गुरू की वापसी (रिटर्न ऑफ द गुरू) रजा फाउंडेशन द्वारा शास्‍त्रीय संगीत और नृत्‍य में गुरू उत्‍सव का आयोजन

शिक्षक की भूमिका को उजागर करने के लिए 2 दिन का समारोह 17 जनवरी से दिल्‍ली में

नयी दिल्‍ली, 13 जनवरी : देश के चार जाने.माने कलाकार दिल्‍ली में आयोजित नृत्‍य और संगीत के दो दिवसीय समारोह में अपनी कला का रंग बिखेरेंगे। 17 जनवरी से शुरू हो रहे इस समारोह का आयोजन रजा फाउंडेशन ने किया है।

 ' महिमा ' नाम से आयोजित होने वाला यह समारोह आधुनिक भारतीय चित्रकार सैयद हैदर रजा की स्‍मृति में आयोजित किया जा रहा है जिसमें भारत के मनमोहक अदाकारों की परम्‍पराओं में गुरू की मौजूदगी, उसका अर्थ और उसकी प्रासंगिकता को उजागर करने का प्रयास किया गया है।

रजा फाउंडेशन के प्रमुख अशोक वाजपेयी ने बताया, "चारों कलाकार शिक्षक की भूमिका में, वैयक्तिक परिकल्‍पना के संस्‍थापक और शास्‍त्रीय संगीत और शास्‍त्रीय नृत्‍य में प्रवर्तक  के रूप में गुरू की उपस्थिति खोजेंगे"।

'महिमा.गुरू की वापसीष' (रिटर्न ऑफ द गुरू) समारोह की शुरूआत ग्रैमी पुरस्‍कार के लिए नामजद इमदाद खान घराना के सितार वादक उस्‍ताद शुजात खान त्रिवेणी कला संगम में करेंगे। उस्‍ताद शुजात खान सितार के तार कुछ इस तरह छेड़ेंगे जिससे उनके पिता और गुरू मशहूर सितार वादक उस्‍ताद विलायत खान की स्‍मृतियां उभर जाएंगी।

प्रसिद्ध सितारवादक ने कहा, "उन्‍हें इस समारोह में सितार बजाने का इंतजार है जिसमें हमारे जीवन में हमारे गुरू की भूमिका को उजागर करने और उसे गौरवान्वित करने का अवसर मिलेगा। हम जो कुछ भी अपने गुरूओं से सीखते हैं जितनी बार हम अपने वाद्य यंत्र उठाते हैं वह हमारी कला में शामिल होता जाता है।"

उसी दिन कपिला वेणू कूडीयट्टम नृत्‍य प्रस्‍तुत करेंगी। कपिला ने केरल का यह परम्‍परागत नृत्‍य अपने पिता के गुरू मशहूर नर्तक अमानुर्र माधव चकयार से युवावस्‍था में सीखा। सा‍थ ही उन्‍होंने अपने शुरूआती वर्ष उषा नांगियार के साथ बिताए जो चकयार की शागिर्द थीं। उनके पिता कूडीयट्टम नर्तक जी वेणू ने बाद में उन्‍हें अमानुर्र माधव चकयार ने अपने संरक्षण में ले लिया।

कपिला ने कहा, "मैं इसे ईश्‍वर का वरदान मानती हूं कि शुरूआती वर्षों में मुझे अपने गुरूजी से सीखने को मिला और बाद में मेरे पिता मेरे उस्‍ताद बने। मुझे इस समारोह का बेसब्री से इंतजार है, जिसमें गुरू की भूमिका को उजागर किया जाएगा।" 

समारोह का दूसरा दिन जयपुर.अतरौली घराना की अश्विनी भीड़े के खयाल वादन से होगा। संगीत के क्षेत्र में कबीर के भजनों की गायकी के लिए मशहूर मुम्‍बई की इस गायिका ने नारायणराव दातार और अपनी मां माणिक भीड़े से प्रशिक्षण लिया। पंडित रत्‍नाकर पाई 2009 में अपनी मृत्‍यु तक उनके गुरू रहे। 

समारोह का समापन मशहूर ओडिसी नृत्‍यांगना माधवी मुदगल के नृत्‍य से होगा जो अपने गुरू केलूचरण महापात्र को केन्‍द्र में रखकर नृत्‍य प्रस्‍तुत करेंगी।

माधवी ने कहा, " मैं उनकी नृत्‍यकला को प्रस्‍तुत करूंगी जो मैंने कई वर्ष पूर्व उनसे सीखी थी। यह विशेष कार्य है और विभिन्‍न टुकड़ों का समावेश है। हम केवल उस घेरे का विस्‍तार कर रहे हैं जो कुछ भी हमने उनसे सीखा है।"

रजा फाउंडेशन के कार्यकारी ट्रस्‍टी अशोक वाजपेयी ने बताया कि यह कार्यक्रम पिछले वर्ष मित्रों की निजी पहल पर पहली बार आयोजित किया गया था। इसके बाद यह दिल्‍ली में इसने इस तरह के वार्षिक मंच का रूप लिया है। 

 वाजपेयी ने कहा "इस  कार्यक्रम के केन्‍द्र में गुरू रहेंगे जिनकी भूमिका आज कमजोर हो गई है हांलाकि गुरू के सम्‍मान का ढोंग बहुत हो रहा है। रजा फाउंडेशन ने इस प्रयास को वार्षिक कार्यक्रम बनाने का फैसला किया है। हमने युवा शागिर्दों को केन्‍द्र में रखकर  'उत्‍तराधिकार ' कार्यक्रम आयोजित किया जिसकी पिछले वर्ष जाने.माने गुरूओं ने सिफारिश की थी। दोनों ही कार्यक्रम अब हर वर्ष आयोजित होंगे।

‘KMB cannot be duplicated in any other part of the country’: Madhya Pradesh Tourism Secretary

Kochi, Jan 11: For Mr. Hari Ranjan Rao, Tourism Secretary, Madhya Pradesh, the strength and popularity of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) owes much to its setting in the unique cultural environment and geographical contours of the host city.

Mr. Rao led a team of high-profile officials from MP Tourism that visited Aspinwall House, the main venue of the Biennale, Tuesday evening. He said the 108-day event had emerged as a major attraction for both art aficionados and laypersons alike.

“Kochi has its own charm and unique cultural ethos. We cannot duplicate the Biennale in any other part of India. Moreover, getting artists from across the globe to contribute and showcasing their works in one place is a great achievement,” said Mr. Rao, who said the Biennale is today one of the state’s major tourist and cultural attractions.

Describing KMB as a magical space that freed visitors from their worries and gave them the freedom to think creatively, he said, “Art appreciation is only possible if you are away from all routine stuffs. This space has the power to free visitors from all other thoughts.”

Ms. Tanvi Sundriyal, Additional Managing Director, MP Tourism, said she was especially impressed by the lively atmosphere and opportunity to indulge in debate.

“This place reminds me of my college where we used to discuss poems and arts and debate over and over. The Biennale is a space which energises anybody and everybody,” she said.

Mr V.T. Balram, MLA, also visited the KMB main venue on Tuesday.  “India’s only Biennale is a cultural pathway to popularise Kochi to the foreign countries,” he said.

“Art appreciation is a unique quality and the Biennale attracts visitors because it offers them an opportunity to indulge their interest in art. The Biennale is a big boost to the cultural sector of India in general and Kerala, specifically,” Mr. Balram noted.

सामूहिक कला का प्रदर्शनी का उद्घाटन

पटना, १० जनवरी ; आज कला संस्कृति एवं युवा विभाग, बिहार एवं बिहार ललित कला अकादमी, पटना के संयुक्त सौजन्य से कला मंगल के अंतर्गत छपाकला एवं छायाकला  की सामूहिक कला प्रदर्शनी का उद्घाटन बहुद्देशीय सांस्कृतिक परिसर , पटना में हुआ। 15 जनवरी तक चलने वाली इस प्रदर्शनी का उद्घाटन अकादमी के अध्यक्ष आनंदी प्रसाद बादल ने किया। प्रदर्शनी में सुनील कुमार, रवि राज, गोविन्द जी, विक्की कुमार वर्मा, छाया, रंजीत कुमार, शम्भू प्रकाश, आदित्य सुमन, कौटिल्य निशान्त, शैली कुमारी एवम किरण कुमारी की कृतियाँ प्रदर्शित की गई है।

प्रदर्शनी के उद्घाटन अवसर पर कैटलॉग का विमोचन भी किया गया 

 

Padmini Chettur composes new language of the body in ‘Varnam’

Three-hour dance composition resists rigidity to tradition, form and intent in classical dance

Kochi, Jan 10: The title of Padmini Chettur’s choreographic performance ‘Varnam’ references the taxing central piece in the Bharatnatyam repertoire. The varnam, considered a measure of the dancer’s ability in – and fidelity to – the form, literally means ‘letter’. Chettur reinterprets this to compose a language of the body.

Padmini Chettur's performance 'Varnam' at KMB2016 in 

 David Hall,Fort Kochi

“I have tried to transpose a physical vocabulary into the traditional Bharatanatyam lexicon. The body is an anatomical instrument in Varnam with the individual jathis (voice-movements), reconstructed. While there are many elements to the performance, it is really a work of bodies in spaces and of things that happen to bodies, between bodies and the space,” Chettur said.

If the conventional intent of the varnam is to convey the beauty, grandeur and soulfulness of worship in love, Chettur’s composition – which premiered during the ‘Opening Week’ of the ongoing third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) – loses none of the profundity in its explorations of eroticism, longing, loss and romantic love.

In a critique of the rigidity of classical Indian dance conventions, the new iteration explores the suffering and strength of the heroine who is abandoned by her lover. Using slow, deliberate movements, the performers mimic the sense of distance and longing while departing from the narrative of chaste victimhood.

Padmini Chettur's performance 'Varnam' at KMB2016 in  David Hall,Fort Kochi

The three-hour performance installation saw the Chennai-based Malayalee artist and her group of five dancers seated on chairs in David Hall with no restriction on audience movement. The week-long series followed a unique style, using specially created gestures and steps, popular songs as well as narration from texts by a number of contemporary writers that were in sync with the performance’s theme and tone.

Varnam has since been reconfigured into several 22-minute performances and displayed as a three-channel (16:9) video projection at David Hall for the duration of the Biennale. Despite the limits imposed by the format, Chettur said the video was sensitive to the multi-dimensional nature of the performance – a mixture of sound, energy and image.

“I present a radically altered take on the Mohamana Varnam, one of the form’s most iconic pieces, and added text. There are also sounds, visuals and the movement of the dancers in their own spaces,” said Chettur, who pointed out that the invocation of the dance form’s pièce-de-résistance and the upturning of its meaning is intended as an act of resistance.

No less structured or rigorous than the classical form, Chettur’s interpretation rejects the mythos and seductive aspects of Indian classical dance traditions in favour of a taut radical vision for what contemporary dance of India should be and look like.

“I don't work with narratives anymore. In the last few years, I have been specifically interested in working in spaces such the Biennale: really taking the practice outside tradition and form to work with the walls and emptiness and deal with the idea of projecting energies,” said Chettur whose previous piece ‘Wall Dancing’ was created to be viewed in museums and galleries.

“It was a real challenge for me to bring the piece to the Biennale, to remove the formality from a very formal work, but it was eventually my choice and strategy to do it. In a way, this is exactly the platform to challenge the notions of putting live bodies into a space that is traditionally reserved for objects and images,” she said.

Jonathan Owen presents acts of ‘elegant vandalism’ at KMB 2016

Artist practices production by removal through carved-into marble sculptures, erasures in photos

Kochi, Jan 09: A woman with no name sits perched on a pedestal in Pepper House to be gawked at. In another time, she was a marble beauty. Where once there was a face, she now wears a ball and chain. She remains, however, a work of art.

For Jonathan Owen, his sculpture – part of an ongoing series of works called ‘Untitled’ – is a look at how women are made prisoners of the beauty myth. But beyond this allusion, his removal of the facial features is intended to be a “rejuvenation” and “reactivation” of the work.

Jonathan Owen's with his installation 'Untitled' at KMB 2016
 in Pepper House,Fort Kochi.

The Scottish artist is showcasing his brand of “elegant vandalism” at Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016. Vandalism since his artistic interventions involve carving into existing artworks – the marble bust above was bid for at an auction – and takes away their names and histories.

In so doing, he inserts himself into their stories. This act of production by removal and reshaping is a “nerve-wracking” process, Owen said.

““I do think about the work and time put into the sculptures by their creators. Some of the works are centuries old and I reflect on this before working to recreate them. Though the figures are disjointed, I like to think I have transformed them into intriguing puzzles from the biographical objects they were meant to be,” Owen said.

The transformation of existing objects and images through his “two-dimensional carving” method allows Owen to showcase both the systematic nature of his artistic process as well as his take on the intent of the sculpture’s original artist. The dimension of time is thus built-in to the artwork – hence his referring to them as “three-dimensional”.

 “I leave behind traces of what had been. While the details of the torso such as the cross were kept intact, the head was made barely distinguishable. The figure was thus de-humanised and transformed into an unsolvable puzzle,” Owen said.

Similarly, Owen builds an alternate history with his ‘Eraser Drawing’ series – a collection of which line the walls of the enclosure that houses the marble bust described above. Taking an eraser and rubbing out figures and layers from original photographs and film stills, he leaves ghostly reminders of what was once there while presenting additional possibilities.

“Unlike the sculptures, I don’t add anything to the surface of the image. Making the decision on which feature or figure to remove or retain is mostly intuitive. It would be a breeze to do this with photo-editing software, but leaving some residue of this imperfect intervention is important too,” Owen said.