2013
IFA screens the film Bottle Masala in Moile by Vaidehi Chitre, followed by a discussion with the filmmaker. The film focuses on a few of the stories of the descendants of the indigenous population of Mumbai, such as farmers, fishing people, toddy tappers and salt pan workers, who have their lost ancestral properties to the Government and corporate forces, and with it their connection to the soil and their culture thus threatening their livelihood and existence.
The Sarjapur Blues Band (SBB), consisting of Shekhar Seshadri (vocals and acoustic steel string guitar), Saumitra Mukherjee (vocal and acoustic nylon string guitar), and Vinoo Matthew (electric guitar) perform at IFA. SBB is "an underground, eclectic, workingman's, original, blues band" from Bangalore. The evening begins with a 20 minute performance piece of dance theatre with the band, followed by music.
Sculptor Alfons Knogl, visual artist Fabian Hesse, filmmaker Anna Marziano, and fashion designer Dijana Zoradana Elfadivo, share their experiences in the arts. They are in the city as part of an initiative by the Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, titled ‘bangaloREsidents 2013’, to work in various Bangalore-based arts and culture institutions.
IFA screens u-ra-mi-li by Iswar Srikumar and Anushka Meenakshi , a film for which they have been journeying across India to document the movements, rhythms, and music in the everyday lives of the people they meet across north east India, Gujarat and Rajasthan, among other places. Incidentally, IFA has supported Iswar and Anushka's research into the work songs, known as Li, sung by the inhabitants of Phek village in Nagaland.
Kaushik Bhaduri executes mentalisms, a performing art in which its practitioners appear to demonstrate highly developed mental, or intuitive abilities. Kaushik spends an evening talking about and showing us a series of mentalisms, some of which he has learnt from the work of masters, and others that he developed on his own.
IFA screens the feature-length documentary film Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, which takes us inside Abramovic’s world, following her as she prepares for what may be the most important moment of her life, a major retrospective of her work, taking place at the Museum Of Modern Art, New York. Tanveer Ajsi, Programme Executive, Arts Research provides the perfect prelude with a short introduction to the history of performance art in India. He is joined by Ramon Moraes Sales Moura, a trained classical ballet dancer from Brazil working with IFA this summer.
Seno Tsuhah talks about the significance of addressing issues of creative expression alongside those of development, drawing from her experiences as a primary school teacher in Chizami village, Nagaland; and her work with the North East Network (NEN), a women’s rights organisation, as a team leader in Nagaland, since 1998. She has been involved in community mobilisation, organising, capacity building and advocacy on issues related to livelihoods, the environment, peace building and women’s rights. In 2006 she was awarded the Stree Shakti Puraskar by the Government of India.
Kamal Swaroop, renowned screenwriter and film, television, and radio director engages in an informal conversation about his latest book, Tracing Phalke documenting his intense endeavour to excavate the early history of Indian cinema. Kamal sets out to reconstruct Phalke’s missing autobiography and shares how he used available historical and photographic evidence to bring Phalke to life with the alchemic powers of the collective imagination.
IFA inaugurates the MaathKathe series with a chamber concert—a maathukathe— between six ghatams. Leading ghatam exponent, Sukanya Ramgopal, and her team of five artists—Joe Anthony, Ananth Jayaram, R P Ravishankar, Ganesh Murthy, and IFA's own Sumana Chandrashekar—indulge in rhythmic dialogues, from intense deliberations to lively banter, as they take us through a journey into the stories, and sounds of the ghatam.