Thursday 31 January 2013

Swiss writer, Dorothee Elmiger ’s India visit
Swiss author, Dorothee Elmiger to participate in the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Hyderabad; Long Night of Literature, New Delhi; Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2013 and for a reading at the Pune University, Pune.

Pro Helvetia New Delhi has invited Swiss author, Dorothee Elmiger to participate in the Hyderabad Literary Festival, Hyderabad; Long Night of Literature, New Delhi; Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2013 and for a reading at the Pune University, Pune.

Accompanying Dorothee Elmiger are German writers Inka Parei, Katy Derbyshire and Theresa Hahl

Programme: Hyderabad Literary Festival, Hyderabad Date: Sunday 20 January 2013 Venue: Taramati Baradari, Hyderabad Event Details: Panel discussion and reading

Swiss writer Dorothee Elmiger has been invited by the Hyderabad Literary Festival to participate in a panel discussion and read from her works. Hyderabad plays host for the third time to writers from across the world, and the festival offers a unique opportunity for lovers of literature to listen to and interact with some of the best writers, established and upcoming. During the festival talks and discussion readings with Indian and German speaking authors will take place. Entry: Festival rules apply

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Dorothee Elmiger Dorothee Elmiger, born 1985 in Switzerland, studied at the Swiss Institute of Literature in Biel (Switzerland) as well as in Leipzig and Berlin. Her debut novel "Einladung an die Waghalsigen" (Invitation to the Bold of Heart) won several prizes, including the Aspekte Literature Prize 2010 for the best German debut prose. Dorothee Elmiger has published in several literary magazines and newspapers and was a resident fellow at the Villa Aurora, Los Angeles in 2012. Dorothee Elmiger lives and works in Switzerland.
PARALLEL FOCUS – the Shopping Mall
PARALLEL CITIES DELHI 2013 and TIME OUT DELHI present PARALLEL FOCUS – the Shopping Mall, a Parallel Cities - Time Out Delhi Photo Exhibition.

PARALLEL CITIES DELHI 2013 and TIME OUT DELHI
in collaboration with Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council present PARALLEL FOCUS
– the Shopping Mall a Parallel Cities - Time Out Delhi Photo Exhibition
11 January 2013 - 15 January 2013 10 am to 7 pm daily at Siddhartha Hall, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, 3, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi

An extension of PARALLEL CITIES DELHI 2013, the exhibition showcases photographs of a mall submitted by professional and amateur photographers & selected by Devika Daulet-Singh, Director PHOTOINK.

Featured photographers: Alexander Hahn, Amit Bhatia, Anil Cherukupalli, Anurag Sharma & Anush Singh, Imran Ahmed, Javier Marquerie Thomas, Julia Gutge, Kameshwar Tangirala, Karolina Gembara, Kishore Sali, Mahfuzul Hasan, Riddhi Narayan Nandy, Rohan Shah, Sachin Bharti, Sandeep Biswas, Shaheen Ahmed, Shamsher Ali, Soumita Bhattacharya, Sunanda Khajuria, Tania Sen, Tania Talwar and Udit Kulshrestha.

PARALLEL FOCUS INFORMATION FLYER
Gilles Aubry at Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2013)

Swiss artist-in-residence Gilles Aubry will particpate at the 8th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2013).

Swiss artist-in-residence Gilles Aubry will particpate at the 8th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2013) scheduled to take place in Bhimtal in the Himalayan Indian state of Uttarakhand.

Gilles Aubry, a Berlin based sound artist is currently on a studio residency in Mumbai, India. 
Dates: 7 January- 27 March 2013 
Studios: 
Cona Studio, Mumbai: 7 January- 16 February 
New Delhi residency: 16 February- 27 March

Gilles will work and research related to movie soundtracks (Bollywood and independent), do field recordings to get familiar with the (mostly urban) Indian context and in particular its musical and auditory culture, listening and recording in the city's public space, as well as networking with local artists.

Gilles will be making a presentation at the 8th annual Carnival of e-Creativity (CeC 2013).
Long Night of Literature 2013
A literary evening of contemporary writing in German, Long Night of Literature is jointly hosted by the German Book Office, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council.

A literary evening of contemporary writing in German, Long Night of Literature is jointly hosted by the German Book Office, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council. Moderated by the author Veena Venugopal, this event of prose and poetry includes conversations and readings from books by German and Swiss authors.

Friday 18 January 2013, 6 pm Siddhartha Hall, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, 3, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001

SCHEDULE
6:30 pm Welcome by Veena Venugopal
6:45 pm Live performance - Theresa Hahl
7:00 pm Dorothee Elmiger with Dr Rekha Kamath
7:45 pm Inka Parei with Dr Jyoti Sabharwal
8:30 pm Break
9:00 pm Katy Derbyshire with Akshay Pathak
9:30 pm Live performance - Theresa Hahl

The programme will be in German and English and is open to all.

THE AUTHORS

Dorothee Elmiger 
Dorothee Elmiger, born 1985 in Switzerland, studied at the Swiss Institute of Literature in Biel (Switzerland) as well as in Leipzig and Berlin. Her debut novel "Einladung an die Waghalsigen" (Invitation to the Bold of Heart) won several prizes, including the Aspekte Literature Prize 2010 for the best German debut prose. Dorothee Elmiger has published in several literary magazines and newspapers and was a resident fellow at the Villa Aurora, Los Angeles in 2012. Dorothee Elmiger lives and works in Switzerland. Moderated by Dr Rekha Kamath,Professor, Centre for German Studies, School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
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Katy Derbyshire
Katy Derbyshire is a London-born literary translator who has been in Berlin since 1996. She translates various contemporary German and Swiss writers, including Inka Parei and Dorothee Elmiger, Clemens Meyer, Simon Urban, Helene Hegemann, Sibylle Lewitscharoff and Tilman Rammstedt. Katy writes a blog about German- language literature by the name of love german books. Moderated by Akshay Pathak, reader, writer, translator and theatre enthusiast
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MODERATOR FOR THE EVENING Veena Venugopal is an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, who gave up a promising career in mergers and acquisitions to be a poorly paid journalist. She is the author of Would You Like Some Bread With that Book? a collection of 14 essays on books and reading published by Yoda Press in May 2012. Her next book will be published by Penguin in 2014. She lives in Delhi.
Cindy Van Acker presents LANX AND OBTUS
Pro Helvetia New Delhi presents LANX and OBTUS by Swiss dancer and choreographer, Cindy Van Acker in Mumbai in partnership with Indian Council for Cultural Relations and in Bangalore as part of the Attakkalari Biennial.

Cindy Van Acker presents LANX AND OBTUS Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council in partnership with Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Mumbai & Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore presents LANX AND OBTUS by Cindy Van Acker

Schedule:
Mumbai: Tuesday 29 & Wednesday 30 January 2013 at 7 pm
Venue: St Andrews Auditoruim, Bandra

Bangalore: Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 February 2013 at 7 pm Venue: ADA Ranga Mandira Auditorium as part of the Attakkalari Biennial

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LANX
In Lanx, a continuous current circulates between the body and the geometrical motifs that encircle it. Balancing on the lines, unfolding its sides, its ridges, its angles, playing with perspectives that continually renew themselves, the body sounds out its capacity to inscribe forms in a predetermined space. Transforming itself as if it were under the effect of an optical illusion, the décor starts to vibrate, to transform itself.
Creation 2008 /
Length : 26 minutes
Choreography and dance : Cindy Van Acker
Sound composition: Mika Vainio and Denis Rollet
Scenography : Line Fontana, Cindy Van Acker Light : Luc Gendroz Realisation scenography and technical direction : Victor Roy Costume : Aline Courvoisier Administration and promotion : Tutu Production Production : Cie Greffe

Intermission for stage change : 20 minutes
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OBTUS
It all begins with a hand. Two arms follow that speak of flying, head down. Tamara Bacci has taken off into Obtus, a solo that carries its name well as the dancer begins a persistent exploration of a ray of light. Meditative gestures, slow, continuous movements, a body in peril which finds its most beautiful expressions when equilibrium is pushed to its limits. The dancer moves with exquisite precision and sensitivity, playing with a ramp of neon lights making parts or all of her body disappear. The lighting designer Luc Gendroz has created a work of volume and substance, which unsettles our perception of depth producing floating effects and playing with disappearance into the dark. Transported by light and sound, the choreographic material refuses to be pinned down in order to float, thereby toppling the perceptions of the spectator who, as if under a spell, links the consciousness of his own body to the body of the dancer.
Creation 2009
Length : 35 minutes
Choreography : Cindy Van Acker Interpretation : Tamara Bacci Sound composition: Mika Vainio and Denis Rollet Light and scenography : Luc Gendroz, Victor Roy, Cindy Van Acker Costume : Aline Courvoisier Technical direction: Victor Roy Administration and promotion : Tutu Production Production : Cie Greffe Coproduction: La Bâtie – Festival de Genève ------------

Compagnie Greffe benefits from a joint funding agreement from the Ville de Genève, Canton de Genève and Pro Helvetia. Supported by Loterie Romande.

For information on Compagnie Greffe: www.ciegreffe.org

Cindy Van Acker, choreographer and dancer Trained in classical ballet, Cindy Van Acker first worked in the Flanders Royal Ballet, Belgium. After joining Geneva’s Grand Theatre, she decided to settle in the city. Interested in the opportunity that modern dance offers for experimentation, she began creating her own pieces in 1994, and launched an international career with Corps 00:00 at the Geneva ADC in 2002. In 2003, Cindy Van Acker created two other solos, Fractie and Balk 00:49. In 2005, Italian director Romeo Castellucci chose Van Acker to represent Switzerland at the Venice Biennial. This first meeting then developed into an artistic collaboration with Castellucci, who suggested that she create the choreographic part of his production of Dante’s Inferno for the 2008 edition of the Avignon Festival, and for Parsifal, which he presented at La Monnaie in January 2011. In 2007, Kernel provided an opportunity for an unusual and stimulating collaboration with Finnish composer Mika Vainio of the Pan Sonic group which created and played the performance’s musical score. This experience continued with the creation of the sound effects for three solos produced between 2008 and 2009, Lanx, Nixe and Obtus. Obvie, Antre and Nodal completed this series of six solos and the same number of films directed by Orsola Valenti. Cindy Van Acker also ran courses in movement for student actors at Manufacture, Lausanne’s Theatre School, from 2006 to 2009. After the six solos, she created a group piece for 6 dancers called Diffraction in 2011. Her choreographic scripting, which allies aesthetic gravity, minimalist movement, precise composition and electronic music, allows Cindy Van Acker to examine the connections between body and spirit, sound and rhythm with almost scientific precision, and to create works that cross the barriers between dance, performance and the plastic arts.

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Tamara Bacci, dancer (Obtus)
Tamara Bacci studied classical ballet and contemporary dance at the Ecole de Danse de Genève and was part of the Junior Ballet directed by Beatriz Consuelo. She began her professional career at the age of 17 and a half at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, then at the Bejart Ballet Lausanne and continued in the neo-classical register within the Linga Company in Lausanne. In 2003, she crossed the path of Foofwa d'Immobilité, then Ken Ossola, Cindy Van Acker, Thomas Lebrun, Gilles Jobin, Cie Quivala and Estelle Héritier. In 2008, Claude Ratzé, director of the ADC Theatre in Geneva, gave her carte blanche to choose three choreographers. She then performed choreographies by Juan Dominguez, Ken Ossola and Cindy Van Acker. Since 2005, a particular artistic affinity built up between Tamara Bacci and the Flemish choreographer Cindy Van Acker. The choreographer allowed Tamara Bacci to assist her, notably, for the choreographical creation she realised for Inferno, invited by Romeo Castellucci and also Parsifal, created by the Italian director for the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in 2011. In this latter piece, she also performed as a dancer. In 2010, Pascal Rambert, author, stage director and head of the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, asked her to be the performer of a solo that he wanted to create for her: Knocking on heaven's door. She collaborated on Déproduction, in 2011, a piece created by the Franco/Swiss choreographer, Perrine Valli. In May 2012, she began a first research work with the stage director Guillaume Béguin in Lausanne. She conceived a project in collaboration with Marthe Krummenacher and Perrine Valli, Laissez moi danser, that will be shown in April 2013 at the ADC in Geneva. As a pedagogue, Tamara Bacci teaches regularly at the Junior Ballet in Geneva, occasionally in Lausanne and at the Conservatory of Geneva.

For more information please visit: www.ciegreffe.org
Organiser/ Partner in India: Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Mumbai Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council

Press Mention:
Asian Age
PARALLEL CITIES DELHI 2013
A project curated by Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias, PARALLEL CITIES DELHI, as part of the 15th Bharat Rang Mahotsav invites artists to devise interventions in public spaces that exhibit parallel existences.

PARALLEL CITIES DELHI 2013
interventions in public spaces curated by Stefan Kaegi ad Lola Arias
9 – 18 January 2013

An interactive performance part of the 15th Bharat Rang Mahotsav 
Presented by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan.
PARALLEL CITIES BROCHURE (PDF file) 

PARALLEL CITIES SCHEDULE (JPEG file)
Introduction
After Berlin, Buenos Aires, Warsaw, Zurich and Kolkata, Stefan Kaegi and LolaArias bring PARALLEL CITIES (CIUDADES PARALELAS ) to Delhi. In each city, this portable festival is re-contextualized and staged with local performers.
Shopping malls, libraries and campuses... these are functional places, not usually thought of as interesting. They are to be found in every city, and they are what make cities inhabitable. Their ubiquitous, parallel existences the world over mean these places are instantly recognisable, each modelled on similar rules but displaying a local face.
For ‘Parallel Cities Delhi 2013’, Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias have invited several artists to devise interventions in these omnipresent public spaces. Four artists have each chosen a location in Delhi as observation stations for urban phenomena. As observation stations, the project makes a stage out of public spaces, and seduces the viewers into staying inside that space long enough for their perception to change.
The pieces vary in form: You can listen to some of them, while others you can read or feel. The performers include a singer, others writers, passers-by and the audience themselves.
Via headphones, Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells whisper to us over the silence of a library reading-room.
Mariano Pensotti turns four authors into literary surveillance cameras who describe scenes in a campus hub as they happen. The viewers read the texts as a novel unfolding live on large screens over the heads of its real-life figures.
The Ligna activists choreograph their listeners in a shopping mall, turning their movements into a conspiratorial radio ballet.
And, late in the evening, Stefan Kaegi invites you to a roof with a view over the city to review all these experiences with a blind musician. Rewinding the experiences from his perspective you find yourself wondering what you will remember of the day.
The project makes theatre out of public spaces, and invites the audience to subjectively experience places built for anonymous crowds. Parallel Cities Delhi 2013 offers four perspectives on one city. A festival, that doesn’t transport stage sets or companies of actors but ideas.
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Library 
The Quiet Volume 
Ant Hampton, London and Tim Etchells, Sheffield / New York 
The National Archives of India Library, Janpath, New Delhi
The Quiet Volume is a whispered, self-generated and 'automatic' performance for two at a time, exploiting the particular tension common to any library worldwide; a combination of silence and concentration within which different peoples' experiences of reading unfold. Two audience members / participants sit side-by-side. Taking cues from words both written and whispered they find themselves burrowing an unlikely path through a pile of books. The piece exposes the strange magic at the heart of the reading experience, allowing aspects of it we think of as deeply internal to lean out into the surrounding space, and to leak from one reader's sphere into another's.
Dates: 9 to 11 & 14 to 18 January 2013 
Time: Every 20 minutes from 12 noon to 6:00 pm
Duration: 60 mins
Venue: The National Archives of India Library, Janpath, New Delhi 
Language: English
Entry: By registration only 
(For registration call: +91 +919582297249 (from 10 am to 6 pm) / email: parallelcitiesdelhi@gmail.com)PartnerThe National Archives of India / www.nationalarchives.nic.in<//a>:
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Meeting Point 
Sometimes I think, I can see you 
Mariano Pensotti, Buenos Aires
With Indian writers Amrita Tripathi, Asif Haider Ali, Divya Guha and Rajesh Tailang.
National School of Drama, Mandi House, New Delhi
A festival hub. Four authors observe the space from various perspectives. Typing into their laptops, they write live on what they see in the campus and other things, too: private observations, things they make up, or historical information. Every word they type is projected onto a large screen, a separate one for each author.
Like surveillance cameras recording anonymous individuals’ every movement in the vicinity, each writer transforms the spontaneous progress through a public space into narratives conveying what is going on – or might be going on – inside people’s heads in parallel with the bustling life of the surrounding area. The viewers and chance passers-by become part of their narrative. One glance at the screen reveals that they have become figures in the process of being invented. Over the space and the time they share with the authors, the viewers are able to influence the fictionalization, and become part of a collective story.
Dates: 10 to 13 January 2013 
Time: continuously between 5:30 to 7:00 pm and 7:30 to 9:00pm
Duration: 90 minutes
Language: English and Hindi
Venue: National School of Drama, Mandi House, New Delhi
Partner: National School of Drama / www.nsd.gov.in
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Shopping Mall 
The First International of Shopping Malls 
LIGNA, Hamburg and Berlin
Select CITYWALK, Saket, New Delhi
The shopping mall is a utopian place. An entire city is assembled in ideal-typical form below a glass roof under which time would appear to be frozen. Tropical plants create a paradise-like atmosphere. The wares displayed in shop windows patiently await their future owners. Apparently, they possess no more life of their own than the mall as such. Architecture and merchandise alike seem mute. And yet, they do possess a voice. The stories they could tell if they wanted to! The floor-tiles, for instance, that remember the footsteps of every shopper who walked across them without even noticing what was under their feet. And the consumer goods on sale have first-hand knowledge of people’s futile attempts to find happiness in them.
The Hamburg-based activists Ligna have been developing radio-ballets as interactive forms of radio-plays – in which audiences almost unconsciously turn into subversive crowds – in festivals around the world. For Ciudades Paralelas they focus on the shopping mall as a form of parallel city.
DELHI – SELECT CITYWALK 
Dates: 14 to 18 January 2013 
Time: 6:00 pm / Duration: 60 minutes 
Venue: Select CITYWALK, Saket, New Delhi 
Language: English / Entry: By registration only
For registration in advance call: +91 +919582297249 (from 10 am to 6 pm) / email: parallelcitiesdelhi(at)gmail.com) OR
register on the spot 15 minutes prior to the performance.
Note: Please carry a valid ID card to participate and arrive 15 minutes in advance. The audio piece for the performance is pre-recorded and in English.
Partner: Select CITYWALK
JAIPUR – PINK SQUARE MALL 
Date: 12 January 2013 
Time: 6:00 pm / Duration: 60 minutes
Venue: Pink Square Mall, Janta Colony, Raja Park, Jaipur 
Language: English / Entry: By registration only
For registration in advance call: +91 +919582297249 (from 10 am to 6 pm) / email: parallelcitiesdelhi(at)gmail.com) OR
register on the spot 15 minutes prior to the performance.
Note: Please carry a valid ID card to participate and arrive 15 minutes in advance. The audio piece for the performance is pre-recorded and in English
Partner: Pink Square Mall, Jaipur 
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Review 
Stefan Kaegi
Sagar Apartments, Tilak Marg, New Delhi 

On winter nights roofs become living spaces. Halfway between the distant street noise and the thick, urban-glow above, the audience meets somebody who spent his day in the city without seeing. Blind people orient themselves with the help of smells, the sounds of cars and the pavement's edge. What the audience has seen during the festival is reviewed and mapped onto the acoustic image of an invisible city. What remains in your memory?
Dates: 9 to 14 January 2013 
Time: 5:00, 6:30 and 8:00 pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Venue: Sagar Apartments, Tilak Marg, New Delhi 
Language: Hindi and English (5:00 pm in Hindi / 6:30 pm in English / 8:00 pm in Hindi)
Entry: By registration only. 
(For registration call: +91 +919582297249 (from 10 am to 6 pm) / email: parallelcitiesdelhi(at)gmail.com) Partner: RK Global
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Partners
Local partners:
Bharat Rang Mahotsav XV
Goethe Institut Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi
Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, New Delhi
Global partners:
HAU Berlin
Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Zürich Schauspielhaus, Zürich
Teatr Nowy 
Goethe-Institute Warschau 
Goethe Institut Buenos Aires 
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Art Council, Zürich

Venue partners:
National Archives of India Library, New Delhi 
National School of Drama, New Delhi 
Select CITYWALK, New Delhi
RK Global 
Pink Square Mall, Jaipur
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Registration Information:
Free registration passes available at NSD from 7 January 2013 onwards. 
For registration enquries call: +91 +919582297249 (from 10 am to 6 pm) / email: parallelcitiesdelhi(at)gmail.com
Parallel Cities is a coproduction between HAU Berlin and Schauspielhaus Zürich, in collaboration with Goethe-Institute Warschau, Teatr Nowy and the foundation of Teatr Nowy. Commissioned by Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and Goethe Institut Buenos Aires.
www.ciudadesparalelas.com 

Press Mention:
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