For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations which will attempt to reimagine Mughlai Vesham, a form of Mohiniyattam which incorporates the courtly style of Kathak including its costume, now erased from public memory. The outcome of the project will be the experimental dance piece with live music and a research paper on the artistic process. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a video recording of the experimental piece and the research paper. Project funds will pay for contract fees and the hiring of equipment.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations which will attempt to reconstruct Mizo folktales through movement arts that creates a new ‘folk dance’ in collaboration with community members as a way of recovering memories that were lost after the coming of Christianity to the region in the 20th century. The outcome of the project will be the new folk dance, along with open movement workshops, curated happenings, and community dining. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the artistic process, along with written/ illustrated notes on the exploration and public events. Project funds will pay for contract fees, hire of venue, and travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Explorations that will trace the collective memories of the erstwhile dwellers of the town of Old Tehri that went under water after the construction of a dam. Through science/ speculative fiction storytelling, and storyboarding, this project will attempt to explore the loss of lived experiences of this ghost town, in the wake of the monstrous ambitions of the industrial nation-state. The outcome of the project will be the science/ speculative fiction, along with a storyboard for eventual development as an illustrated narrative. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the script of the speculative fiction and a soft copy of the storyboard. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees and materials.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Workshops, Residencies, Seminars, which will create four residential workshops for movement artists from East and North East India to inspire critical thinking while nurturing choreographic practices. Four artists from diverse backgrounds will restage their earlier pieces as they work with the participants of the workshop as facilitators. The outcomes of the project are four intensive residencies and workshops for dance and movement artists, culminating in formal public presentations, along with analytical documentation of the process, and a blog. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, audio-visual documentation of the residencies and workshops, process documents, and the link to the blog along with an offline version of the blog. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, and production.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create an artist book that will reflect on the nature and relationship of personal archives to history. Titled My Voice Is As Brittle As The Paper You Write On, the book is imagined as a conversation between four imagined characters at the time of the Partition of Punjab in 1947. As an extension of the film Iqraar-naama, through documents from personal archives, drawings, text and photographs, the book will capture reflections, inflections, propositions and deliberations rethinking questions around how history is written and read. The outcomes from this project will be the artist book and an essay on the relationship of personal archives to history writing and making. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the artist book, the essay, copies of drawings, text and photographs used in the book. Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and scanning, travel and living and archives fees.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a theatrical production titled The Mobile Girls Koottam. Set in a tea-shop built on a small truck, the performance will travel to various locations within Tamil Nadu and to Bangalore and Pondicherry facilitating conversation among actors and audiences around women's lives, their work, bodies and identities. There will be eight shows of the performance as part of this project. The outcomes from this project will be the performances, a travelogue booklet with sketches, photographs, and notes on experiences from the tour drawn from writings by the performers, crew and audience members, and audio-visual documentation of the tour that will be presented as episode/s on Youtube. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the booklet, still and video documentation of the performances and the tour, and links to Youtube. Project funds will pay for contract fees, equipment hire, printing and publicity, materials, travel, food and props and costumes.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a work of speculative fantasy eco-fiction centred around the ecology of the tidal sluice networks in Goa. Based on ongoing research into the estuarine geography, its history and architecture, the project will explore stories, materiality of the spaces, repair processes involved, tools and architecture of the sluices through intermedia works including drawing, writing, audio-visual materials, found objects and maps. It will also create the abstract characters Ngan and Nilnil representing the river and ocean respectively, and explore their journeys. The outcomes from this project will be an artist book, a journal documenting the course of the project, and a website consisting of textual and audio-visual essays and a series of drawings. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the artist book, a copy of the journal, the essays and drawings, and a download of the website. Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and publicity, equipment hire, travel and living, materials, props and costumes, purchase of books and subscriptions, and website hosting.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will artistically investigate into the notions of home, displacement and identity of a people and a place as seen in the collective memory of the inhabitants of a camp set for surrendered members of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in Assam Through engagements with memories, narratives, and everyday objects of community members, and resources from archives, the project intends to create a space for conversation that will facilitate a deeper understanding of narratives and positions within and outside the community. The outcome of this project will be a site-specific installation. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the entire process and of the installation. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, materials, equipment hire, and printing and publicity.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the politics of hierarchies and erasures of languages through a study of five scripts namely Mahajani, Modi lipi, Tamil numerals, Devanagari and Kannada. Titled Degrees of Exclusion of Languages, this project will attempt to understand linguistic divide as a core dimension of the national education enterprise and a crucial axis of negotiation within our public domain and democracy. It will explore cultural dilemmas and strategies of survival that languages have struggled with. The outcomes from this project will be a set of three-dimensional physical and digital letterpress moveable types for all the five scripts, letterpress prints, lithographs on paper, and a booklet that catalogues all the letters in these scripts in the form that they have existed so far. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the digital models, a set of physical letterpress types, copies of the lithographs, copies of the letterpress prints and the catalogue will be the deliverables from this project to IFA. Project funds will pay for materials, contract fees, studio hire, travel and living.
For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the outbursts of artistic responses to the unfortunate death of Rohith Vemula, the circumstances that led to his death, and his suicide note. Anchored around this historic moment and its political and cultural ramifications with respect to the anti-caste movement in India, this project intends to enable conversations with select filmmakers, writers, poets and musicians who engaged deeply with Rohith’s letter. The outcome of this project will be a 60-minute film tentatively titled Speaking to Rohith. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the film. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, equipment hire and studio hire.
This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.
