India Foundation for the Arts showcase in Singapore

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is happy to announce a showcase of eight pioneering arts and culture projects—through film screenings, talks and presentations—at a two-day event in Singapore, at The Arts House on November 29 and 30, 2013. This is the IFA's first big event outside India. IFA is collaborating with The Arts House—Singapore’s first court house and former parliament house, transformed into an arts and culture venue—to host the event. This beautiful heritage structure provides the perfect ambience for the IFA showcase which features: Four documentary screenings:

• Nishtha Jain explores the ethos of tiny neighbourhood photo studios in India
• Shabani Hassanwalia and Samreen Farooqui discover the dynamic film industry of Ladakh—one of the most geographically hostile regions in India
• Merajur Rahman Baruah studies the style and aesthetics of Assam’s mobile theatres
• Saba Dewan searches for a lost thumri belonging to the repertoire of the charismatic Rasoolan Bai, a tawaif or courtesan musician and accomplished Hindustani classical vocalist.

Works of three arts practitioners through their presentations:

• M V Bhaskar who is digitally replicating and thus conserving the 16th century murals of a temple in Tamil Nadu
• P Madhavan, who initiated a residency for young photographers to experiment with alternative photographic processes
• Sunil Shanbag who will talk about his plays Cotton 56 Polyester 84 and S*x M*rality and Cens*rship, which are anchored in historic events—the first on a mass movement for labour rights and the second on a movement in the arts community against Indian society’s stringent norms of propriety—that shaped the country and its arts.

The performance of a devised theatre piece, titled Notes on Chai, by Jyoti Dogra, an actor who works with techniques and acting tools from the Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre tradition.