Among the Present of Absentee

An art installation by Sreejata Roy, an Indian visual artist who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. Sreejata has been using mixed and digital media to produce narratives.[ dated June 2011]

An art installation by Sreejata Roy, an Indian visual artist who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. On view from 11 June to 17 June
from 11am to 6 pm at iaab Basel.

Brief on the installation 
This work is about the spaces that carry the memories of the industrial practices that no more exist. City reconfigures itself with or without those architectural structures which at some point of time housed these industries. These structures carry the memory of those people who worked and lived here. Presently these people have almost become invisible and they have gone into the margins of the public knowledge.

Brief on the artist
An artist with a particular interest in community-related projects, Sreejata has been deeply interested in exploring the new labour practices that have developed in the neo-liberal political/economic environment, as an articulation and consequence of globalisation. She has been using mixed and digital media, informed by a theoretical framework, to produce narratives.

Swiss films screening at the European Film Festival

Swiss-Indian film maker Kamal Musale’s short films Three Soldiers (1989) and Raclette Curry (2000) to be screened at the Taj Enlighten Film Society’s European Film Festival in Mumbai. [dated May 2011]

Mumbai is to witness its 1st European Film Festival, curated by Taj Enlighten Film Society brought to you by Brooke Bond Taj Mahal and supported by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai. This festival attempts to relocate the myth-like status of European cinema

The Swiss film package has as its backbone, a retrospective of the Swiss master, Daniel Schmid who was also a colleague of the legendary German film maker Rainer Fassbinder. The contemporary curations include films that view Switzerland as the ‘other’ within the discourse of the European ‘self.’ According to Mr. Werner Nievergelt, Consul General of Switzerland in Mumbai, “The Swiss film package will consist of important Swiss films, emphasizing their strong documentary aesthetic.”

Swiss-Indian film maker Kamal Musale’s short films Three Soldiers (1989) and Raclette Curry (2000) to be screened at the Taj Enlighten Film Society’s European Film Festival at NCPA, Mumbai.

Included is a workshop by the significant Swiss-Indian film maker Kamal Musale at the World College-School of Media Studies, emphasizing the importance of documentary film practice even in conventional, narrative cinema and the importance of filming over script construction.

The festival is presented by Brooke Bond Taj Mahal, Consulate General of Switzerland in Mumbai and Swiss Indian Film Bridge.

For film screening schedule click here. For further information on screening contact Enlighten Film Society at 022 - 42141414

‘Recollections’, an exhibition by Srishti Rana Menon

Indian textile artist and designer, Srishti Rana Menon, currently on a residency in Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts will exhibit her work at the Department of Textile Design. [dated May 2011]

Indian textile artist and designer, Srishti Rana Menon, currently on a residency in Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts will exhibit her work at the Department of Textile Design at the University.

The Department of Textile Design at the Lucerne School of Art and Design invites you to an exhibition
by Srishti Ran Menon 
Textile Works: 'Recollections'
at 12 noon, on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 Sentimatt 1, 3rd Floor, Textil Design Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts

The exhibition can be viewed from 9 - 15 June 2011.

'Recollections' is an exhibition of work by Textile Artist and Designer, Srishti Rana Menon. This exhibition showcases personal memories of people in the artist's life. She uses old family photographs, antique and found textiles, and techniques like screen and digital printing, hand embroidery, stitching, pleating, applique to create the textures of these one-off portrait pieces.

Announcing awardees for Studio Residency 2012

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council announces the names of the artists who have been awarded Studio Residencies for 2012/2013 [dated April 2011]

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council announces the names of the artists who have been awarded Studio Residencies for 2012/2013.

Indian artists: 
Akshay Raj Singh Rathore (Visual Arts) 
Iram Ghufran ( Visual Arts ) 
Shreyas Karle (Visual Arts )

Swiss artists: 
Alexander Hahn ( Visual Arts) 
Seline Baumgartner (Visual Arts ) 
Navid Tschopp ( 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 done by a jury comprising Girish Shahane, an art historian, curator and columnist; Suresh Jayaram, an artist and creator of an arts space called 1shanthiroad in Bangalore; and Chandrika Grover Ralleigh, Head Pro Helvetia New Delhi. For the Swiss artists, a short-list was prepared in-house by the specialist departments and the above selection on both sides has been corroborated by Pro Helvetia's Visual Arts Department in Zurich.

For more information on Studio Residencies visit: http://www.prohelvetia.in/101.0.html

Pro Helvetia and FICA offer Emerging Artist Award

The Award seeks to promote young artists. The winner of the Emerging Artist Award 2011 will be awarded a twelve-week residency in Switzerland by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. [dated April 2011]

Pro Helvetia and FICA offer Emerging Artist Award The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art invites applicants for Emerging Artist Award 2011.

The Award seeks to promote young artists studying or practicing in India who demonstrate extraordinary skill and promise in the visual arts. Selected by an independent jury of distinguished artists and professionals in the field, the recipient gets the opportunity to travel and work in an international residency and exhibit in a solo show in India.

Pro Helvetia-Swiss Art Council, New Delhi is pleased to be collaborating with FICA for the Emerging Artist Award 2011.

The award includes:
• A twelve-week residency in Switzerland, round trip air travel from Mumbai or Delhi, a per diem during the time of the residency, and access to the residency’s technical equipments.
• A solo exhibition at the Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.

All requirements and guidelines are mentioned in the Application Form.
Download Application Form from here.
Deadline: 31 May 2011
Completed applications to be sent to: Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art D178, Okhla Phase 1, First Floor, New Delhi 110020

Electron India, Geneva April 2011

Part of the festival ELECTRON 2011, the objective of Electron India is to serve as a platform for Switzerland to discover Indian artists in music, visual performances and dance. [dated April 2011]

Part of the festival ELECTRON 2011, the objective of Electron India is to serve as a platform for Switzerland to discover Indian artists in three main fields: music (concerts, DJs), visual performances (VJs, video-makers, installations) and dance (contemporary and traditional).

The following artists have been invited to Switzerland to participate in Electron India 2011:
1. Avinash Kumar (visual artist) - BLOT
2. Gaurav Malaker (musician) - BLOT
3. DJ Hamza - Hamza Rahimtula - musician producer
4. Manu Idhra - musician percussionist
5. Latif Khan - musician percussionist
6. Udyan Sagar - musician & DJ (Nucleya)
7. Ritnika Nayan - publisher of the book HUB (India's first and only anthology of electronic music)
8. Amit Saigal - manager of Global Groove festival in New Delhi
9. Rea Krishnatraye - contemporary dancer
10. Shilpika Bordoloi - contemporary dancer
11. Gilles Chuyen

The 8th edition of Electron Festival presents Electron India 2011, an electronic cultural rendez vous in Geneve, Switzerland from 21-24 April 2011 presenting modern Indian electronic scene and disciplines within the festival framework. Launched in 2004, the ELECTRON Festival is part of an innovative and evolving venture, aiming to promote current electronic music, lively shows and the plastic and visual arts. Resolutely urban, this event is set at the heart of Geneva and takes place every year in seven to eight sites during the four-day Easter weekend: in the Palladium, in the Alhambra Theatre, in the Màd (Moulin à Danse), in the Zoo, in the Kab/PTR, in the Spoutnik Cinema and in the BAC (Contemporary Art Building).

With the development of electronic cultures being the main goal, the festival will serve as a platform for Switzerland to discover Indian artists in April 2011 and, following that, for India to discover Swiss artists in three main fields: music (concerts, DJs), visual performances (VJs, video-makers, installations) and dance (contemporary and traditional), all related to a conference providing the context, and a second conference providing an update on contemporary Indian electronic scenes.

Electronic music and, beyond that, electronic cultures, are booming in India today. Indian urban milieus have swiftly mastered the electronic tools used by the new media. The techniques of IT-assisted composition are no longer the exclusive preserve of cinema professionals but are now accessible to non-professionals. VJaying (mixing images and videos in real time) exists in various cultural milieus and, as in Europe, is not confined to nightclubs but has developed in other contexts like arts center performances and installations. Electron India intends to make Indian electronic cultures more widely known; a sustained focus over the four days of the festival on various disciplines, including a more theoretical presentation and encounters with various cultural actors (guest artists, organizers, labels?) who have travelled to Geneva especially for this event.

The festival is organised by Headfun, an association that organises events, concerts, festivals, exhibitions etc and is based in Geneve. www.headfun.ch

A letter from Artist in residence Sankar Venkateswaran

A letter from Artist in residence Sankar Venkateswaran. [dated March 2011]

The dates in the calendar are closer than they appear…

With a little less than three weeks to return to India after the three months in Switzerland, I am left with the sound of steel ringing in my ears – sounds ranging from cow bells to steel pans and of the most sophisticated and very recently invented Swiss idiophone instrument – The Hang.

And what comes in my mind when I close my eyes are the various masks that I have seen here - new, old, rural, folk, archaic, futuristic - with various looks - some are happy, some are vice, some are otherwise, some look dim, some are condescending – however they all express one thing – a revelation of the self. Carpenters, mountaineers, doctors, farmers – people from all walk of life come together to celebrate the fasnachts – people share food, music, dance and joy. Each village and each city has its own unique way of doing the facnacht and they have distinctive designs for what they wear, which, in many ways, assert their identity and bond them together as a community. In fact, one could look at some of these fasnachts as grand choreographies!

I was very fortunate to see various productions, both theatre and dance – a few of them are extraordinarily superb – Zimmerman & de Perrot, for instance. This has given me some idea about the European sensibilities of performance appreciation – thanks to Martha Monstein and Sandro Lunin who made sure that I see the best and the most unique.

I was lucky to meet and interact with various artists based in Switzerland – actors, directors, dramaturges, dancers, technicians, and of course the wonderful people at Rote Fabrik and the most warm hearted people from the Pro Helvetia office – Alexandra Von Arx, to be specially mentioned – because of her, I could meet the Hang makers of Bern and I was able to have my hands on the Hang which otherwise seems a very difficult and expensive instrument to access. I do have some dreams in my mind towards creating a work and towards that, collaboratively making a new instrument hybridizing the Hang and the Mizhavu of Kerala – I have had some preliminary discussions with the Hang makers Felix and Sabina regarding this and they seem to be inspired by this idea. It was surprising to learn that the early Hang was a marriage between the steel pan of Trinidad and the Ghatam of South India that happened in Switzerland!

Travelling in Switzerland is free! Not for all, but for me – thanks again to Pro Helvetia - my imagination and inspiration has no limits with access to the Hanghaus, various cities, villages and wide range of cultural institutions and museums. I was so inspired and moved to see the works of Picasso, Giacometti and Carl Jung among many others in real.

The three month residency was also a rigorous phase of soul searching for me – how can I make sense out of this residency and how do I synthesize this experience into a piece of performance that would make sense? I am inclined to make a solo self devised piece which brings these elements together and bridges my sensibilities of theatre with what I see here. But this needs more thought and homework from me before arriving certainty. With one more fasnacht left for me in Basel – which is at the core of my proposal to Pro Helvetia – that is to look at the correlation between the rhythms that are heard and the rhythms that are seen and the relationships of a particular subject (Sujet) with these rhythms and designs, my mind is mapping something significant – I think. Sankar Venkateswaran. March 12, 2011
------

Sankar Venkateswaran is a theatre artist, musician and crosscultural practitioner. He is a graduate of Calicut University School of Drama & Fine Arts, Kerala and the Theatre Training and Research Programme (TTRP), Singapore, and has appeared in productions in Europe, Japan and South East Asia. Residecy at: Rote Fabrik Zürich 
Date: 7 January - 31 March 2011

The Way of the Master – The Great Artists of India

The exhbition, The Way of the Master – The Great Artists of India, 1100–1900 opens at Museum Rietberg Zurich this April, bringing to Switzerland 800 years of Indian painting and about 200 masterpieces. [dated March 2011]

The exhbition, The Way of the Master – The Great Artists of India, 1100–1900 opens at Museum Rietberg Zurich this April, bringing to Switzerland 800 years of Indian painting and about 200 masterpieces by more than 40 artists.

Seasoned journalists S Kalidas, Associate Editor India Today, Aveek Kumar Sen, Senior Asistant Editor The Telegraph and Baradwaj Rangan, Deputy Editor The Hindu will be in Zürich on the invitation of Museum Rietberg to attend the opening of the exhibition.

THE WAY OF THE MASTERS – The Great Artists of India, 1100–1900
1 May to 21 August 2011

800 years of Indian painting, some 240 masterpieces by more than 40 artists – and all this at a glance. For the first time an exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the entire history of Indian painting. What makes it even more exciting is that the focus throughout is on individual painters.

Museum Rietberg has decided to celebrate the work of Indian painters from every region of the sub-continent over the last eight centuries. This exhibition is the result of decades of painstaking research. To identify individual artists, microscopically small signatures were deciphered, pilgrim registers were searched for artists’ names and genealogies, and systematic stylistic comparisons were made. Once more, Museum Rietberg is doing pioneering work and is also accompanying the exhibition with a major publication which should provide new bases for further research.

More than forty artists stand at the centre of the exhibition, and their works convey a broad and comprehensive idea of Indian painting to the visitors. The earliest exhibits are illustrated manuscripts from the twelfth century; the latest works from the early twentieth century are large-format paintings from Udaipur which in their choice of composition and perspective reveal the growing influence of photography. The exhibition which was conceived by the Museum Rietberg will also be shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 26 September 2011 to 8 January 2012.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

12 April 2011 – 1 April 2012 
Tradition and Innovation: Three Painter Generations in North India In the Park-Villa Rieter more treasures by the famous family of painters around Pandit Seu from the north Indian Pahari region can be seen.

1 May 2011, 15.00 Masters on Masters Short talks by three distinguished specialists in Indian art history, Milo C. Beach, B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer (in English) Park-Villa Rieter

8 and 15 May 2011, 12.00 Nainsukh – A Film by Amit Dutta Matinée at Filmpodium Zürich Information and Reservations: www.filmpodium.ch

19 and 26 May 2011, 19.30–21.00 Wonders of their Time: The World of Indian Painters Course by Jorrit Britschgi (in German) Volkhochschule des Kantons Zürich Information and Reservations: www.vhszh.ch

22 May 2011, 11.00 The World of Indian Painters Talk by Jorrit Britschgi, curator of the exhibition (in German) Park-Villa Rieter

9 July 2011, 20.00 The Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Museum Rietberg

For further information: www.rietberg.ch

Blooming Sikkim: International Public Art Festival 2011 Gangtok

Swiss artists Reichkin Guido, Karin Walchli who are currently on a residency in India will be participating in the festival Blooming Sikkim: International Public Art Festival 2011 Gangtok. [dated March 2011]

Swiss artists Reichkin Guido, Karin Walchli who are currently on a residency in India will be visiting Gangtok to participate in the festival Blooming Sikkim: International Public Art Festival 2011 Gangtok. 

Venue: Gangtok, Sikkim, India 
When: 21/3/2011 - 31/3/2011 
Where: Sikkim, India 
Region: Asia/South 
Country: India

International artists: 
Reichkin GUIDO, Karin WALCHLI, Thomas EICHHORN, Echostream, Gyaltsen Lama, Katell GELEBART, Sound Delta Wild

Indian artists: 
Bani ABIDI, Ravi AGARWAL, Sarnath BANERJEE, BIR, Mrityunjay CHATTERJEE, Sheba CHHACHHI, (Group) Desire Machine Collective, Passang DORJEE, (Group) Frame Works Research & Media Collective, Sanchayan GHOSH, Shilpa GUPTA, Ratna GUPTA, Lokesh, Sangay PALDEN, Prashant RASAILY, Vishal RAWLLEY, Mahbubur REHMAN, Sreejata ROY, Gigi SCARIA, Asim WAQIF.

Swiss Artists: Reichlin Guido and Karin Walchli 
Art Form: Visual Arts 
Reichlin Guido and Karin Walchli’s art is focused on contemporary pattern and abstractions, the tension lying in the crossovers and relations between ornament and picture/image. Within this context they are dealing with ornamental traditions across cultures, considering their art as a contribution to the ongoing discussion on values and meaning of ornament. 
Partner Organisation for Residency: Vyom Centre for Contemporary Arts, Jaipur 
Residency duration: 7 February - 6 May 2011

The Cully Jazz Festival

The Cully Jazz Festival stages will be shared by jazz stars and newcomers like the three young Swiss bands: Plaistow, the Marc Perrenoud Trio and Andreas Schaerer’s «Hildegard lernt fliegen». [dated March 2011]

More than 45,000 jazz fans make their way to Lake Geneva each spring. Nevertheless, the Cully Jazz Festival, launched three decades ago, has retained its reputation as a relaxed and intimate event. This year, too, the stages in the picturesque Vaud village will be shared by jazz stars and newcomers alike.

Three young Swiss bands deserve a special mention: Plaistow, the Marc Perrenoud Trio and Andreas Schaerer’s «Hildegard lernt fliegen». These current beneficiaries of Pro Helvetia’s high priority jazz promotion have the opportunity to introduce themselves in public to international event organisers, journalists, agents and label representatives.

Programme details at www.cullyjazz.ch.

Denis Maillefer invited by National School of Drama

National School of Drama Final Year Students present DRIVE under the direction of Swiss theatre director Denis Maillefer. [dated March 2011]

National School of Drama Final Year Students present 
DRIVE

Concept & Direction by Swiss theatre director Denis Maillefer

At Abhimanch, National School of Drama
From 28th February to 6th March 2011 at 6:30 pm
Also on 4th, 5th & 6th March at 3:30pm

Swiss theatre director Denis Maillefer invited by National School of Drama After the very successful presentation of the theatre production For the First Time – ‘La Premiere Fois’ by Théâtre en Flammes,as part of the 11th Bharat Rang Mahotsav in 2009, the Director Denis Maillefer was invited to conduct a workshop with the final year students of the National School of Drama, New Delhi in 2009 and once again for a second time in 2011. The production that Denis Maillefer is working on with the NSD final year students is called DRIVE.

Brief on the production 
Must theatre deal with real life? Must theatre tell us about the reality close to us, just outside the stage, just outside the school (for us in NSD)? Of course, could be the answer, but not in an absolute realistic way. We are not journalists, we don’t exactly work on a documentary. So what did we do? What is Drive about? The students went to the streets of Delhi. They had to find a ‘partner’. For the female students, this partner had to be a traffic police woman.For the male students, he had to be an autorickshaw driver. Then the idea was to get in touch, ask questions, talk, know as much as possible about their professional lives and their private life. The second step, for the students was to build a stage character from the real person. Not just imitate or exactly play this person, but find, from the real one, a detail, a way of being and then play this newborn character. The third step was to collaborate with the design students, who were also in the same process from the beginning. All students had to build a specific little space for each character, on stage. What does the 'box' tell the audience about the character? How does it help to play?

Swiss Contemporary Dance Days 2011

Fourteen dance companies from Switzerland are presenting their latest creations to international experts and festival directors at the Swiss Contemporary Dance Days 2011 [dated March 2011]

Fourteen dance companies from all regions of Switzerland are presenting their latest creations to local audiences as well as to international experts and festival directors at the Swiss Contemporary Dance Days 2011 in Berne this March.

For more information visit: http://swissdancedays.ch/index.php?id=524&L=1

Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council is delighted to invite Jayachandran Palazhy of Attakkalari, Mandeep Raikhy of Gati Dance Forum and Sadanand Menon to Berne, to experience and witness the festival.

Visit the new website www.danceplatform.ch which has been launched as part of the Swiss Dance Days 2011. The site introduces professional dance companies working in Switzerland and gives an overview of the richness and diversity of contemporary dance choreography in Switzerland.

Film 'Return to Gorée' at Journée de la Francophonie in Bangalore

swissnex presents Swiss film maker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s 'Return to Gorée', a French film with English sub-titles on African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey. [dated March 2012]

swissnex presents Swiss film maker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s 'Return to Gorée', a French film with English sub-titles on African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey

at Journée de la Francophonie in Bangalore 
Date: Thursday 17 March 2011 (Time tbc) 
Venue: Alliance Francaise Bangalore

Synopsis of film 
The musical road movie, Return to Gorée, tells of African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey following the trail left by slaves and by the jazz music they invented. Youssou N'Dour's challenge is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire and to sing those tunes in Goree, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to commemorate its victims. Guided in his mission by the pianist Moncef Genoud, Youssou N'Dour travels across the United States of America and Europe. Accompanied by some of the world's most exceptional musicians, they meet people and well known figures, and create, through concerts, encounters and debates, music which transcends cultural division.From Atlanta to New Orleans, from New York to Dakar through Luxemburg the songs are transformed, immersed in jazz and gospel. But the day of their return to Africa is fast approaching and much remains to be done to be ready for the final concert...

Technodrome Urban Arts Festival 2011

Andy Guhl and Clara Ouchène of Silver Seeds from Switzerland will participate in Technodrome Urban Arts Festival 2011, a festival that celebrates new cultural practices. [dated February 2011]

Andy Guhl and Clara Ouchène of Silver Seeds from Switzerland will participate in Technodrome Urban Arts Festival 2011, a festival that celebrates new cultural practices and builds platforms for emerging art forms.

TechoDrome 2011
With electronic music as the backbone of the series, the programming for each festival episode pulls in forerunners from the global and Indian music and arts scene. Spread across days of performances, exhibitions, installations and workshops, TechnoDrome aims at creating a very desirable situation of cultural exchange for the festival given the core of electronic music culture. TechnoDrome is conceived and managed by Qilla Records - an independent Techno label, and B.L.O.T. (Basic Love Of Things) - a leading creative collective from India. It is also partnered by Mocha ArtHouse - an emerging arts platform. With the success of the first episode of TechnoDrome in February 2010, the second edition is planned from 24-27 February 2011.

Salon der alchemisten The first salon der alchemisten will take place in India as an extension of Technodrome Festival in New Dehli in February 2011.

Where: Max Mueller Bhawan 
When: 24 - 27 February 2011 from 7 to 11 pm

salon der alchemisten is a non-profit organization based in berlin, independent of any political, ideological or religious interests. Its essential mission is to connect music, art and food to transform space into laboratories of disciplines, cultures and people.

The Delhi edition features collaborations between Swiss, German, Austrian and Indian musicians, artists, cooks, fashion designers and architects.

Spread over 4 evenings and housed in a special, immersive, outdoor environment created with industrial scaffolding, bamboo, fabric and projections, the salon showcases collaborative and improvised performances between acclaimed international musicians and performing artists.

salon der alchemisten delhi also features several installations and community cooking laboratories, with a focus on the co-creation of a shared magical experience.

www.salonderalchemisten.org

Passages, the cultural magazine of Pro Helvetia

Are computer games the art form of the future? The new edition of Passages provides answers and arguments. [dated February 2011]

From Game to Art Computer games have become a permanent fixture in our everyday lives, as designers, scriptwriters and composers team up to create digital Wonderlands located somewhere between art and commerce. In the current isse of Passages you can read about an avid gamer’s holiday with her virtual family, how scientists tinker away at a large-as-life avatar, and why computer games might just be the art form of the future.

Other topics: 
Swiss Folk Culture in Argentina 
Chopin as Modern Opera 
Bernese Writer-in-Residence in Buenos Aires

To view an online version please click here: Passages Nr. 54 ( PDF- 2MB)

CeC 2011, the 6th annual Carnival of e-Creativity

The 6th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2011) is scheduled to be held from 18 to 20 February 2011 in Sattal Estate, just above Bhimtal, near Nainital. [dated February 2011]

The 6th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2011) is scheduled to be held from 18 to 20 February 2011 in Sattal Estate, just above Bhimtal, near Nainital.

CeC 2011 consists of Presentations, Performances, Exhibits and Screenings, involving direct and indirect participation of e-Creative Practitioners of all description from around India and the world, spread over 3 days of intense public creative interaction.

CeC 2011 is part-funded by Pro Helvetia -Swiss Arts Council. For details on the progamme and presentations click here

'Return to Gorée' at Baajaa Gaajaa 2011

Swiss film maker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud presents 'Return to Gorée', a French film with English sub-titles on African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey at Baajaa Gaajaa 2011 [dated February 2011]

Swiss film maker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud presents 'Return to Gorée', a French film with English sub-titles on African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey at Baajaa Gaajaa 2011 Return to Gorée Date: Sunday 6 February 2011 Time 2:00 pm Venue: Ishanya, Pune As part of Baajaa Gaajaa 2011.

Return to Gorée Synopsis
The musical road movie, Return to Gorée, tells of African singer Youssou N'Dour's epic journey following the trail left by slaves and by the jazz music they invented. Youssou N'Dour's challenge is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire and to sing those tunes in Goree, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to commemorate its victims. Guided in his mission by the pianist Moncef Genoud, Youssou N'Dour travels across the United States of America and Europe. Accompanied by some of the world's most exceptional musicians, they meet people and well known figures, and create, through concerts, encounters and debates, music which transcends cultural division.From Atlanta to New Orleans, from New York to Dakar through Luxemburg the songs are transformed, immersed in jazz and gospel. But the day of their return to Africa is fast approaching and much remains to be done to be ready for the final concert...

Pierre-Yves Borgeaud 
Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is a film maker, a video artist who has also worked as an independent journalist writing about music and has been a percussionist in jazz and funk bands.

After studying Film, Video & Broadcasting in New York University in 1996, Pierre started working on documentaries and music videos. In 1998, he becomes one of the Swiss pioneers of VJing,[1] presenting live performances with musicians like Pierre Audétat, Christy Doran, Nils Petter Molvaer or Don Li.

Director, producer, and interdisciplinary artist, Borgeaud founded Momentum Production in 1999. In 2000, he received the price "Young artist" in video awarded by a council of the arts in Switzerland. In 2003, his first long feature iXieme: diary of a prisoner was awarded with the Golden Leopard in Video at the Locarno International Film Festival.[2] In 2004, the short film Interface was nominated for the best Swiss short film. In 2008, his film Return to Goree, with Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour, was released and awarded worldwide including Best Documentary at the 16th Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. In 2010/2011, Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is working on a new long feature documentary with Brazilian singer, composer and icon Gilberto Gil.

Swiss Experimental Films from 1962-1974 in India
Pro Helvetia New Delhi in collaboration with Reservoir 21 February 2011 – 7 March 2011. [dated February 2011]

Swiss Experimental Films from 1962-1974 Pro Helvetia New Delhi in collaboration with reservoirfilm 21 February 2011 – 7 March 2011

Swiss Experimental Films is a project which will include screening of films belonging to Swiss Experimental films movement that started in the 1960's, as well as inviting people attached to this genre from Switzerland for discussions. The project was proposed to Pro Helvetia and is in collaboration with Reservoir, a Zurich based, free collective of curators for the experimental cinema and the art film. There will be a curated package of films illustrating the history of this genre, often referred to as the ‘film wonder’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s. These films were part of a restoration project taken up by Reservoir in 2005/2006 to preserve the most important yet long-forgotten films of this period in their original 16mm-format.

Itinerary : 

James Beveridge Media Resource Centre, Jamia Milia Islamia University New Delhi 21 February 2011 

National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad 24, 25 & 26 February 2011

Satyajit Ray Institute, Kolkata 28 Feb, 1 & 2 March 2011

Little Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai 5, 6 & 7 March 2011

In partneship with Mohile Parikh Centre, Mumbai In the late 1950's and 1960's a new cinema emerges in Europe and with a slight dealy also Switzerland is affected by new ideas. The "Neuer Schweizer Film" (New Swiss Cinema) and the names associated to it (Alain Tanner, Michel Soutter, Claude Goretta, Daniel Schmid, Thomas Koerfer, Fredi Murer, Clemens Klopfenstein and others) quite quickly became internationally renown so that still today, the Swiss film industry and film promotion refers often to this "film wonder" of the 1960's and 1970's. The official Swiss film histories largely discuss those figures and their films, but almost nothing has been written about the undercurrents in the film culture that decisively determined the breakup with the old filmic traditions and made the "wonder" possible in the first place. In fact, as in other countries, also in Switzerland before the "Neue Schweizer Film" launched, a general climate of change had arisen, genre borders had been crossed, experiments in the filmic form and narration conducted, forums for the "progressive film" founded. One of the most important places for discussion was the Film Forum in Zurich. Under the direction of film maker Hans-Jakob Siber it regularly showcased works from the New American Cinema, triggered discussions about new filmic forms and encouraged local film makers to bring in their own work for projection. The idea spread quickly and soon the Ciné Circus was founded, a cinema on wheels based at the Film Forum in Zurich. The Ciné Circus consisted of a car, a 16mm-filmprojector and a changing set of one or two people who knew how to handle either one of them. The Circus gave regular guest performances in Lucerne, Basel and Berne and these evenings quickly developed into rallies, where the young Swiss film makers assembled and maintained their discussions between the yearly film meeting in Solothurn (Solothurner Filmtage). 

Just a few years later, however, the brief moment of storm and stress in the film scene is over. The film funding system had eventually developed, success and failure had decided on careers, the fiction film had taken the lead again and many of the former cinema tinkerer, who had been developing their own film language in small and experimental forms, tried to establish an economic life and a career for their own in the cinema (Fredi Murer, Clemens Klopfenstein, Alexander Seiler, Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf) or started working for Swiss television and the commercials (Louis Jent, Robert Schär). Most of those who had worked for years in the grey area between the "big picture" and the artistic expression in small, easy to control projects put their cameras aside and deposited their films in their cellars and cupboards at home (Hans-Jakob Siber, Reto Andrea Savoldelli, Guido Haas, Kurt Kühn, Sebastian C. Schroeder, Georg Radanowicz, HHK Schoenherr, Hannes Bossert and finally also Louis Jent and Robert Schär). Very rarely they were heard of in later days. Only very few artists continued to work with small forms, some even up to this date (Isa Hesse-Rabionwicz, Werner von Mutzenbecher, Dieter Meier). Hardly any of the films have been deposited in film archives, where their outlast would have been guaranteed. After around 1974 a long period of oblivion started for most of those films. In 2005/2006 reservoirfilm, a Zurich based, free collective of curators for the experimental cinema and the art film started to dig into the history of the Swiss experimental film movements. They had to go from person to person, phone call to phone call and email to email to find the people, who had made experimental films in the 1960's and 1970's and what they found was both miraculous and alarming: Beautiful Films, hand scratched or directly painted on the materials, films with excentric narrations, witty ideas, beautifully framed poetic images – films of an artistic quality that competes with the international avant-garde movements – but long forgotten and in the most part for decades never showed in public, film prints degraded over time. The remains were sometimes only one copy of a film, worn to threads by former use. Already for the series of film screenings in May 2006 they had the possibility to transfer some of the most endangered films to Video. Those film programmes have been shown with an astonishing echo in Zurich, Basel and Geneva and eventually also in Paris. After the presentations, they worked out a restoration project ("Schweizer Filmexperimente 1950-1988") to preserve the most important films of the period and to ensure that also in the future they can be presented in their original 16mm-format. 

The curated package of films will be accompanied by Dr Fred Truniger and Dr François Bovier for discussions. Dr Fred Truniger was trained as a film historian and is currently working as a cultural critic at different Universities in Switzerland. He holds a Masters degree in Film Theory from the University of Zurich and a PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. He is currently the head of the Master of Advanced Studies programme "Design | Art + Innovation" of the Basel School of Art and Design and also working at the Institute for Landscape Architecture of the ETH Zurich as a research fellow and head assistant. Since 1991 he has been a member of the programme committees in several film festivals. He worked for the experimental film festival "VIPER" in Lucerne from 1991-1997 where he founded the New Media Programme in 1995 and organised symposia, exhibitions and film programmes. Starting in 1997 he worked for the international short film festival Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen as part of the selection committee for the international competition. There he curated the special programme "Nützliche Bilder / Useful Images" on the relationship between film and the sciences in 1998. From 2001-2006 he was committee member of the documentary film festival "Duisburger Filmwoche". 2005 he was co-publisher of the restored Version of the Video "Züri brännt" on DVD. Also in 2005 he co-founded reservoir, a free collective of curators for film mediation (www.reservoirfilm.ch) to organise shows and discussions of experimental and art films in several Swiss cities. Since 2006 he conducts a research and restoration project on "Swiss Experimental Films from 1950-1988". Thomas Schärer, M.A., born 1968, studied History and Film at the universities of Zürich and Berlin (FU). After a first job as trainee at the Freunde der Deutschen Kinemathek, Berlin (1996-1997, Kino Arsenal, Form) he worked as free journalist and collaborated for expositions as researcher (150 Jahre Bundesstaat 1997), filmmaker (Expos.ch, 2001, 100 Jahre Bundeshaus 2002, L’histoire c’est moi, 2004) and interviewer (L’histoire c’est moi, 2004, La mémoire de la Suisse humanitaire, 2009-2010). From 2000 to 2004 he was heading (together with Irene Genhart) the section “Semaine de la critique” of the Locarno Film Festival. Since 2000 he worked in different positions, mainly as researcher, for the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZhDK) . 2005 he published a book about the history of the first film school of Switzerland (“Wir wollten den Film neu erfinden”, Book and DVD, Limmat-Verlag). Since 2007 Schärer is heading the ZHDK-research project “Cinémémoire.ch – an oral history of swiss film” (Publication planned for 2011). 2009 he (together with Stefan Länzlinger) published the first book on film and its use within the swiss worker movement (“Stellen wir diese Waffe in unseren Dienst” Book and DVD, Chronos Verlag). Currently, Thomas Schärer is writing a thesis about ethnographic film at the university of Basel (Prof. Walter Leimgruber) and is preparing – together with Fred Truniger and François Bovier – a research project about experimental film in Switzerland (Schweizer Filmexperimente 1950-1988). 

To view city specific listing of screenings clck here

Attakkalari International Biennial 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

Long Night of Literature 2011

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

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

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

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

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

Moderator for the evening - Danish Husain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Conceptualized by Dr Kavita Singh and Vidya Shivadas)

Cultural Policy & Curatorship: Perspectives from Switzerland

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

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

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

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

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

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