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Collaboration and Research 2008
Submitted by Bindu, a Space for Artists

All the beginnings initially start from a single essential source, which is known to us as a ‘Bindu’ (point). Bindu is a gathering of artists who are committed in bringing together various aspects of fine arts to materialize a common ground for innovative art practitioners to share and develop imaginative concepts and visions. The conventional meaning of Bindu is found limited within the periphery of traditional meanings. Therefore, through our exercise we are in pursuit to redefine the meaning of Bindu itself.

The contemporary world is emerging with new conscience that is developing with the newly found sense of individuality and search of freedom. In this process artists employing multiple mediums and are traveling foreign countries and cultures to certify their visionary expressions. This pursuit has undoubtedly contributed in building up a collective understanding of the concept of universe and existence in general. Science, Art, Politics, Economics, Religion are intertwined today, indicating to a greater picture, a bigger responsibility that mankind has to fulfill for the betterment of surroundings.

Preliminary approach of Bindu will be proceeding with activities such as international & national collaborative workshop, exhibitions, interaction program, research and seminars.

We are also establishing a guestroom for foreign artists, facilitating them with studio, lodging and food in Kathmandu and Pokhara. Sooner than later, Bindu will also establish gallery.

We line in a world of differences. Our world is comprised of different perspective and attitudes. This is how mankind has perceived their surroundings and Bindu is here to celebrate all these differences by magnetizing them together in establishing a liberal space for the artists and art admirers.

Bindu, a Space for Artists
Office:
Pokhara: Hous no. 72, Kudahar-13, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal.
Kathmandu: 1981- Tanka Prashad Ghumti Sadak, Babar Mahal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
email: bindu_np@hotmail.com
URL: www.binduart.org

Collaboration and Research
Introduction / Background:

The root of contemporary art is obviously traditional and folk arts. Officially, at the government level, these traditional and folk arts have been promoted as crafts, which have received a great deal of importance in tourism sector and thus, have been advantageous to the artist involved in these arts.

At the current time, the contemporary artists are developing the contemporary art through western education practices. In the other hand, traditional and folk arts could be good resources for contemporary art. However, not much work has been done from this point of view. Therefore, Bindu has come forward to take the initiation to expand the area of resources for contemporary art through studies and researches of traditional and folk arts.

Aim / Objective / Goal of the Project

1. To do research study of traditional and folk arts as the root to contemporary art in South Asia.
2. To provide opportunity to contemporary, traditional and folk artists to interact
in one place and share their ideas and concepts so that the knowledge and experience they gain from the interaction could be used in a new way to develop their respective fields.
3. To develop interrelationships among different arts and artists working in different geographical, social, religious, economic and political situations.
4. To create the opportunity to utilize the resources that would be find by the research study of traditional and folk arts.
5. To introduce traditional and folk arts among students.
6. To preserve the documentation of the project (video and publication) as a reference for future researchers, artists, art critics, students and any other interested persons.
7. To make aware the contemporary artists who are grown up in western education system, about their root.
8. To contribute in the overall development of traditional and folk arts.

Brief Description of the Project

There will be ten artists participating in this project; 2 from Mithila art (Nepalese folk), 1 from Rikshaw art (Bangladeshi folk), 1 from Madhubani art (Indian folk), 1 from Pouva art (Nepalese traditional), 1 from Thanka (Tibetan traditional), 1 arts lecturer from Bangladesh, 2 arts lecturers from Nepal and 1 arts researcher.

There are some similarities between the Mithila folk art popular in Nepal and the Madhubani art popular in Bihar of India in their language, colour, treatment and subject matters.

Similarly, the social subject matters used by the Mithila art and the Rikshaw art of Bangladesh also resemble. The language of the Nepalese traditional Pauva art and the Tibetan traditional Thanka arts seem to have close resemblance in the language they use and have priority of religious subject matters alike in Mithila and Madhubani arts. Although these traditional and folk arts have little similarities, they have a vast difference among them and have their own peculiarities due to social, economical, geographical and political differences.

Therefore, this workshop project will provide a platform for the artists of these different art forms to meet in one place and exchange their experience and knowledge in their social, economical, political, geographical and other subject matters for 15 days, which will prove to be supportive in their ideological development.

During the 15 days’ workshop, all the participant artists will do presentations on their art in front of the audience of contemporary artists, art lovers, art critics, writers, journalists, students and other public. So, the audience will receive a great opportunity to learn about them and their art.

During the workshop period, the artists will go to 4 different schools in Kathmandu valley, one in each day for 4 days and participate in joint art workshop with the students in the respective schools. The students will benefit from these workshops in learning about these arts. 100 students will participate in the workshop in each school and other students could participate as the audience. Similarly, a 2-day workshop will be organized for art students from 3 prominent art colleges of Nepal. 10 selected students will participate in this workshop.

The art works prepared during these 15 days workshops will be exhibited in a gallery where artists, students, art lovers, art critics, art lecturers, art teachers, writers, journalists and other publics will be invited to visit.

Besides, the lecturers from Bangladesh and Nepal will do paper presentations at the exhibition. These lecture papers will be published by Bindu.

In addition to that, a researcher will carry out a research study about the participant artists and their art work during this project period. The research work and the research paper will be documented and published by Bindu.

The whole events of the project will be recorded in video and will be developed as a documentary film. The documentation in visual form is expected to be more effective for future reference. Likewise, a 4-colour catalogue will be published including all information of the whole events and photographs.

For the purpose of publicity campaign of this project, a number of media such as poster, banner, invitation, press release, sms, e-mail and internet will be used.

In this way, this project will be conducted in an interactive method as far as possible and Bindu aims to support in the overall development of the art sector in this South Asian sub-continent.

Methodology / Implementation of the Project

A number of implementation methodologies will be used during the one month period of the project.

1. Collaborative Workshop:
A collaborative workshop will be organized for 15 days during the project among the contemporary, traditional and folk artists. From the very first day the artists will be encouraged to participate in discussions, share their views and exchange information about their arts. The artists will get motivated from knowledge and experience gained from the interactions and they will get involved in different collaborative works individually as well as in groups during the project. For such collaborative works, the artists are independent to collect and use any art material their works require apart from the art materials provided by Bindu. Bindu will support its best to the artists in collecting such materials.

During the first 6 days, 6 artists will present their work one in each day, which will help additionally to make the interaction more effective. Apart from the presentation of their art work, the artists will also give brief information on their geographical, social, religious, economic and political environment. Many artists, art lovers, art critics, writers, journalists and other distinguished people from different walks of life will be the audience of these presentations. Besides that, a mural will be prepared in initiation of Mithila artists.

2. Workshop with School Students:
Four workshops with school students will be organized at 4 different schools for 4 days. The participant artists will be divided into 4 groups to organize these workshops and each group will be provided with 4 volunteers. The first group will be led by 2 Mithila artists, the second group by 1 Pauva and 1 Thanka artists, the third group by 1 Rikshaw artist and the last group by 1 Madhubani artist. Each group will go to different school. The first group will go to one school in the first day to organize the workshop whereas the rest of the groups will stay at the studio doing their regular collaborative workshop. Similarly, in the following days another group will go for school workshop in another, school and the rest will stay at the studio. In this way, all 4 groups will organize school workshops in their respective schools. There will be a coordinator appointed for school workshop who will do all necessary management for the workshops and support the groups. Each school will be pre requested to select 100 students, 10 each from grade I to
X, for each workshop.

In the workshop, first of all, the concerned artist will give a presentation about his art practice in relation to his social, cultural, religious, economic and political surrounding. There will be further interaction between the presenter and the students after the presentation. The interaction program will be followed by a demonstration art of the artist.

In the next phase of the workshop, the students, being motivated by the interaction, will create their own art works. The artist himself will also actively participate in this round.

3. Workshop with College Students:
Bindu will select 10 art students from 3 leading art institutions of Nepal viz., Lalit Kala Campus, Srijana College of Fine Arts and Kathmandu University Department of Fine Arts, to participate in this college workshop. The workshop will be organized for 2 days.

Participation in the presentation program of the main workshop during the first 6 days of the project will be made compulsory for the selected students. Later they can gain further knowledge and experience from the interaction with the artists at the beginning of the college workshop and also from their demonstration. So, the students can develop their own concept and express it in their work.

In this way, the students will get influenced by the participant artists and develop their work independently as well as in collaboration with the artists. Bindu will not enforce any limitation for this. Every student can interact and share their views with any artist individually or in group and develop their work as they wish.

4. Research Work:
Bindu will select one researcher for this purpose and he will be fully independent to carry out his research work. The research will mainly cover the personal life style of the participant artists, the art he has been practicing, his culture, civilization, religion, social, economic, geographical and political environment. In addition to that, a comparative study between the above-mentioned areas will also be carried out being based upon the participating artists. Mainly the interview method will be applied for the purpose. Nevertheless, the researcher will be given full independence to select his research methodology and the subject matters. 10 days’ time will be provided to carry out the research work and the researcher will submit a written research report to Bindu at the end.

5. Exhibition Program:
A 15-day exhibition will be organized at the end to show the outcomes and art works of the 15 days’ workshops. The works prepared during the collaborative workshop of the 6 participant artists, school student workshops and the college student workshop will be included in this exhibition.

The exhibition will be open to the public for 15 days an there will be no entrance fee charged.

6. Lecture / Paper Presentation:
At the same time of the exhibition, lecture programs will also be conducted in the gallery. First, there will be paper presentations by the 3 participant lecturers, one in each day during the first 3 days of the exhibition. The lecturer from Bangladesh will present on Rikshaw art. Likewise, the 2 lecturers from Nepal will present on Mithila, Pauva and Thanka arts.

Bindu will present on Madhubani art with the help of the lecturer of Mithila art and the Madhubani artist.

7. Documentation / Publication:
The whole project will be documented through audio, video, photography and print media.

a) Audio Tape: The interviews done with the participant artists, students, guests, visitors and other people during the research work will be recorded in audio with their due permissions. Mainly the voice records of the artists will be preserved as the historical reference.

b) Video/Documentary Film: The whole event of the project will be recorded in video and a documentary will be made from it including the interviews with the participant artists, students, lecturers, audiences, observers, guests, visitors, volunteers etc. director, editor, script writer, cameraman and other technicians necessary for this purpose will be selected by Bindu.

c) Still Photography: Photographs of the whole events during the project will be taken for record and a photo album will be developed in a sequential order. A photographer will be selected by Bindu for the purpose.

d) Catalogue Publication: A catalogue of the whole project will be developed that includes photographs of the events, introduction of the participant artists, research paper of the researcher, lecture papers of the lecturers and a text from Bindu.

Bindu will provide all these documents and materials to a design company to do the designing, pre press and printing work. The program coordinator on behalf of Bindu will directly monitor and supervise the whole process to develop the catalogue.

The catalogue will be made public during the time of exhibition.

Time Frame of the Project

The total project is planned for one month. The project is tentatively planned to be organized around May 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The time frame is given below:

Projected Output of the Project

The interaction between traditional, folk and contemporary arts will establish an interrelationship among these art forms. Not only it establish interrelationships among arts and artists of various genera, but also it helps to bring changes in their thoughts and views so that they could develop their field of art with a new point of view in light of this new experience and knowledge.

Besides, this project will give opportunity to students to participate and gain knowledge about different types of arts. This will ultimately help in the publicity and the development of these arts.

The research paper, the video, documentation and the publications that will be done during the project will remain as historical documentation. These will be available as reference for researchers, students and any interested person.

Target Audience of the Project

420 persons will be directly participating in the project including 6 artists, 1 researcher, 3 art lecturers, 400 school students and 10 college art students. Besides, other target audiences of this project are contemporary artists, traditional artists, folk artists, art lovers, art critics, art lecturers, art teachers, art students, school students, writers, journalists, parents/guardians of students, art researchers and local community. The expected number of visitors during the whole project period is between 3,000 to 5,000 people.

Dissemination of Information to the Target Audience

In order to disseminate the information about the project to the targeted audience, poster, banner, invitation, press release, e-mail, sms, internet media etc. will be used. In addition to that, mass publicity will be done through daily newspapers, TV and local FM radios as well.

Likewise, as it has been mentioned before as well, Bindu will document and develop video documentary film, audio record, photo album and catalogue publication and distribution of the whole events of the project in order to disseminate the outcomes of this project to the targeted audiences.

Past project

'Little Movement in Town'
Performance Art Event 2008
Participant:
1. Ashmina Rajeet
2. Jupiter Pradhan
3. Mahabubur Rahaman (Bangladesh)
4. Manish lal Shrestha
5. Prithvi Shrestha
6. Sangee Shrestha
7. Saurganga Darshandhari
8. Sudarshan Bikram Rana
9. Sunil Sigdel
10. Sunita Rana

Date of Event: 25th and 26th January 2008.
Venue: Bindu, a space for artists', 1981 Tanka Prashad Ghumti Sadak, Pradhan Basera, Babar Mahal, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Time: 4 pm to 7 pm

Up Coming Project

The Outcome Exhibition of the Collaborative Workshop of Mithila art and Contemporary art

Venue: Gallery in Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark
Date: October
Sponsors: Gorkha Brewery Privet Limited, Lxmi Bank Limited in Kathmandu