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
Khoj Marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans-Ulrich Obrist, a contemporary art curator, critic and historian of art is the author of The Interview Project and is in India to present the first Marathon interviews of Indian specialists. [dated January 2011]
A series of public conversations on Saturday January 22, 2011 at Lodi – The garden restaurant courtyard Lodi Road, Opposite Mausam Bhavan from 1.45 PM to 11.00 PM (Entry is free. Seating is on first come first serve basis)
The Khoj Marathon is a series of twenty minute public interviews with 25 leading intellectuals - thinkers, social philosophers, political analysts and artists by a compelling authority in the art and intellectual world, Hans Ulrich Obrist. Programme: Opening of the Khoj Marathon by Francesca Von Habsburg followed by interviews of Dayanita Singh, Vivan Sundaram, Homai Vyarawalla, Sheba Chhachhi, Urvashi Butalia, Shilpa Gupta, Gulam Mohammad Sheikh, Vandana Shiva, Geeta Kapur, Sheela Gowda, Dileep Simeon, Bharti Kher, Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam, Nivedita Menon, Kiran Subbiah, Jitish Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Anita Dube, Sundar Sarukkai, Sudarshan Shetty, Bijoy Jain, Ranjit Hoskote, Sadanand Menon, Raqs Media Collective and Subodh Gupta. Hans Ulrich Obrist is one of the most prestigious and sought after curators of contemporary art in the world. The Marathon series of public events, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Stuttgart in 2005, are landmark public interviews which initiate some of the most scintillating and exciting conversations of contemporary times. The first in the Serpentine series, the Interview Marathon in 2006, involved interviews with leading figures in contemporary culture over 24 hours, conducted by Obrist and architect Rem Koolhaas. This was followed by the Experiment Marathon, conceived by Obrist and artist Olafur Eliasson in 2007; in 2008 the Manifesto Marathon showcased different generations of artists alongside practitioners from the worlds of literature, design, science, philosophy, music and film who were experimenting with the historical notion of the manifesto; the Poetry Marathon in 2009 featured unique performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars and musicians and more recently the multi-dimensional Map Marathon in 2010 that featured non-stop live presentations by over 50 artists, poets, writers, philosophers, scholars, musicians, architects, designers and scientists. The Khoj Marathon is the first Marathon by Hans Ulrich Obrist to be held in the subcontinent. The Marathon is being organized by KHOJ International Artists’ Association. The Marathon is being held in collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Austria which was founded in Vienna in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg. It is being supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council, The British Council, CoCCA-Coimbatore Centre for Contemporary Arts, Goethe Institut-Max Mueller Bhavan, Bombay Sapphire and Arts Collaboratory, The Netherlands. The interviews of The KHOJ Marathon will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA). Fore more information visit: http://www.khojworkshop.org/node/10584
NINGYO by Cie Nicole Seiler
Pro Helvetia presents NINGYO, a multimedia dance performance by Company Nicole Seiler of Switzerland in Bangalore at Ranga Shankara and in Mumbai at The Experimental Theatre, NCPA. [dated January 2011]
Pro Helvetia presents NINGYO, a multimedia dance performance by Company Nicole Seiler of Switzerland in Bangalore at Ranga Shankara and in Mumbai at The Experimental Theatre, NCPA.
Bangalore / Ranga Shankara
Saturday, 29 January 2011 at 7:30 pm and
Sunday, 30 January 2011 at 11:00 am
Mumbai / The Experimental Theatre, NCPA
Wednesday, 2 February 2011 at 7:30 pm and
Thursday, 3 February 2011 at 7:30 pm
Credits
Choreography, video Nicole Seiler
Dance performance Chiharu Mamiya
Live Music Letizia Renzini
Costume design Claude Rueger
Light design Stéphane Gattoni
Stage design, technique Julien Grob Dramatist Simona Travaglianti
Video assistant Vincent Deblue
Ningyo is no ordinary contemporary dance performance. It is a tribute to our complexity. Swiss choreographer and video-maker Nicole Seiler continues to question us right through the hour long piece. With Ningyo, a piece she created in 2008, Nicole Seiler talks of the necessity to be indecisive. Why must one feel the need to choose between life forms? Between the body and the mind? The question about ideal beauty is central in Nicole Seiler’s work. In Ningyo, she continues to look at the limits between attraction and repulsion, and beauty and monstrosity. The title of this piece is significant. Ningyo is a Japanese word composed of nin (man) and gyo (depending on the pronunciation fish or shape.) So Ningyo means mermaid or doll. Ningyo does not chronologically tell the story of these half-human, half-animal creatures. The structure of the piece is a performative process which questions the duality of this aquatic creature. “A mermaid embodies an ambivalent femininity. A mixture of seduction and danger. She slides through the nets of categories: a woman-child in between waves, femme fatale at the crest, sometimes prey but often a huntress. Mermaids escape nets; it’s their privilege.” - Nicole Seiler At the beginning of the piece, Ningyo plays with the audience’s perception. The stage is submerged in darkness. Slowly, a being appears. The form does not match that of the mermaid we know of. She is neither graceful nor seductive. Then she emerges out of her natural environment, the water body. At first, the stereotype of ideal beauty is forgotten and a rarer or less well-known aspect about mermaids is told. In certain legends they are described as ugly, repulsive monsters living in the unexplored, scary depths of the sea. The ambiguity of water, sometimes associated with destruction and sometimes with regeneration, also influences Ningyo’s direction. Thus the water’s duality evolves alongside the mermaid’s duality which gives of a powerful force of attraction and at times disgusts and terrifies.
With the help of video projections, Nicole Seiler creates atmospheres which explode the conventional space of a theatre stage. The character in this solo finds herself little by little closed in and projected outside. She repeatedly multiplies herself and is reflected by the water’s surface, which also serves as a tool for the video projections, a multiple mirror. In one scene the dancer plays with her shadow on the back wall, she dissolves it and then escapes from it. Later she is captive of an image projected on the ceiling, from which she flies away using a visual effect created by video. In Ningyo, the dance and the video have the same importance. Created together, these two expressive mediums underline the mermaids dual personality. Ambiguities and dualisms are revealed and eluded to. The stage direction continually integrates opposites like black and white, visible and invisible, singular and plural, animal and man, beauty and monstrosity and shows the blurred limits between attraction and repulsion. Nicole Seiler, the choreographer and video artist of Ningyo studied at the Dimitri School in Verscio Switzerland followed by the Vlaamse Dansacademie in Bruges, Belgium. She later completed her dance education at the School of Maurice Béjart in Lausanne, Switzerland. She was part of many dance and theatre companies including Cie Buissonnière (choreographer Philippe Lizon) in Lausanne, Teatro Malandro (directed by Omar Porras) in Geneva, Cie Philippe Saire and Alias Compagnie, Geneva (choreographer Guilherme Botelho). Nicole Seiler set up her own company in 2002. Her artistic approach combines dance and video and she creates dance and multimedia stage performances, choreographic installations and dance videos. In her work dance and video are equally important. Conceived together the two media dialogue constantly and this symbiosis generates new body shapes and movements. Productions by Company Nicole Seiler include Living-room Dancers, Ningyo, K Two, Je m’appelle…, Pixel Babes, 4 clips pour aufnahmen, Dolls / Dolls live, Lui, One in a Million, Madame K and Quoi? Ningyo comes to life with a brilliant solo performance by Chiharu Mamiya. Japanese by birth, Chiharu studied at the Rosella Hightower School in Cannes. She has worked with choreographers Nicole Caccivio in Berlin, Gilles Jobin in Geneva, Katarzyna Chmielewska in Gdansk, Poland and Estelle Héritier and Nicole Seiler in Lausanne, Switzerland. At dancer Chiharu Mamiya’s side is another presence on stage, a DJ. Mixing tables and many different cables contrast with the natural element of water. Letizia Renzini’s music underlines the atmospheres created by the dance and the video projections. For more information on Compagnie Nicole Seiler visit www.nicoleseiler.com
India Art Summit 2011
The Speakers’ Forum at the India Art Summit 2011 brings together renowned curators, critics, artists, galleries, auction houses, art professionals, and collectors. [dated January 2011]
The Speakers’ Forum at the 3rd edition of India Art Summit in January 2011 brings together renowned curators, critics, artists, galleries, auction houses, art professionals, and collectors from India and around the world, including Switzerland. Sessions will focus on key issues and dialogues concerned with art production and reception in India, critical dialogues and the art market.
The following Swiss curators will be visiting India in January 2011 and will be accompanied by Marianne Burki, Head Visual Arts, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council, Zurich:
Daniel Baumann - CV (word doc)
Urs Stahel - CV (word doc)
Mirjam Varadinis - CV (word doc)
SPEAKERS’ FORUM SESSION
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Time: 10.00 - 11.30 am Topic: Contemporary curatorial practices: the changing role of the curator Participants: Gayatri Sinha, Independent Critic & Curator Ranjit Hoskote, Cultural theorist, poet, and independent curator Daniel Baumann, Director, Adolf Wolfli-Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts in Bern Latika Gupta, Curator
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Time: 11.00 - 12.30 pm Topic: Shifting cultural contexts and the role of the museum
Participants: Sheena Wagstaff, Chief Curator, Tate Modern Urs Stahel, Director, Curator and Author of Fotomuseum, Winterthur Kiran Nadar, Founder, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Hou Hanru, Director, Exhibitions and Public Programmes, San Francisco Art Institute Moderator: - Kavita Singh, Associate Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU
IMPORTANT
You are required to register as a delegate to attend the sessions of the Speakers' Forum.
To view a detailed schedule of the Speakers' Forum to be held on 21, 22 and 23 January 2011, as well as to access the registration form click here. (PDF) For more information on the India Art Summit 2011 click here.
Launch of Camerawork Delhi issue 7
Pro Helvetia New Delhi supports Camerawork Delhi, a publication dedicated to independent photography. [dated December 2010]
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and FICA invite you to the launch of Camerawork Delhi, Issue No. 7. The magazine champions the cause of 'independent' photography and is edited by Gauri Gill and Sunil Gupta. Date: Saturday, 4th December Time: 5-7 PM Place: FICA reading Room, 42 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024 Photographers presenting: Uzma Mohsin, Vidisha Saini, Ishan Tankha
Camerawork Delhi, a tri-annual publication that is distributed to a local, national and international audience, aims to provide a forum for independent photography. Its objectives are to provide opportunities for photographers and writers to publish their work, and, to develop new audiences. The primary focus of the journal is education and not the market place. With that in mind, it features extensive coverage of archives, history, theory and developments in formal and non-formal education. It is currently edited by Gauri Gill and Sunil Gupta, well known Indian photographers and curators.
Previous issues carried an interview with William Ewing, Director of the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland by Gauri Gill, and Urs Stahel in conversation with Sunil Gupta.
Archive
Camerawork Delhi Vol I Issue VII.pdf
Camerawork Delhi Vol I Issue VI.pdf
Camerawork Delhi Vol I Issue VI (COVER).pdf
Camerawork Delhi Vol I Issue V.pdf
Strange Lines at Ahmedabad and Thrissur
Pro Helvetia presents Strange Lines, an Indo - Swiss multilingual theatre collaboration based on the graphic novel anthology ‘When Kulbhushan Met Stöckli’ at Ahmedabad and Thrissur. [dated December 2010]
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council presents Strange Lines An Indo - Swiss multilingual theatre collaboration based on the graphic novel anthology ‘When Kulbhushan Met Stöckli’ at
Ahmedabad, Gujarat - 18 December 2010 at 830 pm Natarani Theatre, Darpana Academy of Performing Arts Ahmedabad
Thrissur, Kerala - 22 December 2010 at 9:00 pm International Theatre Festival of Kerala, KT Muhamed Smaraka Theatre Kerala Sangeetha Nadaka Academy, Thrissur
Concept and Direction - Amitesh Grover
Cast - Amit Saxena and Julia Perazzini
Text Work & New Writing – Amit Saxena, Julia Perazzini & Keshav Kumar
Video Design – Michel Weber
Sound Design - Ish S Drawing – Dheerendra Dwivedi
Production Design – Kumaradas T N Synopsis
The departure point of this theatrical collaboration is a comics collaboration – When Kulbhushan Met Stockli - recently released by HarperCollins Publishers, India. Nineteen graphic novelists share their experiences while encountering the ‘other’ land/people in their stories and drawings. In Strange Lines, two people write letters to each other. They write about themselves, their lives, their cities and their nations. They draw their bodies and imagine the other’s. And then, they meet. The project seeks to play with the young art of graphic novel, the theatricality in drawing and ways in which drawing and theatre can come together to present notions of ‘home and away’, ‘nativity and foreignness’. Some stories from the book are adapted to form the narrative for the production, while others are improvised from the performers’ own lives.
Profile of the Director-Amitesh Grover
Performance Maker, New Media Artist and pedagogue, National School of Drama (India) alumnus Amitesh Grover has created 15 Performances and Mixed-media Installations, which have taken a total of 90 shows across 6 countries. Having completed his MA (Performance Arts) from University of Arts London, UK in 2006, he went on to focus on exploring the live interface between the body and media in performance. His work has been shown in Switzerland, U.K., China, Romania, Oman and India. He is the recipient of numerous awards including YCE Creative Entrepreneur Award nomination (2010), SNA (Bismillah Khan) National Award for Theatre Direction (2009), BC Theatre Sutra Award (2009), was awarded a Pro Helvetia Artists Residency in Switzerland ( 2008) and received a Charles Wallace Scholarship (2005). He has also been on the jury of TheatreSpektakel’08. At present, he lectures at National School of Drama, India and is a freelance artist. His work, thoughts and reviews are available online at amiteshgrover.blogspot.com
Profile of Swiss actress Julia Perazzini
Julia Perazzini is a Swiss a actress, who was born and lives in Lausanne, Switzerland. She graduated in 2006 from the « Manufacture », the National School of Theater in Lausanne. She has worked with Denis Maillefer and his company « Theatre en Flammes » and with musician Polar in Geneva, for the international festival « La Bâtie ». Julia has also worked with Mathieu Bertholet, a young Swiss writer and director and with director Isabelle Pousseur from Brussels, Belgium. Currently, Julia is developing a more personal work with Company Eponyme, based in Lausanne, who makes their own collective political creations. She continues to dance for the concerts of Swiss electro music group « Larytta » for whom she created a duo of dance performances in 2007.
Julia Perazzini performed for the first time in India in, January 2009. She was part of the cast of Denis Maillefer’s production « For the first time » that was part of National School of Drama’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav. This play, created first in Geneva was recreated in Delhi and Gurgaon in English, Hindï and French with Indian and Swiss actors. Julia returned to India once again in January 2011 to perform at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav for the second time. She shared the stage with Amit Saxena in « Strange Lines », a multimedia theatre performance in English, directed by Amitesh Grover.
A versatile actress, Julia has also acted in several short films, like « La Délogeuse » (Golden Leopardino in the International film festival of Locarno 2008) and has played the main character in a feature film, directed by Lionnel Baier, a Swiss movie director. She has just completed the shooting of a sitcom for the Swiss Television (TSR), 13 episodes, in which she plays a petty criminal, the main female character.
Poetry Connections
POETRY CONNECTIONS - a translation workshop and multilingual multimedia performance in Pondicherry, Chennai and Pune. [dated December 2010]
As part of the Literature Across Frontier’s (LAF) international initiatives, a translation workshop POETRY CONNECTIONS will be held in India in Pondicherry. This will be followed by a multilingual and multimedia performance in Chennai and Pune.
Pondicherry
Workshop at Adishakti Date: 8th to 14th December 2010 (closed - for poets / oganisers only)
Chennai
Performances at Amethyst, Gopalapuram on 15 December at 7.00 pm ( open to public) Stella Maris College on 16 December at 9.00 am Womens Christian College o 16 December at 11.30 am British Council on 16 December at 6.00 pm ( open to public)
Pune
Performance at Kala Chaya Campus, Opp Vikhe Patil School, Patrakar Nagar Road, Chaturshrungi Date: 18 December, 2010 at 5.30 pm (open to public)
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The poetry translation workshop leading up to these events is scheduled to be held from 8th to 15th December, 2010 at Pondicherry. Eight national and international poets will be participating in the workshop. The six-day intensive workshop is envisaged to bring poets in contact with various contexts of their languages, regions, styles, formats etc. With musical, visual and performative aspects the poets will interact with each other in the beautiful environs of Adishakti.
The cross-translation and creative work achieved during this intensive workshop will be showcased as a performance at the inaugural of the Prakriti Poetry Festival on the 15th December in Chennai at 7pm.
POETRY CONNECTIONS at Pondicherry Workshop at Adishakti 8th to 15th December, 2010 This particular workshop to be held at Adishakti will bring together the following eight poets:
Arjun Bali – English, Hindi, Punjabi
Bill Herbert – English
Meena Kandasamy – English, Tamil
Raphael Bendicht Urweider – English, German
Robin Ngangom – English, Manipuri
Roselyne Sibille – French, English
Sampurna Chattarji – English, Bengali
Zoë Skoulding – English
The poets have been selected to bring together a range of languages as well as to look at different cultural contexts they work in. The workshop to be held at the beautiful environs in Pondicherry will be a blend of working on text as well as incorporating other elements like music, performance and visuals. Unlike other workshops where poets work in pairs with the assistance of interpreters, or where translations are produced collectively into one language, this workshop aims for cross-translation in different directions, providing an environment where participants are encouraged to translate work by everyone in the group and where they can learn about each other’s literary tradition and the contemporary context in which each of them writes. The week-long residential workshop will consist of group sessions and sessions dedicated to individual work. Daily discussions around the work in progress will allow the group to explore the microcosm of each text, as well as wider issues of translation practice. The workshop is expected to result in a multilingual multimedia performance to be staged at Chennai and Pune.
POETRY CONNECTIONS at Chennai and Pune
Performance at the Amethyst (Chennai) and Kala Chhaya (Pune)
15 & 18 December, 2010 The same group of eight poets will put up a multilingual and multimedia performance at the Amethyst, Chennai on 15 December, 2010. The workshop will be held at the inauguration of ‘Poetry with Prakriti’, a two-week long poetry festival organized annually in Chennai by the Prakriti Foundation. The group of poets will showcase the same performance in Pune as part of the Open Space at Kala Chhaya on 18 December, 2010.
CHENNAI
Date: 15 December, 2010 Time: 7 pm Venue: Amethyst, Gopalapuram, Chennai
PUNE
Date: 18 December, 2010 Time: 6.30 pm Venue: Kala Chaya Campus, Opp Vikhe Patil School, Patrakar Nagar Road, Chaturshrungi, Pune
Partners Literature Across Frontiers German Book Office Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council French Book Office British Council Sangam House Prakriti Foundation Open Space Siyahi
Profile of Raphael Bendicht Urweider
Participating poet from Switzerland Raphael Bendicht Urweider was born in 1974 in Bern, Switzerland. He studied German literature and philosophy in Fribourg, and sees himself as a poet and a musician. He has performed with the Bernise Hip-Hop crew LDeeP and composed the music for a number of plays. In 1999, he received the Arbeitsstipendium des Deutschen Literaturfonds, as well as the Leonce-und-Lena-Preis. Other prizes include the Förderpreis des Bremer Literaturpreises (2001), the 3sat award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition (2002), and the Clemens-Brentano-Preis (2004). His first volume of poetry, Lichter in Menlo Park, was published in 2000. His latest collection is Das Gegenteil von Fleisch (2003). He also translates plays (Five Gold Rings, Poor Beck by Joanna Laurens) and poetry (Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw). In March 2009, he was awarded the 'Schillerpreis' for his poems in 'Alle deine Namen'. He lives in Bern.
Helvetia Park in Ticino
The Helvetia Park exhibition, a core element of the Swiss Arts Council’s «Ménage – Culture and Politics in Conversation» programme is on show in Bellinzona until 23 January 2011. [dated November 2010]
After starting out in Neuchâtel in 2009, the Helvetia Park travelling exhibition’s latest port of call is Bellinzona in Ticino, where it will stay from 16 October 2010 to 23 January 2011. Castelgrande and the cantonal library in Bellinzona are transformed into a unique fairground with attractions such as the carousel of never-ending rituals, a ghost train through the dark world of cultural policy scandals and a shooting gallery featuring protagonists of the cultural scene as targets.
The exhibition, created by the Musée d’Ethnographie in Neuchâtel (MEN), is an integral part of Pro Helvetia’s «Ménage – Culture and Politics in Conversation» programme. With this programme, the Swiss Arts Council explores the role and various perceptions of culture in Switzerland and aims to stimulate the frequently arduous dialogue between the worlds of arts and politics.
In collaboration with the city of Bellinzona, the Ticino tourist board, the cantonal archives and the cantonal library of Bellinzona, various components of the Helvetia Park exhibition have been adapted to the specific conditions of Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region. The agenda also includes local cultural policy debates and artistic interventions.
More www.helvetia-park.ch
Programme Ménage
In the Air - a sound installation by Jason Kahn
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council & Crafts Museum, New Delhi present In the Air -a sound installation by Jason Kahn, a sound artist and musician from Switzerland. [dated November 2010]
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council & Crafts Museum, New Delhi present In the Air -a sound installation by Jason Kahn, a sound artist and musician from Switzerland on Friday 12 November 2010 at 3:30 pm at Bhuta Gallery, Crafts Museum, Bhairon Road, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi 110001
The installation will be open from 13 – 30 November 2010 10:00 am 5:00 pm (Monday closed)
In the Air
The piece is a sound installation of a body of radios distributed more or less evenly to fill the installation space. By moving through the exhibition the visitor will experience rich variations in phasing occurring between the radios and the various acoustical reflections that are cast by static waves.
Jason Kahn
Jason Kahn is a sound artist and a musician whose work is a mix of electronic and acoustic sound sources, produced with minimal percussion, a laptop or an analogue synthesizer. In recent years he has created several sound installations using field recordings and sound waves as concrete forms. He has held exhibitions and concerts in museums, galleries, art spaces, festivals and clubs throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and South Africa. He has also produced sound pieces for film, dance and radio. In 1998 he started the label ‘cut’.
Jason Kahn is in Delhi on an Artist-in-Residence programme at Sarai from 1 - 30 November 2010. The residency is supported by Pro Helvetia New Delhi and Sarai.
The installation in the Bhuta Gallery by Jason Kahn is coordinated by Ish S, an Indian sound artist and musician who had a brief research residency in Zürich, Switzerland in June 2010.
Web links: cut.fm jasonkahn.dfekt.org http://harmonyseries.blogspot.com/2009/08/jason-kahn.html
IGNITE! Festival of Contemporary Dance
Pro Helvetia is delighted to be associated with IGNITE! a festival of contemporary dance being organised by the Gati Forum in New Delhi in November 2010. [dated November 2010]
Pro Helvetia is delighted to be associated with IGNITE! a festival of contemporary dance being organised by the Gati Forum in New Delhi in November 2010.
The Gati Dance Forum presents
IGNITE! Festival of Contemporary Dance
10-13 November 2010 New Delhi
IGNITE! is a path breaking initiative to promote Indian Contemporary Dance and redefine the parameters of contemporary performance. Designed as an intensive four-day festival, this unique and exciting event is envisaged to give high-quality Indian contemporary dance public visibility, showcase creativity and innovation in Indian dance and support the development of vibrant, new artistic work.
The festival showcases some of the most innovative and cutting-edge choreographers in Indian dance from around the world. Combined with the performances, are master classes, film screenings, exhibitions and intensive workshops with national and international choreographers. True to its name, this festival aims to ignite a debate on contemporary dance theory and galvanize public opinion on policy through intensive seminars and network meetings.
IGNITE! is conceived of as a synergic, multilateral platform. It brings together the artists’ community, academics, educational institutions, producers, cultural organisations, policy makers and the public, to collectively chart the future of contemporary dance in India.
For details on the event visit - http://www.ignitedancefestival.com/
Cultural magazine Passages issue 53
Coverage of art and culture issues and cultural policy debates – Passages, Pro Helvetia’s cultural magazine, has provided reports on current trends and developments in the Swiss culture scene. [dated September 2010]
Art Will Make You Happy!
This issue of Passages is dedicated to the felicity provided by art. Conceived in tandem with the Forum Kultur und Ökonomie (Culture and Economy Forum), this issue of Passages assembles a range of responses to the proposition that "Art Will Make You Happy!” A writer, a cultural studies expert and a psychoanalyst (among others) try their hand at identifying the effects of art, and subject cultural policy makers and their related claims to the third degree, visually heckled all the while by Swiss artist Olaf Breuning.
Other topics:
Epiphany in a Petri Dish: Artists-in-Labs
The Walls Have Tongues: Swiss Sound Art in San Francisco
Inspiring Rome: Turnig Time into Art PDF file
Download the entire contents: Passages No. 53, PDF file (~2MB)
Browse through Passages: Passages no. 53
DABBA-WALLA - M Pravat's ongoing project
DABBA-WALLA an open studio evening of M Pravat's ongoing project. [dated September 2010]
F+F Schule fur Kunst, Zurich and Pro Helvetia New Delhi invite you to the Open Studio evening of M Pravat's ongoing project
DABBA-WALLA
an interaction and a multimedia presentation of M Pravat's performance project.
on 20 September 2010 at 5.30 pm at F+F Schule fur KunstUnd Mediendesign Flurstrasse89, Ch-8047 Zurich
About the Project:
Across various cities in India, a large number of office-going people as wellas students are accustomed to 'Tiffin walla' meals during work-hours. The word 'tiffin' originated in India under the British rule, meaning lunch. Over aperiod of time, it has gained currency as packed lunch, which is either sentfrom home, or from eateries that cater to this facility.
The delivery of Tiffin boxes by Tiffin-wallas (Dabba-wallas) is a unique and complex system often under one delivery person who is responsible for getting thousands of tiffin-boxes to the right destinations. What is even more complex is the kind of dependence-structure that this creates between people on such a large scale in the recesses between hours of work. The lunch-hour of work is that gap between work when a person is not at work, but neither at home. This gap is filled by a basic necessity which varies in practice tremendously in different cultures.In the form of a performance interaction, 'Dabba-wala' attempts to re-situate a complex system of interdependence between people, one that centers around the already familiar steel tiffin-box.
For the project, I will play the role of the chef as well as the delivery-boy (dabba-walla), delivering tiffin-boxes to selected people for a period of 5 days. The entire process will be documented, culminating in a multimedia presentation and interaction which is open for everyone.
M Pravat
