On the Open Road

One of India’s foremost sculptors, K.S. Radhakrishnan in conversation with Sujata Prasad and Oroon Das

(Collaboration:  Ahad Anhad)

Presentation of awards to young crafts persons 

Chief Guest: Shri Pavan K. Varma, diplomat, politician, and author

Awards will be presented to Tabasum Ara from Bhubaneswar (Chandua Applique Craft); Ram Baishya from Dinajpur, West Bengal for Bamboo Masks; Madavi Nagarjuna from Adilabad, Telangana for Dhokra Craft; Kartik Ram Kashyap from Bastar, Chattisgarh for wood carving; Krishna from New Delhi for paper mela toys; and Anju from Barmer, Rajasthan for patch work.

(Collaboration: Delhi Crafts Council)

Panelists: Cmdre C. Uday Bhaskar, leading expert security and strategic affairs and Director, Society for Policy Studies; Amb. Navtej Singh Sarna, former Indian Ambassador to Israel; and Ms Sagari Chhabra, multiple award-winning author & filmmaker,playwright, poet and Director, Hamaara Itihas Archives

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University, Pune and Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi

The grim toll of the war that started on 7 October 2023, has crossed 10,600 as on 4 November 2023. Women and children account for more than two-thirds of the dead in Gaza. Deprived of potable water, food, medicines, and other essentials, with hospitals, schools, and places of worship getting bombed, the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza need urgent help that can be given only if Israel stops bombing. The panel will holistically examine this complex issue – what is India’s policy and what are the implications thereof? Is there any way the state of war between Israel and the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories can be replaced by an agreed peace?

An exhibition of works by Asavari Gurav, followed by a performance by the artist

Preview on Friday, 24 November, 2023 at 18:30

As part of the exhibition, the following programmes will be organised in the Annexe Art Gallery:

Saturday 25 at 17:00
Presentation of the Artist followed by discussion with the artist about her artistic practice

Sunday 26 at 15:00
Monotype Workshop
Taking unique impression of an image, the participant will learn techniques and unconventional ways of making marks and obtaining magical impressions. This medium will show how to bring in the painterly elements within the print

Monday 27 at 17:30
Poetry reading
Asavari Gurav will read from her own poems and discuss the inspirations behind some of the poems

Tuesday 28 at 17:00
Instagram Live walk-through with Asavari Gurav

Wednesday 29 at 11:30
Action and images- A performance Art Workshop
Participants interested in theatre, visual art and performance art are encouraged to attend. A brief introduction to performance art will be followed by a workshop which will include exercises related to image theatre, acting exercises, performance art activities and learn improvisations and writing techniques

Thursday 30 at 18:00
“How to Draw a Lullaby for the Sun” 
Performance by Asavari Gurav

(Collaboration: Purushottam Public Trust)

Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South 

Speaker: Nivedita Menon, Professor, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is the author of several books including Recovering Subversion: Feminist Politics Beyond the Law (2004); and Seeing like a Feminist (2012). This talk is based on her new book, Secularism as Misdirection: Critical Thought from the Global South (Permanent Black; 2023). Nivedita Menon is a regular commentator on contemporary issues on the collective blog kafila.online (of which she is one of the founders), and active in democratic politics in India 

Chair: Tanika Sarkar, historian of modern India and Visiting Professor of History, Ashoka University

In the performance of a magic trick, misdirection draws attention away from where the trick is happening to another place which appears more fascinating. The talk addresses the grid of meanings secularism produces, which effects such a misdirection. Certain features become hyper visible (religion, women) while others are obscured (caste, capitalism, the non-individuated, non-rational self). The perspective is from the global South and India, and reconceptualises secularism more generally.

Sarod Recital
By Arnab Bhattacharya from Kolkata, disciple of Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta.  
 

Hills of Paradise: Freedom and the Female Body

Speaker: Prof. Mineke Schipper, Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Literary Studies, University of Leiden, The Netherlands. She is the author of several bestsellers and in India, she has published Never Marry a Woman with Big Feet (2018); Naked or Covered: A History of Dressing and Undressing Around the World (2018); and Hills of Paradise: Power, Powerlessness and the Female Body (2023)

(Collaboration: Speaking Tiger Books; and with the support of Leiden University Fund; Dutch Foundation for Literature; and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New Delhi)

Majaz Zinda Hai (80 min) 
Script, Design & Direction: Salima Raza
Presented by D for Drama in Hindi and Urdu

With Farrukh Seyer, Paayal Kapoor Nair, Anaamika Tiwari, Tarique Hameed, Navendra Mishra, Snigdha Anand Prakash, Anant Srivastava, Jipal Pathak, Kirti V.A., Arhan Willson and Rigved Singh

A musical dramatization of the life and works of the legendary Urdu poet, Asrar-ul-Haq Maz or Majaz Lakhnavi as he is popularly known. Set against the backdrop of 1940s and 1950s Lucknow, we see him at his highest highs and lowest lows. We see Majaz Lakhnavi fall in love, be applauded for the unique union of ‘Shabab’ and ‘Inqlab’ in his writings, the beautiful bond he shared with his sisters, the eternal effect of his poetry on the youth and his untimely demise.

(Collaboration: D for Drama)

Exploring the beauty of contemporary art crafted from E-waste

By Vishwanath Mallabadi Davangere from Bengaluru

Inauguration by Sh. K.N. Shrivastava, Director IIC at 18:30 on  22 November, 2023

A Pottery Story: The work of Ira Chaudhuri(New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2023)

Release of the book by Dr. Raj Kubba, connoisseur and ceramic art collector

Followed by a talk on 
Ira Chaudhuri’s pottery by Kristine Michael, ceramic artist and curator
Moderator: Ina Puri, Curator

The book is a simple commemoration of the work of master potter Ira Chaudhuri, over seven decades-primarily through 150+ images of works juxtaposed with quotes from the artist. Ira Chaudhuri describes her life’s journey in an essay at the end, along with critical writings by artists and critics. The candid, forthright and lucid essay is valuable because Ira Chaudhuri’s career as a self-taught potter tracks the trajectory the development of ceramic art in India, from nascency to its ongoing and gradual insertion into contemporary art practice. Neelima Sheikh, Trupti Patel and Ella Datta’s pieces serve to excavate other facets- her artistic temperament, stylistic influences, and signature technique. The book is compiled and edited by her son Itu Chaudhuri and his studio.