‘Biennale spaces equips visitors for extra sensory experiences’: Gauri Shinde

Kochi, Feb 25: In addition to the exhibited artworks, renowned filmmaker Gauri Shinde said the spaces of the ongoing third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) are in themselves extra-sensory experiences for visitors.

“It is not just watching the art, but also having all your senses involved with the works exhibited. The venue itself equips us to perceive these special things. It may not have been a conscious decision by the artist or curator to communicate this, but you are still receiving the experience that way,” said Shinde, who directed the films Dear Zindagi and English Vinglish.

Noting that the judicious use of space in Aspinwall House and the positioning of the artworks allow visitors to integrate themselves into the experience, she added, “Our observation power somehow just increases 100 to 200 per cent. It is not just art lovers that can perceive the difference, but rather everyone from the connoisseur to the casual visitor.”

Renowned filmmaker and writer Gauri Shinde experiencing Miller Puckette's sound installation titled 'Four Sound Portraits' at onging Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 in Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi.

 Following a tour of Aspinwall House, the Biennale’s primary venue, on Friday, Shinde said visiting South Asia’s biggest contemporary art festival had been an eye-opening experience.

“This was a primary item on my bucket list. I haven’t seen anything like this in India and it actually reminds me of the standards at international art events and museums. The whole experience is very unique,” Shinde said.

She marked for special mention Mexican litterateur Valerie Mejer Caso’s multi-media installation ‘Untameable Light’ and the ‘Defile’ installation by Russian artist collective AES+F.

“These are works that demand your complete attention. Valerie’s multimedia installation is of that kind, while ‘Defile’ really hits you. It signifies how superficial these designer fashion and ideas of glamour are. It is a confluence of decay, death and superficial life,” she said.

सहपीडिया की 11 खंड वाली राष्ट्रपति भवन श्रृंखला जल्द ही वेब मॉड्यूल में होगी उपलब्ध

                  विश्वकोश संस्था अब देष में अन्य संस्थाओं, परियोजनाओं पर भी काम करेगी

 
नई दिल्ली, 24 फरवरी: भारत के राष्ट्रपति के 340 कमरे वाले भव्य एवं विशाल आधिकारिक निवास की कई खंडों वाली विशाल प्रलेखन परियोजना अब डिजिटल अवतार के लिए पूरी तरह से तैयार है।

Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan (Left), Executive Director, Sahapedia and Dr Yashaswini Chandra (Right) greet Ms Omita Paul, Secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee at a function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan recently to mark the completion of the Multi-Volume Documentation Project on the historic heritage building.

इंदिरा गांधी राष्ट्रीय कला केन्द्र (आईजीएनसीए) के सहयोग से सहपीडिया द्वारा शुरू की गई यह महत्वाकांक्षी परियोजना अब इस गैर लाभकारी संस्था की वेबसाइट (www.sahapedia.org) पर संक्षिप्त वेब आधारित मॉड्यूल के रूप में उपलब्ध हो जाएगी। महान ब्रिटिश वास्तुकार एडविन लुटियन द्वारा डिजाइन किया गया और निर्मित, वास्तु पर आधारित, इस प्रतिष्ठित और भव्य राष्ट्रपति भवन पर जानकारी चाहने वालों के लिए यह काफी मूल्यवान साबित होगा।

भारत की कला, संस्कृति और विरासत पर एक खुला ऑनलाइन स्रोत, सहपीडिया ने इस परियोजना पर 2014 में काम शुरू किया और राष्ट्रपति भवन के वास्तुकला, कला, उद्यान और इतिहास जैसे विभिन्न पहलुओं को बहुत ही खूबसूरती से सचित्र पुस्तकों के रूप में संकलित किया है। ये खरीद के लिए अमेज़न इंडिया पर और प्रकाशन विभाग की बिक्री काउंटरों पर उपलब्ध हैं।

President Pranab Mukherjee with core team members of the non-profit encyclopaedic online arts body Sahapedia at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan recently. Sahapedia has just concluded a three-year-long multi volume documentation project on the official residence of the President of India.

साहपीडिया के परियोजना प्रबंधक यशस्विनी चंद्रा ने कहा, ‘‘हमने पुस्तकों के साथ-साथ वेब मॉड्यूल की एक श्रृंखला भी तैयार की है और जल्द ही उन सभी को साहपीडिया की साइट पर अपलोड कर दिया जाएगा। ये इमारत के इतिहास और विरासत की बेहतर समझ हासिल करने के लिए शोधकर्ताओं और आम लोगों दोनों के लिए मूल्यवान होंगे।

पुस्तकों के 11 खंडों में सात मुख्य खंड और चार अतिरिक्त खंड हैं, इसके अलावा दो खंड बच्चों के लिए भी है। सभी खंडों में ऐतिहासिक इमारत का पूरा ब्यौरा दिया गया है जो पहले कभी वायसराय हाउस के नाम से जाना जाता था।

पुस्तकों की सूची में शामिल हैं ‘‘राइट आॅफ लाइन: द प्रेसिडेंट्स बाॅडीगार्ड’, ‘द प्रेसिडेंसियल रिट्रीट्स आॅफ इंडिया’, ‘फर्स्ट गार्डेन आॅफ द रिपब्लिक: नेचर इन द प्रेसिडेंट स्टेट’, ‘ए वर्क आॅफ ब्यूटी: द आर्किटेक्चर एंड लैंडस्केप आॅफ राष्ट्रपति भवन’, ‘द आर्ट्स एंड इंटीरियर्स आॅफ राश्ट्रपति भवन: लुटियन्स एंड बेयंड’, ‘एराउंड इंडियाज़ फर्स्ट टेबल: डायनिंग एंड इंटरटेनिंग एट द राष्ट्रपति भवन’ और ‘लाइफ एट राष्ट्रपति भवन’।

पिछले हफ्ते राष्ट्रपति ने परियोजना के पूरा होने को चिह्नित करने के लिए सहपीडिया से कोर परियोजना टीम के साथ- साथ सहायक विषेशज्ञों को जिम्मेदारी सौंपी थी। परियोजना टीम ने लगभग 50 विद्वानों, शिक्षाविदों, फोटोग्राफर, शोधकर्ताओं, संपादकों और डिजाइनरों के समूह को सफलतापूर्वक प्रबंधित किया।

President Pranab Mukherjee with Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Sahapedia, a non-profit encyclopaedic arts body at the Rashtrapati Bhavan recently. Sahapedia has recently concluded a three-year-long multi volume documentation project on the official residence of the President of India.

यशस्विनी ने कहा, ‘‘इस अवसर पर राष्ट्रपति के सचिव ओमिता पाॅल ने कहा कि यह परियोजना एक चुनौती थी  लेकिन हमें इससे काफी अनुभव हुआ। इस असवर पर राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुखर्जी के साथ एक ग्रुप फोटो लिया गया था।’’

सहपीडिया की कार्यकारी निदेषक डाॅ. सुधा गोपालकृष्णन ने कहा, ‘‘सभी लोगों ने बताया कि यह एक बहुत ही अनोखी और जटिल परियोजना है जिसमें प्रत्येक क्षेत्र के शीर्ष विशेषज्ञों को शामिल किया गया है। हमारे पास पुस्तकों पर काम करने वाले अति विशिष्ट फोटोग्राफर थे और हमने सभी नए तस्वीरों के साथ- साथ दुर्लभ अभिलेखीय तस्वीरों का इस्तेमाल किया। हम इसे समय पर लाकर बहुत खुश हैं और आर्थिक मदद प्रदान करने के लिए आईजीएनसीए के आभारी हैं।’’

टेक्स्ट के साथ संलग्न काफी संख्या में चित्रों और तस्वीरों को प्राथमिक स्रोतों से और अभिलेखीय अनुसंधान द्वारा लिया गया है।

इस परियोजना से जुड़े कुछ प्रमुख नामों में शामिल हैं: एस. कालिदास, कुलदीप कुमार, शर्मिश्ठा मुखर्जी, लीला वेंकटरमण, स्क्वाड्रन लीडर (सेवानिवृत्त) राणा टी.एस. छिना, दिनेश खन्ना, गिलियन राइट, प्रो. अमिता बविस्कर, नरेंद्र बिष्ट, प्रदीप कृष्ण, डॉ. नारायणी गुप्ता, राम रहमान, प्रो ए.जी.के. मेनन, प्रो. पार्थ मित्तर, प्रो. नमन पी. आहूजा और डॉ. लीसी कोलिंघम।

President Pranab Mukherjee with Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan (third from right), Executive Director of Sahapedia, a non-profit encyclopaedic arts body with the core team that worked on the just concluded multivolume documentation project on Rashtrapati Bhavan at the official residence of the President of India, recently.

एक गैर-लाभकारी संस्था के रूप में, सहपीडिया ने भारत के सांस्कृतिक विरासत का काफी प्रलेखन किया है और इसका उद्देष्य देश की दृश्य और प्रदर्शन कला, साहित्य और भाषाओं के ज्ञान संसाधन आधार को बनाना है।

चालू कैलेंडर वर्ष में, विश्वकोश संस्था ने देश भर में फैले लगभग 20-25 परियोजनाओं पर काम करने की योजना बनाई है।

डॉ. गोपालकृष्णन ने कहा, ‘‘हम देश में भक्ति परंपराओं और अन्य संस्थानों का भी दस्तावेज़ीकरण करेंगे। ऐसा पहली बार हुआ है कि एक निजी संस्था ने भारत की सांस्कृतिक विरासत और कला के कई पहलुओं को प्रतिबिंबित करने का ऐसा बड़ा प्रयास किया है।’’

‘Confusing’ Road movie, a decade in the making, to be screened at Biennale

KBF to show artist-filmmaker Babu Eshwar Prasad’s Gaalibeeja as part of Artists’ Cinema package

Kochi, Feb 22: An extension of his canvas onto the cinema screen, Gaalibeeja (2014) – the debut feature by noted painter Babu Eshwar Prasad – is as known to film audiences for its arresting visuals and critique of modernity as for having baffled the Censor Board.

With its sparse dialogue, existential concerns and fragmented non-linear narratives, the Kannada film is intended as an homage to the ‘road movie’ genre with “the road itself the protagonist”. It was initially denied a screening certificate after being deemed ‘too confusing’.

Literally translating to ‘Wind seed’, Gaalibeeja will be shown in a special package, titled ‘Cinema from the Sub-continent’, today (Feb 22) at the Pavilion, Cabral Yard, at 6.30 pm. A Q&A session follows the screening. Films in the package, conceptualised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation, will be screened intermittently as part of the ‘Artists’ Cinema’ programme.

“Just as the seed travels in the wind, my movie is about a journey. I have always had this fascination with journeys. I have also been most attracted to road movies. The road movie is the ultimate ‘vehicle’ for a character on a journey of reflection and change,” Prasad said.

While it reflects the works of filmmakers Jim Jarmusch, and Abbas Kiarostami, the film is at its core a dialogue with the iconic film Alice in the Cities (1977) by German auteur Wim Wenders – one of the first road movies Prasad saw. “I can never forget the impression it made on me,” said Prasad, who was first exposed to world cinema as a printmaking student at MSU-Baroda.

“The desire to make a film has been a longstanding one. As an artist devouring good cinema, I wanted to pursue filmmaking as an art form. All those years of watching have helped crystallise my ideas on the stories I want to tell and the way I want to tell them,” said the Bengaluru-based artist, who had been shooting footage during car journeys along the featured road since 2006.

Seen through the eyes of a civil engineer, the 96-minute wholly self-financed movie is about his encounters during a road-widening project in an unnamed village and along the way. “Many characters in the movie are inspired by real life people whom I have met or have known. In that way, this is a very personal, even autobiographical, endeavour,” Prasad said.

It derives also from his artistic practice as a painter of landscapes. “Landscape has been my central preoccupation in my painting. It is a loaded genre which speaks of many things at the same time and I want to look at all its dimensions. Most of all I want to be able to witness the changes it has been undergoing – not as a direct statement, but as a more understated and complex process underway,” Prasad said.

“As an artist, one always works with the still frame. With cinema, one has the possibility of speaking to movement and sound. I wanted to capture the moving landscape,” he added.

Enchanting images of Paris by debut photographer Rupin Thomas

New Delhi, Feb 20: Various facets of the beautiful city of Paris captured though its breathtaking vistas, iconic architecture, sublime cemeteries, its sunsets and full-of-life graffiti, have been brought alive through a brand new debut exhibition by photographer Rupin Thomas.

 Comprising 50 images that take a look at life in and around the ‘City of Love', the week-long show, titled  'La vie à Paris: A Study in Volition,' was inaugurated last evening at the Lalit Kala Akademi here by Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant along with ace fashion designer Ritu Beri. They also launched a catalogue designed and conceptualised by Rupin at the opening of the show, which continues till February 25.

 "It is a pleasure to see Rupin's work; he has captured the feel of one of the most fascinating cities of the world. Paris is a favourite city for travellers; its history, its people and its culture are fascinating. He gives a beautiful visualisation to the multicultural ethos of the city inhabited by people from Africa, the Arab world and other countries. The artist has also captured both the quiet solitude and people chilling out in parks in the city,” he said after the inauguration.

An economist by training who has spent over 10 years in the US and around four years travelling across Europe, Rupin spent more than three summers documenting the evolving city of Paris, focusing especially on the brilliant juxtaposition of the old and the new.

Curated by Uma Nair, the photographs selected from a total of 6,000 images are mounted in four sections with a cross-section of the famed iconic Eiffel Tower and a picture of the 10th Arrondissement just below it greeting visitors. The four distinct segments are  Landscapes, Still Life Studies, Solitaire - - Quiet Corner and Street Art and Graffiti.

Congratulating the photographer designer Ritu Beri said, "It is a fantastic exhibition and the pictures do justice to the city. For me Paris is my second home and I have often felt that I was French in my last life because I seem to fit in there very easily despite not knowing the language when I first went there 20 years ago.”

 The celebrated fashion designer said Paris is beautiful, but so is India. “I think the next exhibition by Rupin should be set in India," she added.

 Mr. Kant also urged the photographer to show his next work based on India.

"Rupin has given a great insight into Paris. He has captured it so beautifully; I greatly enjoyed it. Hope he does his next exhibition about India," he said.

 Famed artist Arpana Caur, who is known for her own collection of images, was among the throng of early visitors to the show.

 “I am deeply moved by the idea of unveiling Paris though its cemeteries and gravestones. To represent the beauty of a city through the element of death and the idea of eternity through its architectural elements is indeed a discerning study," she said.

 The artist also became the first collector of Rupin's oeuvre as she booked the picture of a three- legged chair in a graveyard belonging to the theme ‘Quiet Corners’.

The 34-year-old photographer said the purpose of the exhibition is to showcase the diversity of Paris "where people from different walks of life and countries come to work.”

 The inauguration was attended, among others, by Hindi poet Surendra Sharma, National Gallery of the Modern Arts (NGMA) Director General Adwaita Gadanayak, Director General, AIR (News) Sitanshu Kar and a host of artists and photographers.