Wednesday 30 June 2010

Announcing names of the recipients of Studio Residences in 2011/2012

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council announces the names of artists who have been selected by the jury to avail of the Studio Residency it offers. [dated June 2010]

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council announces the names of artists who have been selected by the jury to avail of the Studio Residency it offers.
Indian artists:
Bharathesh G.D (Visual Arts) 
Srishti Rana (Applied Arts)
Sreejata Roy (Visual Arts)
Tarun Jang Rawat (Visual Arts)

Swiss artists:
Chieppo David ( Visual Arts)                
Nikitin Boris (Performing Arts)
Leon Beraud /Frida Viviana (Performing Arts)
ReichlinGuido /Karin Wälchli (Visual Arts)  
Studio residency 
The residency gives artists and cultural practitioners a chance to get a broad insight into a different cultural environment. During this time they can find inspiration, establish networks and make their work known in a new context, without being under the pressure of production. In addition to a place to work and accommodation, Pro Helvetia provides a specialist from their field to support them. The Swiss Arts Council also pays the costs of travel, board and insurance.
An invitation to Art Basel 2010

Six Indian curators have been invited to attend Art Basel 2010 to develop discussions while strengthening networks for future cultural exchanges and collaborative projects. [dated June 2010]

Six Indian curators have been invited to attend Art Basel 2010 and use it as a platform for interesting and engaging discussions while strengthening networks for future cultural exchanges and collaborative projects.
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council in collaboration with Art Basel has invited the following Indian curators for an organised curator's trip to Switzerland during the Art Basel week, 13 - 20 June 2010
Ranjit Hoskote 
Nancy Adajania  
Girish Shahane 
Vidya Shivadas 
Kavita Singh 
Sharmistha Ray  
Pro Helvetia New Delhi wishes them all a fruitful and memorable trip.
For more information on Art Basel 2010 click here.
Indian sound artist Ish S to perform in Zurich and Geneva

Ish S, a sound artist and composer from India is currently in Zurich. During his Research Residency Ish will weave together a sound sculpture of the city of Zurich. [dated June 2010]

Ish S, a sound artist and composer from India is currently in Zurich. During his Research Residency Ish will weave together a sound sculpture of the city of Zurich, using field recordings and musical composition along with synthesis, where one suggests and leads the other. He will present his work at F+F Schule für Kunst und Mediendesign' in Zurich  and 'Fête de la musique' at Geneva. 
-'F+F Schule für Kunst und Mediendesign' in Zurich on 10 June 2010 
-'Fête de la musique' at Geneva on 19 June 2010
Artist's note
A Sound art project to reflect upon the City, its streets and the people who constitute it. Recorded Sound and its manipulation using electronic synthesis mixed along with Music/compositions to weave together a sound sculpture of Zurich and it's spaces. I will use of Indian classical music intervals and scales to emote upon an artist context and the personal experience and these musical interventions will be represented using contemporary tools of electronic music ans Synthesis . The overall process will also juxtapose the cities of Delhi and Zurich together as Multi-media installations and I will try to produced an Audio CD as one of the final presentation of the works.
As a sound artist/ composer I engage with sound and music more as a philosophical and social reverberant and not just as an aesthetic Object. Sound is the main element in my works and I try to use it with an expressionist angle to reflect on the times we live in. I will weave together a sound sculpture of the city of Zurich, using field recordings and Musical Composition along with synthesis, where one suggests and leads the other.
As a process I will record sounds from the city and then try to abstract the personal experience of inhabiting these spaces like parks, Zurich Lake, trams, coffee shops etc. The second electronic-synthesis and compositional process will comprise of isolating sounds, manipulating them while focusing on the small details which can be kept afloat by using additional electronics (like delay, loops). The emotive content of these sounds along with music will then depend on the context they are placed in or ideas they are juxtaposed with. Ideas will be developed on these 'activities of sounds', that is, different sounds coming from different places, producing a sonic sculpture which is sonorous. This process can also be defined as sound art and I will produce them under my experimental sound art/installation project called diF.
I will try to collaborate with a number of Swiss artists/ technicians to present my works created during the residency and I will further the collaborative process by incorporating their expert knowledge and know-how in producing our future new media art works, for example, for my future project with Saranath Banerjee which is around interactive 'building installation' we can use some of their works to build a part of the Project/Installtion. These Swiss technicians are at the top of their game in Lights, Video, Synthesizer Design etc and will provide excellent help in producing hardware and Equipment(s) the future Pro-Helvetia 'New-Media' Works.

Biography: 
Ish S is a Composer, sound artist and Producer from Delhi. He studied Classical guitar at the Delhi school of Music and then later ventured into Jazz, Latin and electronic music. He has worked with Sound Art and Video installations and while at a Residency at Sarai-CSDS released an Audio compilation called [t0]. He also formed a music label called Sound reasons Records (http://soundreasons.in) to promote the new sounds of the Avant-garde and Electro-acoustic music from around the world. He has sound designed and composed for 2 short films and plays like for the director Zuleikha Allana chaudhari. He is currently working on a Sound art project on the City of Zurich commissioned by Pro Helvetia, New Delhi. His various Music, video and sound art projects are -edGeCut, diF, 4th world Orchestra, dbase and Khayali pulao His works have been showcased and performed live at the 1st habitat Summit at the ‘Indian Habitat Center’ // School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) // ‘World Information City conference’, Bangalore , India // at 1st international art | tech | media congress // ‘SoundLAB -Edition V’ // Osian‘s Cinefan Asian Film Festival , 2009 Delhi // He will be performing Live electronic music at 'F+F Schule für Kunst und Mediendesign' in Zurich on June 7 or 8, 2010 and 'Fête de la musique' at Geneva on June 19, 2010. 
http://soundreasons.in music label 
http://soundcloud.com/i98t diF-sound art /installation 
http://www.sarai.net

Indian artists and authors contribute to Beam me up

Beam me up is an internet publication with scientific and artistic essays. The online project invited artists and authors to concern themselves with space concepts. [dated June 2010]

Beam me up is an internet publication with scientific and artistic essays for our present-day idea of space. The online project invited Indian artists and authors to concern themselves with space concepts in the form of art contributions and essays. Interpretations of space concepts based on both pictures and texts, on artistic and philosophical models as well as on scientific experience emerge.  
The project develops its treatise on the space topic in the worldwide as well as space-negating medium Internet, the technology of which is based on flat, framed picture displays. Hence, the artists cannot draw up space-consuming installations, sculptures and architectures for their contribution to the project, but are medially tied back to texts, sounds and the central-perspective picture space as are the scientific authors. Which kind of expanded possibilities the artists will find in the net-medium we’ll see in the course of our project. Hence, the publication Beam me up offers a polyphonic reflection within the medium of a still young and global communication channel accessible to many people.  
Hauz-i-Shamsi by Vishal Rawlley 
Hauz-i-Shamsi, a reservoir, built by Iltumish – who ruled Delhi in the 13th century – still holds water. Legend has it that it was in a dream that Prophet Muhammad revealed where Iltumish should build the reservoir. On inspecting the site, Iltumish is said to have found a hoof print of Muhammad’s horse (Burak); around this he erected the reservoir. Hauz-i-Shamsi will now be presented online via webcam. A mobile sculpture of Burak will float on it waters and visitors, in the vicinity and online, will be able to interact with the Burak through phone or web. 
More: www.beam-me.net/beitragdetail.php  
Buraq and the Hauz-e Shamsi. Or, The Residue of Dreams by Anand Vivek Taneja  
A mobile sculpture of Buraq will float on the waters of the Hauz, the dream-horse returning to the reservoir it inspired... 
More: www.beam-me.net/beitragdetail.php  
#cloudrumble56 by Abhishek Hazra 
of twittering performing archives under the influence of thermal ionization 
More: www.beam-me.net/beitragdetail.php  
Twitterneurons by Nilanjana Roy 
Five Brief Meditations on Beam Me Up/ #cloudrumble56 Mor: www.beam-me.net/beitragdetail.php  
scotty's back by Gitanjali Dang 
scotty gets caught up with tim berners-lee 
More: www.beam-me.net/beitragdetail.php    
Where Three Dreams Cross at Fotomuseum Winterthur

'Where Three Dreams Cross – 150 Years of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh' opens at Fotomuseum Winterthur. [dated June 2010]

Where Three Dreams Cross – 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh  

Where Three Dreams Cross – 150 Jahre Fotografie aus Indien, Pakistan und Bangladesch is organised by Whitechapel Gallery in London in collaboration with Fotomuseum Winterthur. The curators are Sunil Gupta, Radhika Singh, Hammad Nasar, Shahidul Alam, Kirsty Ogg and Urs Stahel.  
Fotomuseum Winterthur (Main Gallery & Gallery & Gallery of Collections)   
Opening: Friday, 11 June 2010 On display from 12 June 2010 to 22 August 2010 

A comprehensive catalogue of the exhibition is published by Steidl ( 200 images and essays by Sabeena Gadihoke, Geeta Kapur and Christopher Pinney).   

On the weekend of the official opening a two-day international symposium on South-Asian photography will take place (in English).  
Programme of the presentations:   
Saturday June 12, 13.00 to 18.30   
13.00–13.15 Greeting delivered by Urs Stahel, Director of the Fotomuseum Winterthur 
13.15–14.00 Pramod Kumar KG: Grandees of the Realm; Photographic Portraits in Princely India 1840s - 1947 
14.00–14.45 Akshaya Tankha: Early Precedents: Ethnography through the Eye of Photography, Bombay 1855-70 
14.45–15.30 Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer – My Book Story 
16.00–16.45 Sabeena Gadihoke: Everyday Encounters: Press and Magazine Photography after Independence 
16.45–17.30 Shahidul Alam: Confessions of a Storyteller  
Sunday June 13, 13.00 to 18.00 
13.00–13.45 Suryanandini Narain: Photographing the Feminine: Women in Photographic Studios of India 13.45–14.30 Aveek Sen: Beyond Photography 
14.30–15.15 Sunil Gupta: Love and Light: My Journey with Photography 
15.45–16.30 Hammad Nasar: Contemporary Approaches to Photography in Pakistan 
16.30–17.15 Bani Abidi: Artist’s Talk 
17.15–18.30 Panel discussion  
  
Brief on the project 
Histories of photography, as presented through books or exhibitions in the twentieth century, have been dominated by Europe and the United States. The exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross – 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and the publication accompanying it articulate the untold story of an equally significant history, as rich and as formally innovative, yet embedded in the culture and politics of South Asia. It does not reiterate a western view of the east, but celebrates how successive generations of photographers from the subcontinent have portrayed themselves and their eras.  

Where Three Dreams Cross spans the transition of the South Asian peninsula – once defined as ‘the immense rhomboid’ bordered by the Himalayas in the north and the ocean to the south – from a heterogeneous yet single entity defined by the Indus river to its subdivision into three nations: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The fast time of political upheaval and technology and the slow time of family, culture and ritual are captured through the lens of some 80 artists. Their work also demonstrates formal experimentation and aesthetic lines of enquiry that are indigenous yet of universal interest.  
This project traces the characteristics of contemporary photography through its historical precedents, revealing the roots of the medium’s development over the past 150 years. Its starting point is the crucial moment when the power to hold a camera, frame and capture images was no longer exclusively the preserve of colonial or European photographers. This sense of self-determination and self-representation is evident in hundreds of remarkable photographs brought together here, for the first time. They have been made by a wide variety of practitioners from amateurs to photojournalists, documentary photographers and artists.  

This survey is structured thematically, taking an innovative approach to integrating historical material and contemporary works within five broad areas. The clustering of works and the essays analysing them trace the following thematics: The Portrait, The Performance, The Family, The Street and The Body Politic. 

Supported by: 
BTS Investment Advisors / Volkart Foundation, Pro Helvetia, Holcim Ltd. and Philippe Reich   
For more information:  http://www.fotomuseum.ch/PRESS.3.0.html?&L=1