Thursday 31 December 2015

Anne-Marie Kenessey at Bangalore Literature Festival

Swiss poet Anne-Marie Kenessey has been invited by the Bangalore Literature Festival.

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council in collaboration with 
Bangalore Literature Festival presents 
Swiss poet Anne-Marie Kenessey 

When: Wednesday 5 Dec 2015 at 12:30 pm
Venue: Hotel Royal Orchid, Near KGA, Bangalore
Entry: Festival rules apply
Session: War & Peace - In Verse: Anne-Marie Kenessey, Mani Rao, Neal Hall and Per Bloch

About the poet:
Anne-Marie Kenessey is a Swiss poet based in Zurich. Her German poems have been published in various literary magazines, amongst others, SpracheimtechnischenZeitalter no. 190 (Berlin, Germany), Wespennest no. 156 and no. 164 (Vienna, Austria, August 2009 and May 2013), poet no. 14 (Leipzig, Germany, March 2013) and allmende no. 88 (Karlsruhe, Germany, December 2011), in the anthology Jahrbuch der Lyrik no. 30 (Munich, 2015) and in the Swiss national newspaper Tages-Anzeiger (Zurich, December 2012).

Anne-Marie's first book, the poetry collection "Im Fossil verstecktsich das Seepferdvordir" (Edition Isele, 2012), received the award of the Canton of Zurich in July 2012. With a selection of new poems she won the Munich poetry prize in December 2012. She has been invited for readings by Literaturwerkstatt Berlin in 2013, as one of the four most important German poetry debut works of the year 2012, by LiteraturhausNÖ, Krems, Austria in 2014 and by Leukerbad International Literary Festival in 2015. 

Anne-Marie's poems have been translated to Hungarian by Hungarian writer GyörgyDalos and have appeared in the cultural magazine Magyar LettreInternationale, Budapest, August 2015. Since 2009 she is editor of the Swiss literary magazine orte. Her translations of French poems and short prose into German have been published in it. She has language skills in German (native), English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Hungarian andholds a Master of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Zurich. From 2000 - 2014 she worked as a full time employee in the private sector. Since 2015 she is working as an independent writer.

More on the poet at 
www.edition-isele.de/shopersatz/index.php?aktion=detail&id=426 
literaturfestival.ch/wwkd15/deutsch/autorinnen-und-autoren.html 
www.poetenladen.de/anne-marie-kenessey.htm 
www.viceversaliteratur.ch/author/9140 

About the festival: bangaloreliteraturefestival.org


Wednesday 30 December 2015

Cie Gilles Jobin presents QUANTUM in India

Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin, recipient of the Swiss Grand Award for Dance 2015 presents QUANTUM, an innovative dance performance in Bangalore and Delhi.

Q U A N T U M 
by Gilles Jobin (Geneva - CH) recipient of the Swiss Grand Award for Dance 2015 

In the frame of the "Year of Swiss Innovation in India", the Embassy of Switzerland along with Pro Helvetia Swiss Art Council and swissnex India, invites the Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin with QUANTUM. 

Gilles Jobin and his dance company will perform in: 
Bangalore on the 26th and 27th of November 2015 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall 
New Delhi on 4th and 5th December 2015 at Kamani Auditorium 

About QUANTUM 
QUANTUM is an innovative dance performance by Gilles Jobin, choreographer of international acclaim and German visual artist Julius von Bismarck. Gilles Jobin developed this choreography after his residency at CERN - The European Organization for Nuclear Research, world's largest particle physics laboratory. It is based on the concept of kinetic movement in particle physics. 

QUANTUM takes the quark as muse, fusing choreography and installation art into an ode to subatomic randomness. Six dancers vibrate, scatter, and whirl beneath a gyrating quartet of industrial lamps, programmed to respond to the slightest movement, while Carla Scaletti's soundscape from particle collision data provides the sonic ether. 

QUANTUM is a stunning example of the kind of mutual inspiration that can happen when artists and scientists work alongside one another. 

Workshops 
Gilles Jobin will also lead choreographic workshops for dance professionals, students, scholars and/or scientists around the idea of "movement generators" developed during his CERN residency and the creation of QUANTUM.
Bangalore workshop at Attakalari on 26th and 27th of November  
Delhi workshop Danceworx on 3rd and 4th of December 

Links 
Gilles Jobin homepage: http://www.gillesjobin.com/spip.php?rubrique306 
Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/ciegillesjobin/channels
QUANTUM (filmed by SESC TV-Brazil) http://danca.sesctv.org.br/espetaculos?id=41
QUANTUM press: http://www.gillesjobin.com/spip.php?article1173
Interview with Michael Doser in CERN in NYC: http://sciencefriday.com/segment/10/03/2014/dance-and-physics-collide-in-quantum.html
Gilles Jobin on Technology, Science and Art: https://vimeo.com/123666479
ARTS@CERN collide@cern http://arts.web.cern.ch/collide

Monday 30 November 2015

Anne Golaz at Delhi Photo Festival

Swiss photographer Anne Golaz invited by Delhi Photo Festival 2015 to talk about her work.

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council in collaboration with the Delhi Photo Festival 2015 
present 
a talk by Swiss photographer Anne Golaz 
on 

"Since no one will ever return to the same place" 
on Tuesday 3 November from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm 
at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts CV Mess, Janpath, New Delhi 

The talk is an outline of the main moves driving Anne Golaz's photographic practice such as escaping and returning. She will present her unreleased work Raven; a personal body of work that she has developed over the past ten years. Anne will also introduce her Finnish series and her experience in working in an artists' collective. 

For more information on Anne Golaz visit: www.annegolaz.ch 

Direction to the festival: By car: Please make sure that you enter the festival through Gate 1 or Gate 3 of IGNCA. By public transport: the nearest metro stop is Central Secretariat (Gate 2) and you can get an auto rickshaw or shuttle bus, or walk to the venue. 

For information relating to the festival visit: www.delhiphotofestival.com

Sunday 29 November 2015

The exhibition 'Le Corbusier – Mastering the image' comes to Delhi

On the occasion of the 50th death anniversary of Le Corbusier, the Embassy of Switzerland in India brings the exhibition Le Corbusier - Mastering the image to Delhi.

On the occasion of the 50th death anniversary of Swiss architect Le Corbusier, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Embassy of Switzerland in India in collaboration with the Musée des beaux-arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds presents the exhibition 

'LE CORBUSIER - MASTERING THE IMAGE' 
at the Embassy of Switzerland Nyaya Marg, Chanakya Puri, Delhi.
Opening on 6 Nov at 6.30pm 
On view until 23 Nov 2015

Entry by registration only.
Please register at ndh.events@eda.admin.ch to attend. 

About the exhibition 
Visiting the exhibition "Le Corbusier - Mastering the Image", it's over 150 black and white and colored photographs that visitors can discover through its different sections. Many of the black and white photographs have been taken by Le Corbusier himself were shown for the first time in India, enhancing also the importance of Swiss born architect in India, and one of his most important construction of his career, the urban plan development and construction of the city of Chandigarh, in collaboration with his cousin, Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret, and British architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry.

Curated by the Musée des beaux-arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds the exhibition is a partial adaption of the exhibition "The Constructed image. Le Corbusier and Photography" curated by international specialists of Le Corbusier's work as well as photography that crossed their approach of a subject rarely studied until then. The different sections have been curated by Lada Umstätter (general curator), Tim Benton, Jean-Christophe Blaser, Veronique Boone, Catherine de Smet, Isabelle Godineau, Anouk Hellmann, Michel Richard, Arthur Rüegg, Klaus Spechtenhauser and Sophie Vantieghem. 

Le Corbusier (1887-1965) is one of the major figures of the twentieth century: his architectural practice and thought have profoundly influenced several generations of architects and urban planners, and his legacy still contributes in shaping contemporary environment.

Throughout his life, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) used images in a variety of ways. His travels were opportunities for him to collect a great many documents that he later used in his work as an architect, urbanist, theoretician and artist. Drawing from this vast iconographic reservoir to illustrate his writings and exhibitions, he developed innovative communication strategies. He supervised the documentation of his creation with a sharp, demanding eye, which makes him the genuine co-author of certain photographs devoted to his architecture.

Moreover, Le Corbusier also experimented with composition and lighting in his personal photographic work, which remains largely unpublished. The recent discovery of thousands of negatives now provides an opportunity to observe his creative processes and confront them with his pictorial work. For the architect, photography thus served both as a means of note-taking and as a tool for experimentation with forms. Beyond his own creative work, Le Corbusier was also one of the first to conscientiously and systematically construct his image and that of his works through the medium of photography, drawing on the work of several renowned photographers for this.

This legacy continues to stimulate contemporary photographers, who now revisit his work with the freedom that historical distance allows. 

Saturday 28 November 2015

Nik Bärtsch to tour India with zen-funk quartet RONIN

Swiss pianist & composer Nik Bärtsch will tour India this November 2015 with RONIN, a quartet that proceeds with the work on his 'ritual groove music'.

Swiss pianist, composer and producer Nik Baertsch will be in India on the invitation of Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council. Nik Baertsch will tour India with the zen-funk quartet RONIN founded in 2001. RONIN proceeds with the work on his RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC together with Kaspar Rast (drums), Thomy Jordi (he replaced Björn Meyer on the bass in 2011) and Sha (bass/contrabass clarinet).

Tour schedule:

DELHI / Thursday Nov 26th 
The Piano Man Jazz Club
Entry open to all 

KOLKATA / Friday Nov 27th 
Jazz Fest 
Entry as per Festival rules

BANGALORE / Saturday Nov 28th 
Jazz in the Garden VR Bengaluru 
Entry as per Festival rules 

GOA / Sunday Nov 29th 
GOA International Jazz Live Festival at 7:00 pm
Entry as per Festival rules

Note: Please visit www.prohelvetia.in for venue details closer to the event. 

About Ronin 
With the zen-funk quartet RONIN founded in 2001, Nik Baertsch proceeds with the work on his RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC together with Kaspar Rast (drums), Thomy Jordi (he replaced Björn Meyer on the bass in 2011) and Sha (bass/contrabass clarinet. Percussionist Andi Pupato joined the band 2002-2012). Their music consistently follows the same aesthetic vision under various instrumental guises: creating the maximum effect by minimal means. Despite the multiplicity of the band's influences, Ronin's music always possesses a strong individuality. They incorporate elements of disparate musical worlds, be they funk, new classical music or sounds from Japanese ritual music.

However, these forms are never merely juxtaposed in a post-modernist fashion but instead amalgamated into a coherent new style. Ultimately, these sounds and rhythms are highly idiosyncratic. The music consists of very few phrases and motives, continually combined and layered in new ways. Ronin thus creates a consistent aesthetic across all levels of musical expression. Composition, phrasing, sound structure, performance, and musical form all combine to form a system of interrelated elements. (Michel Mettler) 

Visit Ronin on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nikbaertschsRONIN 
For more information on Nik Baertsch: www.nikbaertsch.com 
View video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YoHk9zdK0o

Thursday 26 November 2015

Anne Golaz at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology

Swiss photographer Anne Golaz who will participate in the Delhi Photo Festival and Photo Kathmandu invited by Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bengaluru.

Swiss photographer Anne Golaz who is visiting India and Nepal to participate in the Delhi Photo Festival and Photo Kathmandu in November will deliver a lecture at the Faculty Colloquium at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bengaluru. 

Date/ venue: 29 October 2015 // Bangalore 
Faculty Colloquium at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore 

In November, Anne Golaz will be participating in the Delhi Photo Festival in India and Photo Kathmandu in Nepal. 

About the event
Swiss photographer Anne Golaz who will be in South Asia on the invitation of the Delhi Photo Festival and Photo Kathmandu will be travelling to Bangalore to participate at the Faculty Colloquium at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore. 

About Anne Golaz
Born in Switzerland in 1983, Anne Golaz graduated in 2013 from the Photography Master Program of Aalto University of Art and Design in Helsinki. She wrote her master thesis On Photobooks and Narratives. She has also studied at the Photography School in Vevey and has spent 6 months in NYC at the School of Visual Arts.

Her photographic approach deals mainly with the representation of rural communities and questions fundamental notions such as the sense of belonging to a place or the complex relation with nature.

Anne Golaz's first work Rural Scenes has been exhibited in several countries. Her series Chasses (Hunting Games) was published by Infolio in 2010 and was among the selected works for the Aperture Portfolio Prize in New York. Anne Golaz was part of the young photographers selected for the publication and the exhibition ReGeneration2.

Her Finnish series Metsästä (From The Woods) was exhibited for the first time in the Images Festival 2012 in Vevey CH and in several places since then. Metsästä was published by Kehrer Verlag and part of the selection of the best photobooks of 2012 by the Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award.
For complete bio visit: www.annegolaz.ch/bio

Partner: Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology 

For more information: 
on Anne Golaz - www.annegolaz.ch 
on Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology - srishti.ac.in/ 

Saturday 31 October 2015


DATA CANVAS - sense your city

An exhibition on innovative visualizations on how citizens sense and make sense of their environment, at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru.

A presentation of swissnex India in partnership with 
Lift, NGMA Bengaluru, Gray Area, City of Geneva and Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, 
the exhibition "DATA CANVAS - sense your city" 
will be held at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru. 

Opening: Tuesday 27th October 2015 at 6:00 pm
featuring a short talk by Thoraia Binzagr, Swiss interaction designer.

On view from 28th October - 31st October 
Time: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm 
Venue: National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru 

Details 
Can we measure and understand the quality of life of our cities? Join us and discover answers and different intepretations through a selection of 8 projects from artists from all over the world.

Data Canvas Exhibition, which has already been a success in Geneva, Shanghai and Shenzhen aims at showing innovative visualizations on how citizens sense and make sense of their environment. As an example, measures of pollution, dust, light, sound, temperature and humidity collected through the use of a sensor have been incorporated into several winning projects. The project was developed jointly by the swissnex network, Lift and Grey Area. 

The exhibition will end with a one day event related to innovation and digital technologies titled Lift India.

Friday 30 October 2015

Swiss Gaming Pavilion at NASSCOM Game Developer Conference

Meet Swiss game designers at the NASSCOM Game Developer Conference in Pune.

Presenting Swiss games and game developers 
to the biggest gathering of gamers in India, 
NASSCOM Game Developer Conference (GDC), Pune. 

Location: The Westin Pune 36/3-B,Mundhwa Rd, Koregaon Park Annexe, Pune, Maharashtra
Date: November 05, 2015 10:00 am - November 07, 2015 5:00 pm 
Entry: By regstration

Workshop by Swiss game designer Chris Solarski on 5th November at Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA). 

Swiss Gaming Pavilion: will be set up at the Westin Hotel, Pune on 6th and 7th November, showcasing exciting and innovative games. 

Visit the Swiss Gaming Pavilion to try your hand at:
1. Antyz, The Odyssey of Time by DNA Studios
2. Schlicht by Mr. Whale's Game Service
3. FAR by Mr. Whale's Game Service
4. Metamorphose by Aprobado studio
5. Violet - pale noise by Melanie Vetterli
6. OKO by Nadezda Suvorova
7. Mulkin by Fabian Brunner, Dominik Troxler
8. Blindflug Studios

Wednesday 30 September 2015

Commemorating the 50th death anniversary of Le Corbusier
On the occasion of the 50th death anniversary of Le Corbusier and the Year of Swiss Innovation in India, the Embassy of Switzerland in India has planned special events.

Exhibition & film screening 
Chandigarh I Oct 10-24 
Exhibition: Le Corbusier - Mastering the Image 

On the occasion of the Year of Swiss Innovation in India and on the 50th death anniversary of Le Corbusier, the Embassy of Switzerland in India and the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi present the exhibition 'Le Corbusier - Mastering the Image.'

Click for information on film screening/guided walks
Entry details: Government Museum and Art Gallery Sector 10 I Exhibition timings: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm Contact Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi

-------------------------

Book release and moderated dialogue 
New Delhi I Oct 13 
Book release 'Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms' by William J.R. Curtis, architecture historian 

Join us for the release of the book 'Le Corbusier: Ideas and Forms'by William J.R. Curtis, architecture historian and Lecture, moderated dialogue and open interaction on 'The journey continues from Le Corbusier's Chandigarh to future smart habitat...' 

Panelists for the moderated dialogue: William J R Curtis (UK), Rahul Mehrotra, architect (India), moderated by Prof. Alfredo Brillembourg, Chair of Architecture and Urban design, Federal Institute of Technolgy, Zürich.

Entry details: 06.00 pm onwards I Embassy of Switzerland, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri I Entry by registration I Kindly furnish a photo ID at the entrance I Read more 

Event organized by the Embassy of Switzerland in India in collaboration with Architecture + Design

Andrea Bianchetti to read from his book 'Estreme visioni di bianco'
Swiss-Italian author Andrea Bianchetti will represent Switzerland at the Long Night of LiteratureS and the EU Languages Day and will read to audiences in Jaipur and Goa.

You are cordially invited to a reading by Swiss-Italian author
Andrea Bianchetti 
from his book Estreme visioni di bianco 

The reading will be in Italian and English and will be accompanied by a performance by Ledwina Costantini from the Swiss-Italian theatre company, Opera retablO.

Delhi
25 September 2015 at the Long Night of Literatures 
at 6:00 pm at the Instituto Cervantes, 48 Hanuman Road, New Delhi 
Timings: Registration: 5:45 pm; Event: 6:00pm
Entry by prior registration / email longnightlit(at)gmail.com to register
Registration Opens: Monday, 14 September 2015
Registration Deadline: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
RSVP: longnightlit(at)gmail.com

Gurgaon
26 September 2015 at the EU Languages Day celebrations 
at 4:30 pm (tbc) at the Cyber Hub, DLF Cyber City, Phase 2, Gurgaon.
Open to all 

Jaipur 
27 September 2015 at Bar Palladio at 8:00 pm 
Open to all on a first-come first-served basis

Goa 
30 September 2015 at the Literati Book Store at 7:00 pm 
Open to all 

About the author 
Andrea Bianchetti (1984) lives in Sorengo, Switzerland. A graduate in German literature from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and a masters in Italian literature from Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano, Andrea currently teaches Italian literature in Ticino. In 2007 he published his first book of poems, Sparami! Amore di cera, followed by a second book of poems in 2012 called Estreme visioni di bianco. Carneficine, published in 2013, comprising of a uniquely long poem, inspired a theatrical performance by Opera retablO, under the direction of Ledwina Costantini. In addition, Andrea Bianchetti is the editor of the literature magazine "Cenobio". He also reviews new books on the Swiss Italian Radio (RSI). In 2015 Andrea Bianchetti won the Pro Helvetia prize for his new project, Gratosoglio.

In partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland and other European partners which include Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, German Book Office, Institut Français en Inde, Insituto Cervantes, British Council, Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre, Austrian Cultural Forum and the Polish Institute.

Venue partners in Jaipur and Goa: Bar Palladio Jaipur and Literati Book Store Goa.

Monday 31 August 2015

Performance Process
To mark its thirtieth anniversary, the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris has designed an event devoted to performance art, a medium at the intersection of several different disciplines.

Pro Helvetia's Centre Culturel Suisse, situated in the heart of the Marais district in Paris, is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Federal Counsellor Alain Berset opened the jubilee production "PerformanceProcess", which presents Parisian audiences with highlights of Swiss performance art from the pioneers of the 1960s to the discoveries of today.

The Centre Culturel Suisse (CCS) is the Swiss Arts Council's oldest office abroad.  

Swiss performance: from Jean Tinguely's happenings to the present day
With "PerformanceProcess" the two directors of the CCS in Paris, Jean-Paul Felley and Olivier Kaeser, have developed a new format specifically for the jubilee event, combining exhibition and festival. Overall, 46 Swiss artists and groups from the fields of visual and performing arts will be showing works and documentation connected to performance over the coming three months. The list of participants contains several internationally renowned names, but also offers opportunities for coming across fresh talent. Among those taking part are dancer and choreographer La Ribot, who lives in Geneva, Kassel and Munich based artist Urs Lüthi, originally from Lucerne, and Roman Signer, a blasting artist from Eastern Switzerland. Lesser known names there to be discovered include Martina-Sofie Wildberger, Aldo Walker and Anna Winteler. Twelve art practitioners are provided with a monographic exhibition for a period of five days each. To start off, the series spotlights Jean Tinguely and his auto-destructive machines created in 1960. The spatial design of the rooms at the Paris centre for the "PerformanceProcess" project is a production of the Geneva-based architecture duo "Bureau A". And finally, graphic designer Ludovic Balland from Basel is there to set up an electronic work of reference in real time.

For more information - www.pprocess.ch
Long Night of LiteratureS 2015
An evening of literary encounters in English, Italian, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian and Polish with authors from Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, UK and India.

When: 25 September 2015 at 5:30 pm
Where: Instituto Cervantes, 48 Hanuman Road, New Delhi 
Entry by prior registration only 
To register email   longnightlit(at)gmail.com 
Registration from Monday 14 September 2015 to Tuesday 22 September 2015 
The evening will be in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Hungarian and Polish.

About the event
An evening of readings, The format encourages audiences to listen to many authors through the course of the evening. Each author reads to an audience of about 12-15 people for 20 minutes. Then the audience moves to the next room to listen to another author. This concept allows the audience close interactions with the authors.

List of participating authors:
Andrea Bianchetti / Switzerland
Aisling Fahey / UK
Asha Miró / Spain
Constantin Simon / France
Danko Rabrenović / Germany
Gábor Lanczkor / Hungary
Josef Haslinger / Austria
Katarzyna Bonda / Poland
Raj Kamal Jha / India

About Andrea Bianchetti / Switzerland
Andrea Bianchetti (1984) lives in Sorengo, Switzerland. He is an Italian literature teacher in High School in Ticino. He started his writing career in 2007 with his first book Sparami! Amore di cera, (Viganello, Alla Chiara Fonte, 2007). Andrea Bianchetti is also editor of the literature magazineCenobio and strictly collaborates with the Swiss Italian Radio (RSI) as commentator of new books. In 2015 he won the Pro-Helvetia prize for his new project entitled Gratosoglio.

Presented in collaboration by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Embassy of Switzerland and other European partners - Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, German Book Office, Institut Français en Inde, Insituto Cervantes, British Council, Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre, Austrian Cultural Forum and the Polish Institute.

To learn more about the authors click here.
Blackout Basel - September 2015
'Blackout Basel' is a 5 month-long residency project curated by Shazeb Arif S who is currently on a residency at Atelier Mondial in Basel.

The Blackout Festival: Swiss edition / September 2015, facilitated by Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and Atelier Mondial (Basel), is based in Ausstellungsraum Klingental. 

The project will research sub-culture and experimental artistic practices in Switzerland, besides building a new experimental community with contributions from other artists and projects in Europe and from all possible quarters around the world with a vision to build an international cross-disciplinary festival in Basel.

The framework of #blackoutbasel is to build an experimental community with multiple events. Upcoming events include:

05 Sept 2015 (1700 hrs)
Opening of exhibition: the private Blackout collection

11,12,13 Sept 2015 (all day and night)
Non-stop festival within the exhibition and in public spaces including 3 midnight events
In the public space - a live cinema project, a fashion show and a live witch hunt.

20 Sept 2015 (1700 hrs)
Closing: posh auction turns flea market

For more information click here. 
Silverlake by Alexandra Navratil at Colomboscope
Swiss artist Alexandra Navratil invited to participate at the Colomboscope Festival in August 2015.

For the third edition of the multidisciplinary arts festival COLOMBOSCOPE, the group exhibition Shadow Scenes curated by Natasha Ginwala and Menika Van der Poorten engages the post-war city Colombo through aspects of urbanization, displacement, gender, ethnicity and sexuality while undertaking a cinematic reading of modernity as a resonant field of violence.

When: 21 - 30 August 2015
Where: Colombo
Curated by Natasha Ginwala and Menika Van der Poorten
Artists: Bani Abidi, Sven Augustijnen, Pedro Gomez-Egana, Camille Henrot, Susanne Kriemann, Lucy Skaer, Agnieszka Polska, Mahbubur Rahman, Jimmy Robert, Anri Sala, Susanne Winterling, among others

Silverlake 
Video HD, colour/sound, ca. 12 min, 2015 
3 pigment and silkscreen prints 
Alexandra Navratil 

Artist's statement
I am currently producing a new single channel video-piece titled Silverlake, that will premiere at the Colomboscope Festival. This new work is a continuation of an ongoing investigation and is derived from my previous research, which divulges the history of the chemical industry, the material properties of photographic emulsion and the violence inflicted on bodies and landscapes by industrial production. 

The video will be accompanied by a series of 3 pigment and silkscreen prints, which will consist of collages from different microscopic images of silver halides. 

Silverlake will depart from a series of events and their consequent media coverage that took place in Germany just before the reunification in 1988/89. The stories that went through the press became well-known under the name of Silbersee (Silverlake) and reported on the catastrophic consequences from years of highly contaminated waste-water irrigation by the Agfa-Orwo company on the Print date 5/30/2015 / Shadow Scenes, Colomboscope 2015 2 environment and the inhabitants of the area of Bitterfeld Wolfen. Silbersee was a highly polluted lake in Bitterfeld, which had originally been a coal mine and had helped to fuel the rapid industrial development of the area at the beginning of the 20th Century. Later it was gradually filled with chemical wastewaters from the surrounding factories. Scarceness in resources and fluctuating prices of raw materials during different historical periods, forced Agfa-Orwo to recycle old films by washing off the emulsion and reusing the film base. By 1988, the lake was the most contaminated place in the whole of Germany. The silver halides, one of the main components of photographic and filmic production, gave the lake its enigmatic name.

I would like to use this historical pretext to develop a fictionalised and speculative narrative, linking thoughts on deferred violence, contamination and embodied memory in a poetic way. This narrative will not recapitulate the story of Afga-Orwo or focus specifically on the German context, but wishes to contemplate these concepts in a more universal manner. In my narration, which forms the ground structure of the video piece, we follow tiny silver fragments of filmic memory as they are washed off the film base, are poured out into the surrounding landscape, seep into the groundwater and are absorbed by plants, animals and inhabitants, becoming embodied and turning the whole environment into a photosensitive plate. This fictionalised account will be interlaced with scientific, medical information and facts and the imagery used for the video will stem largely from the media images that circulated in 1988/89 in the German and International Press

Alexandra Navratil 
Switzerland
Conrad Steinmann invited for the 6th Raasrang World Flute Festival 2015
Conrad Steinmann and ‘ensemble diferencias’ will be participating at the 6th Raasrang World Flute Festival 2015.

You are cordially invited to a performance by 
Conrad Steinmann and the ensemble diferencias 
comprising of Conrad Steinmann along with Priska Comploi, Helma Franssen and Urs Haenggli at:

Jaipur
9 September 2015 at Bar Palladio, Jaipur 
Open to all / on first-come first-served basis

Dehradun 
11 September 2015 at St Joseph's Academy, Dehradun
Open to all / on presentation of passes

Delhi 
12th Sept: Performance at Lotus Temple, New Delhi
Open to all / on presentation of passes

For information on collection of passes visit: www.krishnaprerna.in or 
call 011-29247441

About Conrad Steinmann
Born in Rapperswil (Switzerland), he pursued his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he has been a lecturer since 1982.He has given concerts and master classes throughout Europe, in Australia, Japan, Israel, Moscow and North America.He can frequently be heard with Johann Sonnleitner, Ensemble 415,and London Baroque. As an aulos player he reflects a unique interest and knowledge of ancient Greek music. Recordings with Claves, Jecklin, Harmonia Mundi and Divox.

About the festival
The sixth edition of the Raasrang World Flute Festival, organized by Raasrang in partnership with the Times of India is scheduled to be held in September 2015. Acclaimed artistes from India and abroad will be performing at the festival.

The list of musicians participating in the festival include: 
India: Tashi Bapu (Long Horn) and team

Hungary: Both Miklos (Guitar) and team

Lithuania: Kestutis Vaiginis (Saxophone) with Pt. Sudhir Pandey (Tabla) and Fateh Ali / India (Sitar)

India: Bhimanna Yadav (Sundari) and team

Balarus: Murzina Natallia (Flute) with Babenka Volha (Flute), Stankevich Alina (Flute) and Shunkevich Maryia (Flute) 

Switzerland: Mrs. Priska Comploi (Flute), Mrs. Helma Franssen (Flute), M. Urs Haenggli (Flute), M. Conrad Steinmann (Flute)

India: Seshampa7i T Sivalingam (Nadhaswaram), Maheswari Sivalingam (Shruti), K Selvam (Nadhaswaram), M Subramaniam (Tavil), S Gajendran (Tavil), P Subramani (Tavil/ "alam)

Spain: Pedro Bonet and Belén González Castaño (Flute)

Pakistan: Akram Khan (Alghoza) and Zuheb Ahmed Khan (Tabla) 
---- 
For complete details visit: www.krishnaprerna.in or call 011-29247441 

Friday 31 July 2015

Announcing recipients of Studio Residencies 2016 / 2017
Pro Helvetia New Delhi announces the names of Indian and Swiss artists who have been selected by the jury to avail the Studio Residency it offers.


Pro Helvetia New Delhi announces the names of Indian and Swiss artists who have been selected by the jury to avail the Studio Residency it offers.

South Asian artists:
Anjana Kothamachu (visual arts) / India
Shaunak Sen (visual arts) / India

Swiss artists:
Lukas Mantel (music)
Marie Velardi (visual arts) 

The applications received from the above artists were in concurrence with Pro Helvetia - Swiss Art Council's current mandate. The jury made its decision depending on the application's individual merit as well as on being able to find an appropriate host in Switzerland. Besides, preference is given to artists who are able to demonstrate the possibility of generating follow-up projects. 

The selection in India was made by a jury comprising of Dr. Annapurna Garimella, a designer and an art historian who heads Jackfruit, a research and design organization, Shukla Sawant , a visual artist and an Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Chandrika Grover Ralleigh, Head Pro Helvetia New Delhi.

The selection has been corroborated by Pro Helvetia's Specialist Departments in Zurich.

For more information on Residencies offered by Pro Helvetia click here 
Digital Culture
New media has become a key factor in the development of contemporary art and culture. Pro Helvetia is exploring the impact of digitalisation on artistic work with its "Digital Culture" programme.

From 2012 to 2015, Pro Helvetia is exploring the impact of digitalisation on artistic work with its "Digital Culture" programme. The programme is made up of three components, the core one being "Mobile. In Touch with Digital Creation", which aims to support and enhance interactive and transmedia art work in Switzerland. The second focuses on the influence of digitalisation on the promotion and dissemination of traditional art forms. And, with its call for interdisciplinary new media cooperation projects, the third component, Pro Helvetia is striving to strengthen collaboration between art, research and science institutions in the field of new media and technology. 

Mobile. In Touch with Digital Creation

Digitalisation in Arts Disciplines

Collaboration Projects in the Field of Digital Culture
Giovanni Carmine invited by Experimenter Curators’ Hub 2015
Giovanni Carmine, Director Kunst Halle St Gallen will be in India to participate in Experimenter Curators’ Hub in Kolkata.

Pro Helvetia has partnered Experimenter, Kolkata for the past five years, right from the very inception of the Curators' Hub in 2011. Curatorial exchange has been one of PHND's focuses with the objective to initiate dialogue and debate with Swiss practitioners.

This year Pro Helvetia New Delhi has invited 
Giovanni Carmine, Director Kunst Halle St. Gallen, to participate.

Date: 23 - 24 - 25 July 2015
Venue:  Experimenter Kolkata 2/1 Hindusthan Road, Gariahat, Kolkata, West Bengal 700029 
Entry by registration. 
To register contact Mohor Mukherjee at mohor@experimenter.in or call on +91 33 4001 2289 

About the event: 
The Experimenter Curators' Hub is a platform to discuss, debate and comprehend the theoretical aspects of curating while discussing the challenges and concerns curators face. It encourages an exchange of views and possibilities of collaboration between curators and institutional frameworks.

About Giovanni Carmine 
After working several years as an independent curator and art critic - realizing among other projects and books with Norma Jeane, Christoph Büchel and a temporary exhibition in former Swiss military Bunkers (Unloaded, 2002) - Giovanni Carmine is, since 2007, director of the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (www.k9000.ch). There he has curated shows by Swiss and internationals artists like Ryan Gander, Mai-Thu Perret, Gedi Sibony, Loris Gréaud, Shahryar Nashat, Matias Faldbakken and Navid Nuur. He was artistic coordinator of ILLUMInations, the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2011 and was also co-editor of the Biennale catalogue. He lives and works in Zurich and St. Gallen.

For more information on: 
Experimenter Kolkata www.experimenter.in
Kunst Halle St Gallen www.kunsthallesanktgallen.ch/en/home.html

Partners: Experimenter Kolkata and Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council. 

Tuesday 30 June 2015

The Draft Project
Draft is a year-long project that is anchored in nine cities across the world, and will engage with critical discourses and practices in relation to the public sphere.

Draft collectively considers how contemporary art can initiate, invoke and contribute to public debates. A year-long undertaking, the project is anchored in nine cities - Bombay, Cairo, Cape Town, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Zurich -and opens with a three-day conference in Bombay on 4 June 2015. 

Draft encounters and tests public spheres and the consequences of staking claim to them through contemporary art. In doing so, it also chalks out the relationship between the seemingly disparate contexts of these cities that are, in fact, always intensely entangled. 

The opening conference-and the project at large-convenes a cross-disciplinary crew of artists, curators, philosophers, anthropologists and the like, who cooperate as collaboratives in wound up urban contexts. 

Draft is imagined as a kind of agent provocateur; exploring our reality, such as it is, by hinting at the possibility of what else could be. If no context can ever be truly exhausted, then each exploration is a renewal of the promise of debate. 

This longue durée project is, somewhat, bookended by two conferences; the closing conference takes place in Zurich in the summer of 2016. In the critical interim, a range of engagements, including research and workshops, will be realised in each of the cities. Expanding on the conference's discussions they will set the pace for the site-sensitive artworks that will be realised in early 2016. 

Draft is not 'about' the city but it mobilises this complicated ecosystem as a springboard for thinking through questions, claims, potentials and problems around an infinite spectrum of contemporary artistic and philosophical concerns and practices.

The project intends to do this in a transnational scenario of home-grown artistic interventions, which question the notion of identity in a world that is nothing if not hybrid.

The project intends to do this in the scenario of public spheres, which question extant public spheres in an epoch where dissenting contexts are rife with the rumbling sounds of deep matter, deep memory, deep alienation and what have you. Draft is a proposal because every context is equal parts potential, problem and provisional. 

Partners: Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, and Connecting Spaces Hong Kong - ZurichZHdK 
Supported by: artEDU Foundation and ifa Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen

Project directors:
Gitanjali Dang / Artistic Director Khanabadosh, Bombay
Prof. Christoph SchenkerHead of IFCAR, Institute for Contemporary Art Research, Zurich

Participants: 
Alice Peragine, Hamburg
Ashok Sukumaran, CAMP, Bombay
Christian Hübler, knowbotiq, Zurich
Christoph Schäfer, Hamburg
Christoph Schenker, Zurich
Cosmin Costinas, Para Site, Hong Kong
Cuauhtémoc Medina, Mexico City
Dmitry Vilensky, Chto Delat, St. Petersburg
Giorgio Biancorosso, Hong Kong
Gitanjali Dang, Bombay
Hector Bourges Valles, Teatro Ojo, Mexico City
Helena Chávez Mac Gregor, Mexico City
Iris Long, Beijing / Shanghai
Jens Maier-Rothe, Beirut, Cairo
Jasmina Metwaly, CairoAlia Mossallam, Cairo
Ju Anqi, BeijingLi Zhenhua, Shanghai / Zurich
Laura Furlan, Teatro Ojo, Mexico City
Nikolay Oleynikov, Chto Delat, St. Petersburg
Ntone Edjabe, Chimurenga, Cape Town
Patricio Villareal, Teatro Ojo, Mexico City
Philip Rizk, CairoKarla Rodríguez, Teatro Ojo, Mexico City
Prasad Shetty, Bombay
Qinyi Lim, Para Site, Hong Kong
Rohit Jain, Zurich
Samson Young, Hong Kong
Shaina Anand, CAMP, Bombay
Sophie Goltz, HamburgRupali Gupte, Bombay
Sarah Rifky, Beirut, Cairo
Tsaplya Olga Egorova, Chto Delat, St. Petersburg
Yvonne Wilhelm, knowbotiq, Zurich
Zinnia Ambapardiwala, CAMP, Bombay

For more information on the project click here.
Sound Reasons III - sound installations at Clark House, Bombay
Sound Reasons III in Mumbai presents sound installations by Marcus Maeder and Salome Voegelin from Switzerland and Farah Mulla and Ish S from India.

Sound Reasons is a record label and a festival for sound art and contemporary electronic music which promotes contemporary practitioners from Switzerland and India, amongst others. Sound Reasons started off as a record Label in 2009 releasing music and curating and organizing sound art installations and electronic music performances. These activities later diversified and amalgamated into the first edition of the Sound Reasons Festival in 2012, which featured influential artists, like Bernd Schurer and Jio Shimizu. At Sound Reasons praxis has always been the focus while exploring various mediums and processes like composing music, creating a festival and producing live performances and sound centric installations.

As a medium, sound art encompasses a number of activities and forms, such as sound installations, noise, radio art, experimental electro-acoustic music and music concrete, to name a few. Each of these forms has its own details and depths, and should be analyzed according to its own distinct aesthetics.

Here at Clark House Bombay, the installations presented cover a very important spectrum of sound art like the science/ art cross over work which presents the sonification and visualisation of very complex data from the trees so that they can be understood across another medium. There is also an the invocation of 'listening processes' here as some of the works have been initiated spatially as they explore the timeless continuum of the now and the becoming of an observer via sound. And in this becoming, the imagination becomes more important than the reality, the virtual more significant than the real. The fleeting experience of sounds and noise is the construct of the individual themselves and not of their histories and their cognitive developments. Part of the work develops spatially and its discovery unfolds itself in the present, bringing with it the experience of sound and listening.

3 to 7 June 2015 / 11:00 am - 7:00 pm daily. 
Clark House Initiative
c/o RBT Group, Ground Floor, Clark House building, Colaba, 8 Nathalal Parekh Marg, Bombay 
Contact: +919820213816 | info@clarkhouseinitiative.org

Salome Voegelin
5 METER CONDUIT
2 Headphones, Sound/ Music Player

Farah Mulla
AURAL MIRROR
Sound installation | 2 Speakers, Microphone, Computer

Marcus Maeder
TREES : PINUS SYLVESTRIS
2 Channel Video, 2 channel Audio, Touch Screen, Installation

Ish S (diFfuSed beats)
SITTING STILL
6 Channel Audio | Sound Sculpture

A three-day conference, Draft conceived by Khanabadosh, Bombay, and Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR), Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) is a year-long project that is anchored in nine cities across the world, and will engage with critical discourses and practices related to the public sphere. 

www.draftprojects.info/
soundreasons.in