An experimental artistic journey through local communities of South India
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You might have bought back souvenirs from your last vacation, but re-creating a jungle when you return from Kerela – this is definitely a first anyone has seen in this part of the world. In a unique project hosted in South India, Reloading Images (a Berlin based art association) and Maraa (a Bangalore based artists collective) collaborated with the support of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and Arts Network Asia (ANA) in the organisation of a month long residency where multi-disciplinary artists from different parts of the world, traveled on a experimental journey to understand notions of mobility, tourism, and hospitality.
Approaching mobility as an artistic process, reflection on the polarity between artist-tourists, understanding travel as a method of learning as well as a space for creative collaboration were the key questions that the artists asked in the initial phase of the residency, at a four day workshop in Kolar Distr
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Reflecting on their journey, the group of artists representing countries from three continents - India, Italy, USA and Canada - were all exhilarated as well as awed by the activities they participated in and the locations they traveled to for the entire month. “This was an experiment for us to see if different artists can collaborate and work while traveling in different and sometimes difficult circumstances. The interaction within the group was very human, not only artistic,” described Carla Tommasini, the critical observer from Reloading Images, who produced ‘Passaging’ an experimental video that captured the conversational narratives that emerged during the journey.
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“I don’t think I have had as much coconut in my life as I have had on this journey”, quips Bhagwati Prasad, the Delhi based graphic illustrator. He adds, “During the traveling residency, ‘Jungle’ became the scene and ‘Tender Coconut’ was the recurring thematic. Thus it was easy to arrive at these subjects for points of common collaboration – even our lives in cities are urban concrete jungles.” Becoming Monkey - a video and installation that Bhagwati has pieced together with Enrico Sgarbi and Martina Moor creates a portrait of reality that is difficult to interpret unless one gives up the notion of understanding entirely.
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Looking at tourism within the context of art, was never easy and the participants were prepared to self critique their own notions and perspectives. “One of the words that emerge out of a short 18 day visit by European artists to rural India is ‘Superficial’. Harsha’s collage for example tried to explore the superficiality by reflecting on visual mobility on surface of things. Much of our work incorporated these similar conflicts that emerged from our journey,” explains Kaya Behkalam of Reloading Images.
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Siddharth is a Bangalore based film maker and researcher. He is currently working with ALF - Sarai on an international project titled, "Towards Detente in Media Piracy", aimed at unraveling the cultural life of pirate practices and transforming urban media networks. He has been associated with Community Media for the past five years, having worked with marginalized groups on over 20 Participatory film productions in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. He has also worked as producer for the US based Current TV and News 9, a Bangalore based news network. His current projects include the Bangalore Wonderwall, a public art project where he paints murals on public walls in city.