Should the great Polish piano composer Frederic Chopin’s music be played only on the piano? Why not on the tabla, sitar or veena? Desi Chopin is an interpretation of Chopin’s masterpieces by leading Indian musicians on traditional Indian musical instruments. The project was organised and arranged by the Polish Institute, New Delhi

Artists featured: Saraswati Rajagopalan (veena); Kailash Sharma (flute); Suhel Saeed Khan (sitar); Narinderpal Gill (keyboard); Manohar Balatchandirane (mridangam); Varun Rajasekharan (ghatam & kanjira); Ujith Udaya Kumar (tabla); and Tomasz Pajak (violin)

Arrangement and Supervision: Tomasz Pajak

The artists present Prelude in D Flat Major; Waltz in A Minor; Mazurka in G Minor; Etude Number 3; Waltz in E Flat Major; Mazurka in F Major; and Prelude in A Major

Video recorded at the Embassy of Poland in September 2020

(Collaboration: Polish Institute, New Delhi)

Sikkim: A History of Intrigue and Alliance

By Preet Mohan Singh Malik (HarperCollins India, New Delhi: 2021)

Discussants: Amb. Nalin Surie, Distinguished Fellow for Diplomacy, Delhi Policy Group, former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador to China and Poland, and former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs; Lt. Gen (Retd.) K.J. Singh, PVSM, AVSM & Bar, former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command and Sikkim Core Commander; and Amb. Preet Mohan Singh Malik, author of the book and former Ambassador to Myanmar, Malaysia, Bahrain, Cuba & Tanzania

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Distinguished Fellow, Symbiosis University

Sadanand Menon, well known arts editor & cultural journalist will speak on Dashrath Patel, artist, designer and educator.Sadanand Menon will speak about Dashrath Patel, whom he considered his mentor. In 1998, he curated the Retrospective exhibition Fifty Years of Dashrath Patel’s Work that was held at NGMA, Delhi and Mumbai. The lecture will explore the multi-faceted life of an incredible multi-media artist, designer and educator. Dashrath Patel was the first Director of the National Institute of Design (NID) when it was founded in 1961. In the two decades at NID, his contribution was immense in making the institution an iconic design school.

Dashrath Patel

Dashrath Patel's work was across disciplines - art, sculpture, ceramics, photography, architecture and design. He is often described as ‘a visual genius’ for his prolific intensity and depth of work spanning six decades.

Born in 1927, Dashrath was the first director of Design Education at the National Institute of Design in 1961. And till he left it in 1980, he virtually represented every major International exhibition, trade fair and festival that India participated in.In 1998, The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, had a major Retrospective exhibition of fifty years of Dashrath’s work in painting, photography, design and ceramic, titled ‘In the Realm of the Visual’. The show was curated by Sadanand Menon, and also travelled to NGMA, Mumbai, in 1999.Dashrath was honoured with many awards, including the first-ever Padma Shri for Design & Design Education, in 1981. He passed away in 2010 and was posthumously conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2011.

Sadanand Menon is a well-known arts editor, columnist, photographer, art curator and stage lights designer. He has the distinctive profile of linking the media, the academy and the arts. He has been an advisor to the National Museum, Lalit Kala Akademi and the National School of Drama in Delhi; National Gallery of Modern Art in Bengaluru and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla, among others. He’s a trustee of the Raza Foundation, Delhi, of Dakshinachitra, Chennai and is Managing Trustee of SPACES, in Chennai and on the editorial advisory board of Marg magazine, Mumbai. He has taught and lectured at various universities/colleges across India. A long-time collaborator with legendary dancer/choreographer Chandralekha, he has been deeply involved with issues pertaining to contemporary Indian dance. He has curated landmark Retrospectives of senior artists Dashrath Patel (NGMA, Delhi/Mumbai); Balan Nambiar (NGMA, Bengaluru) and S.G. Vasudev (NGMA, Bengaluru/Mumbai).

A new once a month series of online conversations organized in collaboration with J. D. Centre of Arts with artists, craft persons and scholars who will make illustrated presentations and engage in a conversation about their art form

(Collaboration: JD Centre of Art, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha)

Zoom link: 

https://zoom.us/j/92976215823
Meeting ID:  929 7621 5823

Curators: Dr. Shimon Lev, Yael Margalit

Artists: Revital Arbel, Andi Arnovitz, Siona Benjamin, Chanchal Banga, Tal Eliaz, Anchia Anzi, Tim Nachum Gidal, Maite Coloma, Shimon Lev, Liat Livni, Dorit Lombroso, Yael Margalit, Rajul Mehta, Motti Mizrachi, Reuma Moses, Hadas Parush, Doron Polak, Rachel Rotenberg, Eyal Segal, Maya Smira, Jean-Pierre Weill

The exhibition is an attempt to investigate how artists in a wide range of media use their work to represent hidden and revealed aspects of India and its culture. Most of the artists are Israeli, while some are descendants of the Jewish communities in India who live in Israel or the United States. Some of the artists are Israelis who travelled in India for a long time or short time while others live in India permanently. Another group of artists are Indians who live or have lived for long periods in Israel.

(Collaboration: Embassy of Israel)

CATALOGUE

ARTISTS BIO AND PHOTO

MOVIE

Poetry readings by Pawan Karan (Gwalior); Sushila Puri (Lucknow); Joshna Banerjee Aadvani (Agra); and Rajeev Kumar (Delhi)

Moderator: Ashok Vajpeyi

The four poets will be reading their original poems

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation )

Links:
facebookLive@razafoundation
YouTube@The Raza Foundation

Night Train to Munich (UK) | (90 min; 1940; b/w; English) | ( Click here to watch )

Director: Carol Reed

With Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Paul Henreid

Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich is a twisting, turning, cloak-and-dagger delight, combining comedy, romance, and thrills with the greatest of ease. Paced like an out-of-control locomotive, Night Train takes viewers on a journey from Prague to England to the Swiss Alps as Nazis pursue a Czech scientist and his daughter (Margaret Lockwood), who are being aided by a debonair British undercover agent, played by Rex Harrison. This captivating, long-overlooked adventure is a deftly concocted spy game that could give Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense a run for his money.

Director: David Wallace

A four-part BBC series, written and presented by Michael Wood

Michael Wood retraces Alexander the Great’s amazing journey from Greece to India, searching for the truth behind the legend and experiencing the tremendous scale of his achievements.

Using the ancient historians as his guides, Wood follows Alexander’s journey as closely as possible, crossing deserts and rivers, from Turkey to war-torn Afghanistan. As the journey progresses, he recreates the drama of Alexanders epic marches and bloody battles. All along the way he finds proof of the survival of the legends surrounding Alexander, a leader whose life has excited the world’s imagination for the 2,000 years.

Episode III: Across the Hindu Kush (60 min) ( Click here to watch )

Following Alexander’s route Michael Wood treks over the Khawak pass in Afghanistan, crosses the Oxus river and follows the golden road to Samarkand. He continues to Alexandria the Farthermost – Khodzent in Takjikistan – retraces Alexander’s famous victory at the Sogdian rock, and visits the ruins of the ancient city of Balkh with the help of an Afghan war lord.

 (75 min; 2014; English) |

Director: Jody Lee Lipes

With Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, Sterling Hyltin

Cinematographer and documentary filmmaker Jody Lee Lipes crafts an intimate, fly-on-the-wall film offering a rare peek into the highly-guarded world of professional ballet. The film shadows Justin Peck, the 25-year old choreographer of the New York City Ballet, as he undertakes the Herculean task of creating the company's 422nd original piece while simultaneously fulfilling his role as a Corps de Ballet member.

   https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Ballet+422
 ( Click here to watch )