An exhibition of archival portraits of leading Indian classical artists taken during their live performances. 
Photographs by Rakesh Sinha from Lucknow

The online exhibition is on view 15th to 28th February 2021

About the exhibition
On view at the exhibition is a collection of archival/heritage portraits of leading Indian classical dancers and musicians taken at their live performances. These 16x20 inches bromide photographs capture the myriad moods and emotions of the artist as they immerse themselves in their art forms. Often intimate and personal, the photographs capture forever a moment in time.
A self-taught photographer, Rakesh Sinha has been photographing performances of not just dancers and musicians but also that of theatre and literature personalities for over 4 decades. He has worked with all the leading artists in the different fields and has been appreciated and acknowledged by the artists. Rakesh Sinha makes it a point to present a set of the photographs to the artists each time he photographs them.
Rakesh Sinha also works with colours but his first love and passion is for black and white photography. Although not having received any training professionally he develops and prints all his photographs by himself in his Darkroom. Rakesh Sinha has had both solo and participated in group exhibitions across India including at ‘Tansen Samaroh’ 2003 in Gwaliar where he had a solo show; ‘Viraasat’ 1997 Allahabad; ‘Rajaya Natya Samaroh’ 1988 Dehradun; and ‘Rajaya Natya  Samaroh’ 1990 Bareli; to name just a few.
 

Organised in collaboration with Cervantes Institute, New Delhi, a tribute to well-known Spanish actress, Ángela Molina. One of the most outstanding actresses in Spanish cinema with a career spanning over four decades and an extensive filmography of almost a hundred films, Ángela Molina rose to international prominence in Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire (1977). Three Spanish feature films will be screened over three weekends in February. Vimeo links for each of the films will be sent by email and posted on the website. Each film can be accessed for a period of 48 hours.

Saturday, 20th February 2021 from 00:30 am onwards
Half of Heaven (La Mitad del cielo) | (127 min; 1986; Spanish with English subtitles)
Director: Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón

Multiple award winner including Fotogramas de Plata for Best Spanish Film, Best Movie Actor & Best Movie Actress, Fotogramas de Plata, 1987; Goya for Best Original Score, Goya Awards 1987; Golden Seashell & Prize San Sebastián, San Sebastián International Film Festival 1986; among others

After the civil war, Rosa, a beautiful and industrious woman, falls madly in love with a knife-sharpener who turns out to be a con man

https://vimeo.com/502198538

https://cultura.cervantes.es/nuevadelhi/en/half-of-heaven/140091
 

The Railrodder (24 min; 1965)
Director: Gerald Potterton

Recipient of the Honorable Mention for Short Film, Berlin International Film Festival 1965

In one of the last films of the comedian’s long career, Buster Keaton stars as a “railrodder” crossing Canada from east to west on a railway track speeder. True to Keaton's genre, the film is full of sight gags as our protagonist putt-putts his way to British Columbia. Not a word is spoken throughout, and Keaton is as spry and ingenious at fetching laughs as he was in the old days of the silent slapsticks.

‘Seeing through the viewfinder’: Ishu Patel
A selection of short animation films by Ishu Patel, acclaimed animation film director/producer and educator whose films have received theatrical and television distribution worldwide. His many international awards include two Oscar Nominations, the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the British Academy Award, and the Grand Prix at both Annecy and the Montreal World Film Festival. Four shorts produced by National Film Board of Canada will be screened.

Bead Game (5:36 min; 1977)
Recipient of the award for Best Short Fiction Film, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1978; Award of Excellence, Film Advisory Board, USA 1978; Special Prize for Animation, International Documentary and Short Film Festival for Cinema and Television, Leipzig, German Democratic Republic, 1977; among others

Inspired by the bead work of Inuit women, in this animated short, thousands of beads are arranged and manipulated, assuming shapes of creatures both mythical and real. They continually devour, merge, and absorb one another in explosions of colour. The increasing aggression shown by the creatures in Bead Game was intended as a cautionary tale about human hostility and nuclear weapons. 

Afterlife (7 min; 1978)
Recipient of the Grand Prix, 12th International Animation Festival, Annecy, France 1979; Outstanding Achievement Award, London Film Festival, 1979; Silver Hugo, 16th International Film Festival, Chicago, 1979; among others

The film attempts to answer the eternal questions, What is dying? And how does it feel?

Top Priority (9:12 min; 1981)
Recipient of the Blue Ribbon Human Concern Award, 25th American Film Festival, New York 1983; Best Short Film, Seaman International de Cinema, Spain 1982; and Special Recognition of Merit, Los Angeles Film Exposition Filmex, 1982

Set in an unspecified Third World country, this animated film, based on a short story by Enver Carim, suggests that "top priority" means different things to governments and to the governed.

Paradise (15:23; 1984)
Recipient of the Silver Berlin Bear Award, Berlin Film Festival 1985; Special Jury Prize, 25th International Animation Film Festival, Annecy, France 1985; First Prize, Los Angeles International Animation Celebration, Los Angeles 1985; among others

Paradise is based on a cautionary tale that Patel’s father told him as a boy: a blackbird in a forest covets the high life and status of a beautiful palace bird who dances for an emperor in a gilded palace…

Art and Technology of South Indian bronzes and the Chola Nataraja

Illustrated lecture by Prof. Sharada Srinivasan, Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc Campus, Bengaluru, and Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and World Academy of Arts and Science

sharasri@gmail.com, sharadasrini@gmail.com

Early medieval Chola statuary bronzes from Tamil Nadu represent a remarkable synthesis of arts and technology, evoking aspects of devotional poetry, dance and philosophy. The talk sketches approaches in technical art history in exploring the stylistic and provenance attributions of south Indian bronzes over different periods. The implications for the artistic trajectory of the celebrated Nataraja icon, often described as the ‘Cosmic Dance of Siva’, are explored

Early medieval Chola statuary bronzes from Tamil Nadu represent a remarkable synthesis of art and technology, evoking aspects of devotional poetry, dance and philosophy. The talk sketches approaches in technical art history in exploring the stylistic and provenance attributions of south Indian bronzes over different periods (from the author’s archaeometallurgical researches over the past three decades). The legacy of image casting in Thanjavur district and the insights into the background of mining,  metallurgy, wider cultural interactions and exchanges are touched upon.  The implications for the artistic trajectory of the celebrated Nataraja icon, often described as the ‘Cosmic Dance of Siva’, are explored; as well as the questions of the icon’s intriguing appeal to scientific sensibilities and probable celestial inspiration in ritual or iconographic aspects. 
Prof Sharada Srinivasan, Padmashri Awardee, is Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc Campus, Bangalore/Bengaluru, and is Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and World Academy of Arts and Science.  Her multi-disciplinary publications have ranged from Journal of Metals and Archaeometry to works as author, editor or contributor as in ‘Ecstasy of Classical Art’ (National Museum),  Digital Hampi (Springer) and Cosmology and Nataraja (IGNCA). She has a Phd from Institute of Archaeology, UCL, London and BTech. from IIT-B and she has also been an exponent of Bharata Natyam dance. 

Simon Schama’s Shakespeare: Episode One: England | (59:25 min; 2012; English)

In this two-part series, historian Simon Schama explores the life and times of William Shakespeare to shed a new light on some of the greatest plays ever written. Schama argues that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong ‘to all time’, without understanding just how much he was of his time. Shakespeare explored questions that are still asked today

Episode Two: Hollow Crowns will be presented next week

Welcome: Dr. Alka Sharma, Adviser, Department of Biotechnology
 
Presidential Remarks: Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC
 
Overview of vaccine development: Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology & Chairperson, BIRAC
 
Covid – 19 Vaccine – For India and the World: Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member Health, Niti Aayog
 
 
The Science of Covid-19 Vaccine Development: Dr. Shahid Jameel, Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences
 
Vaccine Delivery – Action Plan: Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India
 
Followed by a panel discussion with Indian industry on India becoming a Covid-19 Vaccine Hub moderated by Dr. Shirshendu Mukherjee, Mission Director, Grand Challenge India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BIRAC
 
The discussion focuses on the key elements of Covid-19 vaccine development, production and implementation
 
(Collaboration: Dept. of Biotechnology, Min. of Science & Technology, Govt. of India)