For the creation of a performance-work titled Shiva that explores queer identities. Based on personal experiences, it will trace the story of a young poet coming out to his mother, through a series of letters and poems that express fear, conviction, choice, and a deep longing for her acceptance. The performance also seeks to draw on and challenge the tenets of Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music, viewing them from a queer perspective. Imagined as an iterative, creative series of performances, this process seeks to emerge as a platform that will trigger dialogues on alternative identities, relationships, gender, sexuality, masculinity, peer pressure, and mob violence. The outcome will be a series of eight performances across Karnataka. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be photographs and video documentation of the process work and performance. Grant funds will pay for costs towards an honorarium, travel and living, professional fees, rehearsal / performance space and studio hire, production, printing and publicity, documentation, and an accountant’s fee.
For research on the Royal Carnatic Orchestra of the Mysore Court which has now evolved into the Mysore Police Band. It will trace the journey of the Orchestra from being considered as ‘exotic’ in 19th-century India to the current perception of it being an ignored ‘relic’ of the British Raj. The project will also examine the ways in which the Band, which was instated to safeguard the ‘culturally pristine form’ of Carnatic music against the backdrop of sociopolitical and cultural transformation in South India, has been excluded from mainstream discourses. The outcome will be a manuscript for a book. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be the manuscript, audio-visual footage of recordings and performances, and notations of the music of the Band. Grant funds will pay for costs towards an honorarium, professional fees, travel and accommodation, equipment rental, fee to institutions for copying relevant documents and records, and an accountant’s fee.
For a set of workshops and a 30-day reconnaissance train journey undertaken by a group of artists, in an attempt to gather diverse perspectives around identity in India. The journey, which will touch four locations Bangalore–Dhemaji–Srinagar–Perambavoor, will involve performances, performative interactions, and interviews with fellow passengers and the crew of the train. The outcome will be a broad performance structure, based on which the project will be further developed on another train journey. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be documentation of the process in the form of stills, videos or sketches made during the journey.
For a support towards the production of a theatre piece titled Muktidham written in Hindi, based on the history of conflict between Buddhism and Hinduism in the eighth century. The play enquires into the complex relationships between religion, power, politics, caste and patriarchy. The production will be the outcome of the grant. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, professional fees, purchase of materials, travel, equipment and space rentals, publicity and an accountant’s fee.
For a theatre practitioner and visual artist to collaborate on a project at the Government High School, Jeevan Bhima Nagar, Bangalore, where students will be engaged in the idea of repair and reuse. Through regular classes and engagements with mechanics from local repair shops, the students will learn the culture and skills to repair-reuse-recycle objects of everyday use. The outcomes of the grant will be a play created out of the learnings of the process, and an exhibition of the objects created by the students.
For an initiative that will take about 30 children’s literature publications in Kannada and English to high school students at the Government High School, Jayanagar, Bangalore. Using an integrated approach that involves visual art, music, theatre and dance, this project seeks to build reading and writing abilities in the students. A presentation and exhibition of text-inspired work created by the students will be the outcome of the project.
For an international seminar on K Venkatappa, a seminal figure in early modern Indian art. Through the study of various bodies of Venkatappa’s work, their aesthetic innovations, flaws and contradictions, the seminar attempts to create a rich tapestry of research, debate and discourse around the life and work of Venkatappa. Locating him in his contemporary context, the seminar is expected to explore early modernism in Karnataka, filling a lacuna in the history of Indian art. The seminar will take place in Bangalore in November 2016.
For a series of site-specific performance art interventions at the Vinayaka Kalyana Mantapa, an abandoned building on Bellary Road that used to be a marriage hall until it was sliced in half during the construction of the road to the airport.
For a series of performance art interventions across various spaces in Bangalore by ten artists belonging to the 080:30 Collective. Each intervention will consist of several site-specific performances in areas like K R Market, Nayandanahalli Junction and Commercial Street in Bangalore. Each of the ten artists will work with five different spaces and their projects will be chosen through a process of discussion and evaluation within the collective.
For a site-specific performance on an artificial climbing wall located within Phoenix Market City mall in Mahadevapura, Bangalore. The performance will be developed through a process of research into and experimentation with aerial movement, visual design, climbing techniques and urban art by the grantees who are actors and avid mountaineers.
