridangam 
Devie Neithiyar, Vocal 
S. Varadarajan Violin 
G. Ramanathan, Saxophone 
Biju Paulose, Keyboards 
Tripunilhura, Radhakishnan, Ghatom  

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Intersections, the Yellow Line Project films screenings

The Yellow Line Project residency brought together dancers and media artists, including Swiss artist Frédéric Lombard to make 5 films. INTERSECTIONS returns these evocative and dynamic films.

The Yellow Line Project (YLP) residency brought together dancers and media artists, including Swiss artist Frédéric Lombard to make 5 films in different public sites around New Delhi in 2011. As a build-up to IGNITE! Festival of Contemporary Dance, INTERSECTIONS returns these evocative and dynamic films to the city's architecture through a mobile projector.

The film screenings have been supported by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council.
The Yellow Line Project - Film Screening / Films by:
Rajyashree Ramamurthi & Desmond Roberts
Parimal Phadke & Dhanya Pilo 
Surjit Nongmeikapam & Frederic Lombard 
Preethi Athreya & Yashaswini R 
Rakesh MPS & Asim Waqif

The schedule* for Intersection film screenings(time 6pm onwards):
19 Oct- CP, Inner Circle, Central Park
20 Oct- CP, Inner Circle, Central Park, British Council
21 Oct- CR Park Pandal
22 Oct- CR Park pandal
23 Oct- Kamani, Mandi House, NSD, Bengali Market
24 Oct- Khirkee
25 Oct- Hauz Khas- BIN, TLR, Kunzum
26 Oct- Khan Market, Pandara Market
27 Oct- Nehru Place, GK1 N+M Block
28 Oct- Alaknanda Market, M Block
(NOTE: *tentative and subject to change)

ABOUT THE YELLOW LINE PROJECT:
The Yellow Line Project (YLP) aimed to create an experimental space for collaborative interactions between dance, film and the city of New Delhi. YLP invited collaborations between 6 choreographers and 6 media-artists. Each choreographer worked with a media artist to produce a short, 4-6 minute dance-film. The residency began with an intensive week of explorations into the genre of dance-films as well as workshops on site-specific performance, the city and specifically the city of Delhi.
 The Yellow Line Project (YLP) was jointly supported by Royal Norwegian Embassy, Ministry of Culture, Japan Foundation, Pro Helvetia- Swiss Arts Council, The British Council, South East Dance, Bharat Forge and Meeto Memorial Award.
Mirjam Varadinis on Skoda Prize jury

Pro Helvetia New Delhi is delighted to be associated with The Skoda Prize for Indian Contemporary Art for the third consecutive year and has announced a one-month residency for each of the two runners-up. Mirjam Varadinis, Swiss art historian, curator and writer will be part of the jury.
Swiss Jazz quintet ‘Pommelhorse’ tours India

Embassy of Switzerland presents the Swiss Jazz quintet ‘Pommelhorse’. The band comprises of Lukas Roos, Joel Graf, Gregor Lisser, Jeremiah Keller and Olivier Zurkirchen. [dated October 2012]

The Embassy of Switzerland with the support of Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council presents the Swiss Jazz quintet
‘PommelHORSE’ in New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Schedule: 
25th October: Gig at Blue Frog, Delhi, 8.30 pm 
26th October: Gig in Pune as organized by the Pune Jazz Club 
27th October: Gig in Mumbai orgasnized by Jazz Utsav 
29th October: Gig at the Dalhousie Institute Club, Kolkata 
3rd November: Gig at Bflat Bangalore

NOTE: Dates and timings will be confirmed closer to the concert. You are requested to contact the local partner fo further details.

The quintet from Switzerland is inspired by jazz and rock. Their carefree spirit allows them to combine and produce varied sounds. As part of their performances at the Jazz Utsav, PommelHORSE will tour Pune, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

The tour to India and participation at the Jazz festival supported by Pro Helvetia- Swiss Arts Council.

The PommelHORSE 
pommelHORSE was founded in 2008 by Lukas Roos (Cl), Joel Graf (Sax), Gregor Lisser (Dr) and Jeremiah Keller (eb). Simon left the band in the summer of 2010 and was replaced by Olivier Zurkirchen (Rhodes). The appearances at the Cully Jazz Festival in Bern was followed by the recording of their first studio album. Produced by Markus Gfeller the album was mixed and mastered by Chris Diggelmann in Mazzive Sounds Studio.

The first album 'POMMELHORSE' was conceived and recorded in March 2012. The album's release was celebrated with a release tour that included 22 concerts in Switzerland and in neighboring countries. PommelHORSE won accolades at the preliminary round of the Le Scimmie Milan (It) European Jazz Contest. The finale, with the best five bands will take place in Rome.

The complex video of dance, drama and performance for the composition 'When It Started To Snow' was realized by the artist Sarah Hugentobler. This video won Sarah Hugentobler the prize of £ 30,000 at the Aeschlimann Corti prize.

For more information: http://www.pommelhorse.ch/
Lecture-Performance –‘Act Like You Mean It’

Swissnex India in collaboration with National Gallery for Modern Art, Bengaluru present ‘Act Like You Mean It’, a lecture-performance Thomas Grunwald and Anton Rey. [dated October 2012]

Swissnex India in collaboration with National Gallery for Modern Art, Bengaluru present

‘Act Like You Mean It’ 
a lecture-performance by Swiss researchers Thomas Grunwald, a neurologist from the Swiss Epilepsy Centre in Zurich and Anton Rey, a dramaturg from the Zurich University of the Arts.

On Friday 12 October 2012 from 18:00 hrs – 19:00 hrs 
at the National Gallery for Modern Art, Bengaluru (Entry: Open to all)

In Bangalore, the duo present the balcony scene of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the help of Bangalore-based professional actors Parvathi Om as Juliet and Shrunga B V as Romeo.

In a five-act ‘lecture-performance’, the two researchers explore whether, according to the brain, actors in a play express genuine emotion or just fake it.

For more information visit: http://www.swissnexindia.org/
Ruth Buck at Ahmedabad International Arts Festival

Ahmedabad International Arts Festival and Pro Helvetia present 'come back to earth' by Swiss artist Ruth Buck in collaboration with Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT). [dated October 2012]

'come back to earth' by Swiss artist Ruth Buck at Ahmedabad International Arts Festival, Ahmedabad

Date: 26 - 28 October 2012
Time: 11:00 hrs to 20:00 hrs
Venue: Faculty of Arts & Humanities, CEPT University, 4 Principal Bangla, Commerce Six Roads, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad
Entry: Open to all

Ahmedabad International Arts Festival and Pro Helvetia New Delhi presents „come back to earth‟ by Swiss artist Ruth Buck in collaboration with Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University (CEPT).

The exhibition comprising a slideshow and photographic prints involves an exploration of photography as a reflective means of intervention and interpretation of society.

Ruth Buck was on a residency in India awarded by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. The presented works are an outcome of her residency during which she travelled to different places in India capturing images and experiences on her camera.

'Come Back to Earth' is Ruth‟s unique and unusual way of discovering India. The focus of the work is directed towards the ground, which reveals a great deal about social organisation, rules and conditions. It tells of humans, habits, orderliness and regulations, cultures, home, beliefs, needs, desire, beauty, fears, ideals, difficulties, and more. The work raises many questions about the relationship between an individual and the public space and about how the need for control impacts space and property.

Swiss artist Ruth Buck was born in Römerswil, Switzerland. In her works, Ruth goes beyond the margins of art genres and operates in different art media. She produces tactile works and conceptual works with words, images and sounds.

For more information visit: www.prohelvetia.in; http://aiaf.in/ahmedabad.html

Organiser and Partner: Ahmedabad International Arts Festival; Faculty of Arts & Humanities, CEPT University; Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council Artist in Residency
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives

Pro Helvetia welcomes Pio Pellizzari from Fonoteca Nazionale Svizzera, Stefano Cavaglieri, Fonoteca Nazionale Svizzera and Jacqueline von Arb, Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound, Norway. [dated October 2012]

Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council is delighted to support 
the 43rd Conference of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives
and welcomes the delegates including Swiss participants 

Pio Pellizzari from Fonoteca Nazionale Svizzera 
Stefano Cavaglieri, Fonoteca Nazionale Svizzera and 
Jacqueline von Arb, Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound, Norway. 

Date: 7 - 11 October 2012 
Venue: India International Centre, New Delhi 
Entry: By registration

The theme of the conference is "In Transition: Access for All". The conference will address matters connected with accessibility of collections as well as copyright issues and required technical systems and infrastructure. The objective is to investigate and discuss the issues pertaining to access alongside the following subthemes: copyright and IP, technologies, users, access, online access and funding. 

Partners: International Association of sound and Audiovisual Archive; AIIS Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology

For more information visit: http://2012.iasa-web.org/

Sunday 30 September 2012

Traces from iaab: Akshay Raj Singh Rathore

Akshay Raj Singh Rathore, currently on a residency at iaab Basel, presents 3-works at an artist run archive space called DOCK in Basel. [dated September 2012]

Akshay Raj Singh Rathore, currently on a residency at iaab Basel, presents 3-works (i- series videos, The unbearable lightness of being I & -culure I) at an artist run archive space called DOCK in Basel. The exhibition will be on view until end October.

Apart from this presentation at DOCK Basel, a major part of Akshay’s residency was a site-specific work 'Let it Bloom', executed on a swiss farm outside of Zurich. This is a time bound work and the final realization will happen when the plants bloom in November end.

-----
Artists brief on project: 
Let it Bloom - a site -specific installation

I applied to the Pro-Helvetia residency programme with Let it bloom, a site-specific installation. Finding the right environment and the right person/organisation to host it was an integral part of the project. Thanks to IAAB, I met Martin and could work at his farm on a beautiful and insüiring land. Beyond the realisation of this particular project, working at Martin’s farm had a very important resonance on my entire residency and the conceptualization of my work around the larger notion of ‘–Culture’.

Let it bloom stems from an earlier work of mine titled Rai Ka Pahad. Close to the English expression ‘don’t make a mountain of a mole hill’, this first work, Rai Ka Pahad - literally ‘mountain of mustard’ is titled after a very commonly used Hindi phrase from which the idea of the sculpture originates. The seeds accumulate to shape a floating organic mountain chain. Imposing, mountains frame our landscape and defy the sky. Symbol of immutability, they pass through times, like myths and phrases are transmitted from a generation to another…magic of human oral legacy. Rai Ka Pahad is a very literal sculpture of a mountain covered with mustard seeds and in that sense it deliberately plays with a strictly formal approach to the medium and first layered imaginary of the metaphor. The parable of Mathew in the New Testament says that ‘if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain move from here, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you’. The painstaking accumulation of mustard seeds evokes this same quantity of faith it takes to do the impossible.

In collective, political and geographical imaginaries, mountains stand alone complex. Natural territorial borders or geopolitical ones, they have been at the heart of disputes and decisive historical battles. In this context, Rai Ka Pahad takes on the shape of Eastern Ghats hills. Located in Orissa, these have been at the centre of agitation lately, because of their aluminium resources disputed between the locals-asked to relocate- and Vedanta, the industrial company wanting to mine the rich grounds threatening to uproot the lives of thousands…

Let it bloom is an organic mustard mountain, blooming in a natural environment and landscape. Carrying on further the various explorations and researches initiated during the process of making Rai Ka Pahad, this is a new phase of the work, a mountain of mustard sculpted in a natural environment, with natural soil and sown seeds, which, with time, will bloom.

Beyond the interesting but evident visual contrast between the two works, the idea is to explore the evolution from one physical form to another- here from the barren to the fertile- and the meanings such an evolution can carry intrinsically. After relying on the literal meaning of Rai Ka Pahad, with Let it bloom, I explore further the simplicity and maybe triviality of a literal reading of metaphors. Like in the parable of Mathiew, Rai Ka Pahad stands as the first phase, it accumulates faith to enable the bloom. The displacement of the disputed chain of mountains to a peaceful and neutral country, Switzerland, is possible but metaphorical. 

Akshay Raj Singh Rathore 
Hof Blum, September 2012

Alexander Hahn to participate in seminar on Curatorial Practice

Swiss electronic media artist, Alexander Hahn will be participating in the seminar moderated by Bangalore-based artist and curator, Anil Kumar at the United Art Fair. [dated September 2012]

'Curatorial Practice & its Intervention in Artistic Practice and Theory’
A seminar presented by The United Art Fair with the support of Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council

29 September 2012 / Pragati Maidan, New Delhi 

Swiss electronic media artist, Alexander Hahn will be participating in the discussion moderated by Bangalore-based artist and curator, Anil Kumar. 
Date: 29 September 2012 
Time: 5:00 – 6:30 pm 
Venue: The United Art Fair Seminar Hall 
Entry: As per United Art Fair rules 

Beside Alexander Hahn and Anil Kumar other panelists include Johny ML, Head Curator, United Art Fair and the artist Chintan Upadhyay. The seminar aims to address current questions about curation. Whether curation acts as an ‘alibi’ to theoretical practice of visual culture is debatable. Does it clamor for an ‘independent identity’ of its own, as a separate stream from and akin to artistic practice and theory? The discourse continues as the panelists aim to delve into whether site-specificity of an artwork and context-specificity of curation have a possible meeting point, real or metaphorical?

Swiss-born Alexander Hahn is in India on a three-month residency. A pioneering electronic media artist who lives and works in New York and Zurich, Hahn is a fellow of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. His videos, installations and computer prints have been exhibited worldwide, most recently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kunstmuseum Solothurn/CH, Museum der Moderne Salzburg/AT, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara/IT, National Art Museum of China, Beijing/CN. Hahn is the recipient of the following awards: New York State Council on the Arts Grant, Zurich Work Award, Cultural Prize of St. Gallen, and the Swiss Federal Grant.

Tuesday 31 July 2012

Curatorial practice as a production's process

Pro Helvetia New Delhi in collaboration with 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore presents a presentation and discussion by Swiss curator and academician Patrick Gosatti in Bangalore. [dated July 2012]

Pro Helvetia New Delhi in collaboration with 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore presents a presentation and discussion on 
Curatorial practice as a production's process 
by Swiss curator and academician Patrick Gosatti 

Date: Wednesday 25 July 2012 at 6:00 pm Venue: 1 Shanthi Road, Shanthi Rd, Bangalore 

HA Anil Kumar, Indian curator and critic has kindly consented to be the moderator. 
Entry is open to all.
For more information contact 1 Shanthi Road at 98802 27706 
Photo credit: Uriel Orlow, The Short and the Long of it II (installation view), 2011, la rada, Locarno (CH). 

Information on Patrick Gosatti:
• University of Art & Design, Geneva | Aesthetics and Art Theory Teacher 2010Prepared Master classes and provided bibliographic references and organized workshops
• Festival Les Urbaines, Lausanne | Co-Curator 2010-12 Conceived the exhibition’s programs, organized installations in the public space, negotiated collaborations with institutions
• Art Collector magazine, Basel | Art Journalist 2010Prepared backround research and wrote articles in French on contemporary art
• Kunst-Bulletin magazine, Zürich | Italian Editor 2009Provided monthly coverage of international contemporary art, edited and proofread layouts, participated in editorial meetings
• IILA Pavilion, 53th Biennale di Venezia | Freelance Coordinator Assistant 2009 Coordinated large-scale installation, developed and supervised the budget, planned travels and logistics
• la rada_spazio per l’arte contemporanea, Locarno | Co-Curator 2008-12 Organized exhibitions, edited catalogues, arranged loans, established budget and collaborations
• Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich | Production Assistant 2008 Scheduled artwork’s production, supervised the production’s process, prepared the artworks for exhibitions and collections
• Galerie VU’, Paris | Gallery Assistant 2006 Organized the collection for archiving and restoration, fostered contacts with international institutions, guided gallery’s visits

Selected Publications
• Uriel Orlow, The Short and the Long of It, Mousse Publishing 2011
• Solvej Dufour-Andersen, Collection Cahiers d’artistes, Pro Helvetia 2011
• Twisted Realism, Raphaël Cuomo & Maria Iorio, Mousse Publishing 2010
• Veduta, Adrien Missika, Mousse Publishing 2010
• Wang Qingsong, in Timer / Intimacy, cat., Skira, Milano 2007

Languages spoken: Italian, French, German, English
Swiss film at European Film Festival in Ahmedabad

The Embassy of Switzerland in India presents Stationspiraten, a Swiss film by Michael Schaerer on the occasion of ‘Europe in Amdavad’ - the European Film Festival 2012 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. [dated July 2012]

The Embassy of Switzerland in India presents Stationspiraten, a Swiss film by Michael Schaerer on the occasion of ‘Europe in Amdavad’ - the European Film Festival 2012 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Date: 25 & 26 July 2012 
Venue: Cinépolis, Ahmedaba 

The film “Stationspiraten” (Bold Heroes) Fiction, 90 min., by Michael Schaerer / Switzerland, Sep 2010
The lives of five teenagers intersect in a hospital. Four of the five have cancer; one is waiting for his diagnosis. Each reacts to the situation in a different manner: although Benji battles the constant pain in his leg, he keeps the station in good spirits. Michi is waiting for his leg prosthesis, aiming to be out on the football pitch again soon. Kevin discovers newfound courage thanks to Laura on the 7th floor. Jonas' passion for flying is stronger than any medicine he‟s taken. And Sascha learns how to be a true friend. Together the five “station pirates” confront the fatal illness head on. Together they seize life.

Written by: Jürgen Ladenburger 
For more information on the film visit: www.stationspiraten.ch 
For screening details kindly contact the festival coordinator at afa.culture@yahoo.fr or visit www.cinepolisindia.com

Organisers: Alliance Française d‟ Ahmedabad, British Council Ahmedabad, Goethe Zentrum Ahmedabad

Partners: The Embassy of Switzerland in India, European Union Delegation office, EU Film Festival, FFSI
Patrick Gosatti at Experimenter Curator's Hub, Kolkata

Swiss curator Patrick Gosatti to participate at the Experimenter Curators Hub 2012. Patrick teaches at the University of Art & Design, Geneva and has co-curated the Festival Les Urbaines, Lausanne. [dated July 2012]

Swiss curator Patrick Gosatti will be participating at the Experimenter Curators Hub 2012 in Kolkata this July. Patrick has been teaching Aesthetics and Art Theory at the University of Art & Design, Geneva and has been the Co-curator of the Festival Les Urbaines, Lausanne. He has also been writing for the Art Collector magazine, Basel and the Kunst-Bulletin magazine, Zürich.

Date: 27 & 28 July 2012 Time: 11 am – 7 pm Venue: Experimenter, 2/1 Hindusthan Road, Gariahat Kolkata 700029 Entry: By registration / to register 033 - 24630465 / 40012289

Synopsis: 
The objective of the Experimenter Curators Hub 2012 is to secure and take forward exchange of thoughts, views & possibilities of collaborations between the curators at the hub. Another objective is to discuss how curatorial practice can be developed through innovations and collaborations.

For more information please contact: Experimenter at 033 - 24630465 / 40012289
Organiser and Partners: Experimenter ( www.experimenter.in )

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Talk at 1 Shanthi Road in Bangalore 
Patrick Gosatti will also be making a presentation on ‘Curatorial practice as a production's process’ at 1 Shanthi Road in Bangalore. Date: Wednesday 25 July 2012 at 6:00 pm Venue: 1 Shanthi Road, Shanthi Rd, Bangalore
Entry: Open to all

Information on Patrick Gosatti:
• University of Art & Design, Geneva | Aesthetics and Art Theory Teacher 2010Prepared Master classes and provided bibliographic references and organized workshops
• Festival Les Urbaines, Lausanne | Co-Curator 2010-12 Conceived the exhibition’s programs, organized installations in the public space, negotiated collaborations with institutions
• Art Collector magazine, Basel | Art Journalist 2010Prepared backround research and wrote articles in French on contemporary art
• Kunst-Bulletin magazine, Zürich | Italian Editor 2009Provided monthly coverage of international contemporary art, edited and proofread layouts, participated in editorial meetings
• IILA Pavilion, 53th Biennale di Venezia | Freelance Coordinator Assistant 2009 Coordinated large-scale installation, developed and supervised the budget, planned travels and logistics
• la rada_spazio per l’arte contemporanea, Locarno | Co-Curator 2008-12 Organized exhibitions, edited catalogues, arranged loans, established budget and collaborations
• Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich | Production Assistant 2008 Scheduled artwork’s production, supervised the production’s process, prepared the artworks for exhibitions and collections
• Galerie VU’, Paris | Gallery Assistant 2006 Organized the collection for archiving and restoration, fostered contacts with international institutions, guided gallery’s visits

Selected Publications
• Uriel Orlow, The Short and the Long of It, Mousse Publishing 2011
• Solvej Dufour-Andersen, Collection Cahiers d’artistes, Pro Helvetia 2011
• Twisted Realism, Raphaël Cuomo & Maria Iorio, Mousse Publishing 2010
• Veduta, Adrien Missika, Mousse Publishing 2010
• Wang Qingsong, in Timer / Intimacy, cat., Skira, Milano 2007

Languages spoken: Italian, French, German, English

Saturday 30 June 2012

Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012

A video- installation by Indian artist Iram Ghufran, who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff'. [dated June 2012]

A video- installation by Indian artist Iram Ghufran, who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff' published from Basel in 1494. The video uses images from the Basel State Archive and the archives of the Burgholzli Clinic, Psychiatry Department, Zurich University.

The Swiss Experience, Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau June 15 - 24, 2012

Works 
1] There Is Something In The Air, 2011DV/ 28'25/ Col & BW/ 
Sound Work developed during the Residency 
2] This Glass Refused To Be Fixed, 2012Broken glass, glue 
3] Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012DV/ 04'44/ Col/ Sound

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Project Brief:
Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012 A ship of fools had set sail from Basel sometime in the 15th century… its cargo of lunatics, renegades and renunciators destined to travel through centuries of philosophy, history and art… not landing on any particular shore, but always available as an allegory to draw from. 

A work in progress, 'Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools' emerges from a reflection on the medieval European practice, wherein cities and towns would get rid of the insane, and deviant population by casting them away on ships and boats, while at the same time, welcoming a cargo of foreign lunatics aboard other ships as entertainment. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff' published from Basel in 1494. A critique of the medieval Church, Das Narrenschiff is known for its woodcuts by Albrecht Durer, some of which may have inspired Bosch's famous 'Ship of Fools'. 

The video / installation includes a video projected on part of a canvas with paper boats made from Brandt's Das Narrenschiff, adrift on a black charcoal sea. The video also uses images from the Basel State Archive, photographs from the archives of the Burgholzli Clinic, now part of the Psychiatry Department of the Zurich University, images of art work by the clinically insane inmates of several hospitals and clinics of Switzerland from the 1850 onwards. 'Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship of Fools' is a travelogue, a reflection on the history of people who travelled on ships and sometimes went missing.
The artist: 
An award winning filmmaker, Iram Ghufran’s work largely emerges from various interdisciplinary practices - filmmaking, photography, research and writing. Her work has been shown in several international art and cinematic contexts. She was a member of the Sarai Media Lab from 2004 to 2011 and has been teaching photography at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University. Iram’s first documentary There is Something in the Air, won her the National Award this year.
‘Project CINEMA CITY’ screening at Rote Fabrik, Zurich

Shreyas Karle, currently on a residency in Switzerland is taking the opportunity to present ‘Project CINEMA CITY, Research Art & Documentary Practices’, at Rote Fabrik. [dated June 2012]

‘Project CINEMA CITY’ screening at Rote Fabrik, Zurich Shreyas Karle, currently on a residency in Switzerland is taking the opportunity to present ‘Project CINEMA CITY, Research Art & Documentary Practices’, to Swiss audiences at Rote Fabrik on Wednesday 20 June. The series of documentaries are part of an archival project that is produced by the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. 

For more information on the screenings click here
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Project brief: 
Project CINEMA CITY Research Art & Documentary Practices

The city and the cinema are twins of the 20th century. In the Asian region especially, the post-colonial cities, huge metropolises and ever-moving populations of this century have contributed to the evolution of a discipline which is as much about an imagination of the city as about a distinct cinematic practice. The histories of these contemporary cities, then, are inextricably linked to their ‘cinemascape’, and vice versa.

Project Cinema City is a set of enquiries into the labour, imagination, desire, access, spaces, locations, iconization, materiality, languages, migrant peoples, viewing conventions, and hidden processes that create the cinema sthe city makes, and also the citiesits cinema produces. The enquiries are then processed into productions of text, film, art, cartography. The multi-disciplinary research work, produced output and all the residuals together form a cinema city archive that is transient and open-ended – to facilitate further readings, more works.

This show, a part of Project Cinema City, focuses on the cinema of the city of Bombay/Mumbai: its production processes and ancillary cultures; its stations of reception and recognition that run through a complex set of networks; the bazaars and streets of the city that hawk the footprints of cinema; and the city-zens’ memory of the contemporary that revolves around cinema. The Project will, in time, include cinema cities across Asia.

Presented by Rajeev Lochan, Director, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Curator–Producer Madhusree Dutta
Co-Curator Archana Hande A Majlis initiative in collaboration with KRVIA

Curator's note
The City and Cinema: twins in the large clan of wars, moving peoples and goods, technology-based modernity, and colonial and post-colonial identities of the 20th century. They have never been separated in a crowded fair, and so have never got a chance to rediscover each other at the peak of their youth and at the height of their adrenalin rush. Instead, they have spun a thicker plot in which to impersonate each other, hawk moulds of one another and, most importantly, lay down a set of signs to codify the other.

The relationship between the city and its cinema is imaginary yet tactile, complementary and also ambivalent, momentary and still recyclable – in short, it speaks of a form and its apparition as well. Their relative size and perspective, however, remain fluid and interchangeable, often making the apparition seem much larger than the form itself.

Project Cinema City: Research Art and Documentary Practices is a collaborative endeavour in search of the joints between the form and its apparition, between the city and its cinema. The collaboration is modelled on contemporary, urban systems of post-industrial production: networks of assembling, processing, manufacturing, recycling all independent and yet interdependent. In this show, we display works that are simultaneously products of research, collation, pedagogy, creativity, criticality, and then, an attempt at archiving. In this endeavour of inter-disciplinary collaboration the authors are many, but they are distinct and not faceless. We have attempted a methodology whereby each one’s work exists independently, and yet attains fullness and exuberance only in relation to the works of others. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the series of public shows of Project Cinema City begins in the year that marks 100 years of the cinema in Bombay/Mumbai.

Madhusree Dutta