Monday, February 17, 2014

Performance in Kolkata on Feb 22nd: This Side of the Truth - A Piece for a Flute and Hat

After an acclaimed premiere at the Pukaar festival in Pune, The Arshinagar Project presents 'This Side of the Truth - A Piece for a Flute and a Hat' in Kolkata on February 22nd.

This Side of the Truth - A Piece for a Flute and a Hat is a landscape of sounds and images, based on fragments of Dylan Thomas' poetry. It is a sort of poem of and in space, reaching simultaneously out to the shadows of our own past and future selves. Drawing upon a process of rigorous research on the organic connections between breath, musicality, body and text, the piece excavates the surface of Thomas' wordscapes, to create a montage of fragmentary, non-linear images, where the shadows of the man crash into the ghosts of the father and the son, skittering off each other across time and memory. 

The piece is devised and performed by Arka Mukhopadhyay and musician Pradip (Bula) Chaterji.

Date: 22/02/2014   Time: 7:30 PM
Contribution: 150/-  
Inline images 1

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Call for Applications: Museum Fellowship, Deadline March 10, 2014

Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:12 am (PST) . Posted by:

"India Foundation for the Arts"





India Foundation for the Arts in Collaboration with the
Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum of Central Asian and Kargil Trade Artefacts
&
Inlaks India Foundation
invites applications for its
Museum Fellowship
Application deadline: March 10,2014

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with the Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum of Central Asian and Kargil Trade Artefacts invites applications for its Museum Fellowship, an initiative to support curators to explore innovative ways of presenting museum collections, from a contemporary context. The Fellowship will give curators the opportunity to engage with the historical collection at the ethnographic museum in Kargil, re-present the collection and experiment with different forms of visualisation and design, related to the museum/exhibition space.  
Kargil used to be an important nodal centre for trade on the Silk Route in the 18th and 19th centuries and the museum has a varied collection of artifacts, mercantile items and Silk Route memorabilia. The intention of this Fellowship is to use this collection as a starting point to reflect on the complex history of the Silk Route, through constructing narratives around the objects, texts and legacies of the people who traversed these regions. The exhibition that will evolve from this Fellowship will be open to the public at the Kargil museum in August 2014.
The Museum Fellowship has been initiated with the two-fold objective of energising the museum and alternative audience spaces and providing curators with an opportunity to generate new critical and creative approaches to public engagement.
This Museum Fellowship is supported by the Inlaks India Foundation.
About the Museum
The Kargil Trade Artefacts museum located in Kargil (Ladakh), 204 kms from Srinagar, was established by the Munshi brothers, Gulzar and Ajaz, in 2004. The museum operates with the objective of preserving and promoting the rich heritage of Kargil in the context of the Silk Route. The museum’s collection includes textiles, manuscripts & books, utensils & crockery, pipes, jewellery, imported liquor price lists and horse accessories bought and sold along the Silk Route, from Turkey to China via Afghanistan in the 18th and 19th centuries.
This collection offers interesting and varied material for the curator to re-visit, re-examine, and re-present from a contemporary context. The museum also hosts a library and an archive.For more information about the background and history of the museum, please see their website, wiki page and video.
About the Fellowship
The Fellowship provides a monthly honorarium of Rs 30,000 for four months, and research and travel allowances up to Rs 60,000. Modest accommodation and a work space will also be provided by the museum for the duration of the Fellowship.
The Fellowship will be awarded for a duration of four months, commencing April 15, 2014. The exhibition will open in August, 2014.
Applicant Profile
We seek applications from curators, artists, art historians/researchers with previous curatorial experience, and with a strong interest in museums. We encourage applications from curators who can identify in the museum collection, a match between material history and storytelling.
Persons who are Indian nationals or have been a resident of India for five or more years are eligible to apply.
The deadline for receiving applications is March 10, 2014. Shortlisted candidates will be informed by March 17, 2014. Interviews are expected to take place at the end of March. The Fellowship start date is scheduled for April 15, 2014.  
Application Process
Your application must include:

A letter of interest explaining how you would benefit from this Museum Fellowship. Please ensure that you identify an aspect of your curatorial practice that you are interested in further developing during the course of the Fellowship;
A brief description of the curatorial approach of  a project you have been involved with in the past, either as curator or as researcher/assistant curator;
Your  curriculum vitae;
Documentation of your previous curatorial work, which could include photos/ jpegs (6-8 images) with titles and date, DVD (max 4 minutes), catalogues, or reviews.

Please address any queries to suman@indiaifa.org
T:(0)80 23414681/82
Please post the required documents to IFA in an envelope marked ‘Kargil Museum Fellowship’ by March 10, 2014.
Kargil Museum Fellowship
India Foundation for the Arts
'Apurva', Ground Floor, No 259
4th Cross, RMV 2nd Stage, 2nd Block
Bangalore - 560 094, India

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Art in Public Spaces/Asia Society Talk Rajeev Sethi, Chairman & Founder Trustee, The Asian Heritage Foundation Dr. Vishakha Desai, President Emerita, Asia Society

Asia Society
Art in Public Spaces

With the growing prominence of arts awareness in India and an increasing call for civic responsibility in metropolises around the world, the role and position of public art has been brought to the mainstream with renewed force. The attention received by the recent opening of the public art programme at Mumbai International Airport’s Terminal 2 exemplifies art that has been incorporated by design into a public space. Our speakers will consider the potential engagement between traditional art establishments, such as museums, galleries, and educational institutions, versus the public art medium, and how this changing dynamic offers a new way to think about India’s artistic culture and heritage.  
 

Rajeev Sethi is one of South Asia’s leading designers and is noted internationally for his innovative contribution to preserving and celebrating the subcontinent’s rich cultural heritage. For more than 35 years, through his work in architecture, performances, festivals, and publication, he has identified ways to bring contemporary relevance to traditional skills of artisan communities and creative professionals.  Sethi has designed and curated award-winning exhibitions and events in Asia, Europe, Canada and America, for the United Nations and various international institutions.  Among his on-going projects are directing the Art Programme for the new Terminal 2 at the Mumbai International Airport and the Hyatt Chennai Art Collection. Sethi was awarded theSanskriti Award for outstanding social and cultural achievement in 1980, the Padma Bhushan in 1985 and the first Indira Gandhi Life Time Achievement Award for conservation by INTACH in 2010.


Dr. Vishakha Desai is President Emerita of Asia Society and an Independent Director at Mahindra & Mahindra. She serves as Special Advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University and is a Professor at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She previously served as Asia Society's Senior Vice President of Museum and Cultural Programmes, President of the Association of Art Museum Directors, and Head of Public Programmes and Academic Affairs at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She is widely recognised as a leader in the museum field for developing dynamic presentations of contemporary works by Asian and Asian American artists and for conceiving innovative exhibitions of traditional Asian art within strong cultural contexts. Dr. Desai has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, Boston University and Williams College.

Image above: Rajeev Sethi & Vishakha Desai

Speakers
Rajeev Sethi, Chairman & Founder Trustee, The Asian Heritage Foundation
Dr. Vishakha Desai, President Emerita, Asia Society
 

Date: Thursday, 13th February, 2014

Time: 6:30pm, registration begins at 6:00pm

Venue: National Gallery of Modern Art Auditorium, Mumbai

RSVP required: 
asiasociety@asiasociety.org.in
Priority for Asia Society Members

In Partnership with


This programme is in partnership with the NGMA Mumbai, and a concluding celebration of the “Across Oceans and Flowing Silks from Canton to Bombay 18th-20thCenturies” and “No Parsi is an Island” exhibitions.

Outreach partners:

This programme is part of ourAsiaLens series, which presents an array of perspectives on the visual and performing arts of modern Asia, offering a vibrant and nuanced view across the continent. Previous events under this series include a Behind-the-Scenes Tour of the CSMVS Conservation Centre with Anupam Saha lecture with Dr. Sugata Bose on the paintings of Rabindranath Tagore andCommerce and Culture from Canton to Bombay.

Loving Vincent - Bringing the paintings of Van Gogh to life by Hugh Welchman

A Project you can support-One that will give you immense satisfaction if you are in the creative field!


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/438026311/loving-vincent-bringing-van-goghs-paintings-to-lif


https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/748781/video-327004-h264_high.mp4





3:38
4:26
This will be the world's first feature-length painted animation, brought to you by the Oscar winning studio - BreakThru Films.

What is truly groundbreaking about "Loving Vincent" is that every frame of the film is an oil painting on canvas, using the very same technique in which Vincent himself painted. And what makes it a great story to experience is the intriguing, tragic, and inspiring story of Vincent Van Gogh himself.

[NEW REWARDS!!!! - SCROLL DOWN]

Imagine yourself in a journey that you could never experience before...
Loving Vincent is an investigation delving into the life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world's most beloved painters, as told through his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through interviews with the characters closest to Vincent and through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.
Here are some stills from our concept trailer:
Loving Vincent features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh's greatest paintings. The plot, drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself, leads us to the significant people and events in the time leading up to his unexpected death. Vincent wrote in his last letter: “Well, the truth is, we cannot speak other than by our paintings”, and that is what we are doing- letting his paintings tell the story of what the painter had inside his heart, and ultimately, what happened to him.
ALL OF THAT HAPPENS INSIDE OF YOUR FAVOURITE PAINTINGS!!
Was it suicide, or was he shot? And if it was suicide, what would have led him to such a dramatic act, when he at last was gaining recognition for his work?
Every film you see is actually a collection of still images, played back at a speed that makes it appear to be moving. In our film about Vincent Van Gogh, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE individual images will be a painting in the style of Van Gogh. That means our 40 painters (which we will be able to train thanks to YOUR support) will create 56,800 PAINTINGS to make this film!! To make this possible OUR WONDERFUL TEAM created PAWS (Painted Animation Work Stations) that allows us to make the demanding process of stop-motion painting as efficient as possible, by allowing our artists to focus on the painting as opposed to the animation. In fact, over the past 18 months of R&D we've managed to halve the painting time of each frame, while maintaining the individuality of the painters.
THIS IS WHAT "PAWS" LOOKS LIKE:
Vincent Van Gogh is often cited as the father of modern art, and his painting Starry Night is regarded as the most famous painting of all time, after the Mona Lisa. He is known for struggling with mental illness and cutting off his left ear, and also for only ever selling one painting in his lifetime and for shooting himself at the age of 37. What isn't widely known is that Vincent only picked up a paintbrush a mere 8 years before his untimely death, after failed careers as first an art dealer, a book sales clerk and then a preacher.
In his short career as a painter HE MANAGED TO PRODUCE AS MANY OR MOREpaintings than great masters managed over careers spanning many decades. He went from being a jobless 29-year-old living in a barn in a poor mining area, having never picked up a paintbrush, to, at 37 years old, being proclaimed by one of Paris's (and therefore at the time the world's) most influential art critics as:
"a messiah, a sower of truth, who would regenerate the decrepitude of our art and perhaps our imbecile and industrialist society"
IMPRESSED? WE WERE!
The most important thing for us is to bring this really amazing story to life. We would like to SHARE with you our feelings on the work and life of this extraordinary and inspiring individual.
We are an Oscar-winning animation studio (Founder Hugh Welchman won the Oscar for Best Short Animation for Peter and the Wolf). From the very beginning, our recipe for success has consisted of finding stories and ideas that passionately move us and then going further than anyone else would reasonably expect us to go to make them a unique and brilliant experience for the people watching them. (Here are some links to our work so you can judge for yourself).

BreakThru has collected over twenty international awards & nominations, including two BAFTA nominations, an official selection at Cannes, the Annecy Cristal and Annecy Audience awards, Canal+ Prize, TCM prize, the Rose D’ Or as well as an Oscar for Best Short Animation Film for Peter & The Wolf.

NEW UPDATE!! [13.01.2014]

In the video below, Hugh Welchman will take you for a tour inside of our studio, where all the magic happens and present the rewards:
 PLAY
We're at in the final stages of pre-production. And we need your help! Your contribution will not only help us train painters in animation, but will show others that this is a film people want to see happen!
If we achieve our Kickstarter goal, we'd have the opportunity to TEST OVER 200 PAINTERS AND TRAIN 60, preparing them to work on the project. Your contribution will also help us FINALIZE PRE PRODUCTION AND START PAINTING THE FINAL FILM.
The painters we are auditioning - each audition takes 3 days - are all highly qualified painters, many of whom are working in temporary jobs or jobs that in no way use their specialist skills. Your support will not only be helping create the world’s first painting animation feature film, not only be bringing great paintings of Vincent Van Gogh to life, you will be helping talented painters, young and old, find a suitable outlet for their artistic flair.
You are the person that can help make this happen! if you like the project, it's just a choice of pledge. And remember – a pledge of even one pound is not just about the money: It’s about showing support to get this film made!
TAKING PART is EASY. It's just a few simple steps:
1. Click the "BACK THIS PROJECT" green button to the right of our appeal video.
2. SIGN UP (if you are not signed up already)
3. CHOOSE THE REWARD and PLEDGE!
If you like "Loving Vincent" PLEASE SHARE this page with your friends!

[NEW REWARDS UPDATE - 20.01.2014]

Today we have a great treat! New REWARDS are ready to be announced! ;)
To make a long story short, here they are:
1. A marvelous collection of THREE FRIDGE MAGNETS with scenes from our trailer on them! All of it produced from bio-degardable materials. Don't you want one for your place?
  • Price: 7 GBP
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2. A Loving Vincent's original MUG... for the pleasure of your morning coffee!
  • Price: 20 pounds
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3. A set of 6 beautifully desiged COASTERS
  • Price: 10 pounds
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4. A PAINTER SPONSORSHIP PACK
This is ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY to sponsor a Painter in our project! By buying this REWARD, you can support learning efforts of one our our Painters.
As a SPONSOR you will get:
** one of the paintings created by YOUR PAINTER during their training (you will be able to chose which painting and painter),
** A DVD with the all the animation painted during the training by YOUR PAINTER,
** the set of paintbrushes, used by YOUR PAINTER in the training process.
Price: 600 pounds
DON'T MISS THEM!
P.S. JUST A REMINDER: If you'd like to get a few rewards, just sum up their prices, PLEDGE and message us with the list of your choice... (example: If I'd like to get a DVD for 40 pounds and the VLogs access for 5 pounds; I just pledge 45 pounds)!

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[NEW REWARDS UPDATE - 17.01.2014]

LOVING VINCENT - SPECIAL KICKSTARTER LIMITED EDITION DVD!

Responding to many of your requests, we had decided to ADD a new reward to our campaign: A "LOVING VINCENT" - SPECIAL KICKSTARTER LIMITED EDITION DVD! It will include the movie itself, both with full of special bonus videos, produced during the production process and A SPECIAL THANKS VIDEO from the Producer and the Director of the movie!!
The video is available as a separate reward and it's also included AS A BONUS in all the rewards "+150 GBP". If you want the DVD, but you had already pledged less; you can always add to your pledge the amount of "+40 GBP" to get your chosen award AND DVD...
 ATTENTION! We had previously only included rewards that we knew we could deliver, if the Kickstarter campaign is a success, and completion of the film is definitely down the road once financing is raised. However, due to your requests, we have chosen to include THE LIMITED EDITION KICKSTARTER DVD as a reward, as so many of you had requested it... but YOU SHOULD BE AWARE that this reward is a bit risky, as it is going to be delivered after the production of the movie is over, so in case the film doesn't get made, we unfortunately won't be able to deliver it. To cut a long story short - if you pledge for this reward, you do it at your own risk. We do believe we are close to gathering the production financing, but until everything is signed, on the dotted line can't guarantee that it will.
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You can find out more about the project here:
Over the year since we’ve announced the project, the press and bloggers all over the world have been writing about "Loving Vincent"! You can see how POPULAR the trailer is, just by the "views" statistics on YouTube. That means a lot to us...
Campaign coordination: Marcin J. Sobczak (this way publicity)

Risks and challengesLearn about accountability on Kickstarter

We have specifically chosen a goal that we know we can achieve if we meet our fundraising goal – testing and training painters in animation, and completion of pre-production. But obviously our ultimate goal is to MAKE THIS FILM. We are at an advanced stage in raising the production funding for Loving Vincent, and have recently been awarded a production grant from the Polish Film Institute. But there’s no guarantee that we can raise the rest of the money to begin production.
And that’s where YOUR support comes in! By achieving this goal, we will not only be able to train painters for work on the film, but will be able to show finance partners who are close to committing that there is indeed an eager audience for the film.
So in short – we can deliver all the rewards to you right away for your support, and also achieve our goal of testing and training painters - often people with a passion and talent for painting, but who have had to, after university, confine that talent to a weekend hobby room.