ARTEAST FESTIVAL 2019: 14 TO 16 MARCH 2019

 

ArtEast is an initiative to raise pertinent questions through Inter/Sections in art, livelihood, social justice, climate change, communication, history – past and present, issues that have a far reaching impact on everyday life of people and of the nation. The festival includes talks/discussions, exhibitions, and performances

 

Curated by Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor and Director, New Imaginations, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat

 

Organised in collaboration with National Foundation for India; The Sasakawa Peace Foundation; and New Imaginations, Jindal School of Journalism and Communication

 

Exhibitions:

Brahmaputra – An Imagination

Photography; Art Installation; Poetry; Video Installation; and Music

 

Listening Post – Songs of the River

An audio immersion of river songs including Bhupen Hazarika’s conversations with the river

 

Anthropocene and the River

By Arati Kumar Rao, National Geographic explorer, photographer, writer and artist - charcoal and ink on paper conceptualizing the changing river, its biodiversity delving into the historical discovery of the Brahmaputra; and photographs on the river’s seasonal cycle, landscapes and people

 

A Sense of the Flow: Brahmaputra and Ganga

Installation by Ashima Sharma, amateur artist – using dreams, cartography and material memory, the artist imagines a cosmos that comprise the Brahmaputra-Ganga delta journeying from the mountain ranges to the sea

 

“Nadir Kul Nai, Kinar Nai”

By Parasher Baruah, cinematographer – a video and photography installation that feature the inhabitants of the chars of Assam through songs and explore their relationship with the river, their struggle for survival and the larger issue of migration and Identity

 

Seven Ages of a River: Tsangpo, Siang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Padma, Meghna…and?

Curated by Sumana Roy, poet and author

 

A selection of poems to seek a different dis-‘course’ exploring the six life-stages of the river which we recognize in different places of its journey as Tsangpo, Siang, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Padma, and the Meghna

 

A Bend in the River

Video installation by Apal Singh, cinematographer and explorer – the “sky-river” is one of the most tumultuous river expeditions in the world. This labyrinthine adventure is captured through real time footage that takes the viewer through an impossible journey of the Brahmaputra and its sublime relationship with the fragile and the ever-changing human civilization

 

Inauguration on 14 March at 17:00

 

On view in the Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, 14 to 23 March 2019

 

Brahmaputra: Red River Tales

An exhibition tracing the river from its source to the delta – the “great riddle” and early explorations, creation myths and legends through archives, photographs, books, maps and excerpts – Ian Baker; Harish Kapadia; Deb Mukharji; Parimal Bhattacharya; Jo Woolf; Arupjyoti Saikia; and Royal Scottish Geographical Society

 

On view in the Foyer outside C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium and Quadrangle Garden, 14 to 16 March 2019

 

AT 18:00 IN C.D. DESHMUKH AUDITORIUM

Inauguration

Opening remarks by Ms Jashodhara Dasgupta, Executive Director, NFI

 

1 sq. ft

Concept, Design & Choreography: Surjit Nongmeikapam, contemporary and traditional dancer from Manipur

 

Dance presented by Surjit Nongmeikapam, Waikhom Biken, Senjam Hemjit

 

1 sq. ft is based on the experiences of people who have been displaced by war, persecution or violence. In its present iteration, the work captures the effects of displacement of the human body, exploring how it may react to an unrelenting series of brutal changes. Nongmeikapam draws from the socio-political climate of his home state, Manipur, while attempting to approach displacement as a human, somatic, phenomenon