BackARTS NETWORK ASIA GRANTS 2010
RELOADING IMAGES INDIA:
A TRANS-DISCIPLINARY ARTISTIC PLATFORM MOVING ACROSS SOUTH INDIA
Organized by
Reloading Images in association with Maraa and CitySpinning
In collaboration with
1 Shanti Road Gallery Studio (Bangalore), Sarai (Delhi), British Council (Bombay)
With the support of
ASEF (Asia-Europe Foundation)
In 2009, Maraa Media Collective has been invited by the Reloading Images team to develop, curate and produce a mobile web-based radio station and an interactive website for Reloading Images India: a trans-disciplinary nomadic platform moving across India. As the project developed in the past 6 months, Maraa Media Collective became part of the organization of Reloading Images India, starting an effective creative collaboration with Reloading Images team and the Indian partners. Maraa is now sharing commitment for the curation and realization of the whole project, although it will still be responsible for the web-based radio and the final implementation of the website.
1. Brief description of project
Reloading Images India 2010 is a month long trans-disciplinary mobile platform of Asian and International artists, cultural practitioners and researchers that will move across different locations in South India. A total of 9 participants (3 Internationals - Europe and beyond, 3 Asian and 3 Indian) will be selected to take part in the platform.
At the core of the project is a commitment to foster meaningful interactions and vital collaborations between Asian and International artists through participatory and new media tools; as well as to creatively map alternative modes of artistic production. The objective is to investigate the ways in which sustainability and self-organization could be initiated and experienced collectively, as well as to experiment and reflect on how creative processes are shaped and defined by specific conditions: People, Places, Practices. The act of travelling will unravel different layers of knowledge production and transmission. The Indian landscape and territory will be marked through visiting and encountering modes of social self-management, different cultural practitioners and practices, ecologically attainable activities of development.
2. Aims / Objective / Goals of project
Reloading Images India 2010 (RI India) aims at:
· Building mutual capacity between Asian and International artists to develop a reciprocal network of collaborative practices and artists’ initiatives focused on exchange, collaboration and new media art.
· Broadening the understanding of artistic practices beyond the mainstream art market, strengthening the opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations and process based practices.
· Creating an unprecedented opportunity for different modes of self-directed learning inter-culturally, as well as interdisciplinary exchange by addressing different realities of grass rooted cultural activities across India.
· Implement and foster a national and international network for Indian, as well as international artists, source for future collaborations and support for the participants.
· Supporting Indian and Asian artists with skills of collaborative artistic practice, contents and new media tools.
· Establishing a network through an on-line radio in order to engage with different local realities and communities at a regional, national and international level.
3. Methodology / Implementation of project
The project aims at investigating how the act of travelling through different locations can be thought as a figure “for trajectories and identities, for storytelling and theorizing in a postcolonial world of global contacts” (James Clifford).
Some research questions delineate our exploration:
· In which ways the act of travelling can be understood as a learning process?
· In what ways does the encounter with people, places and practices will delineate a temporary cartography of hospitality?
· How can we learn and what can we share?
These questions will lead the travelling residency, the creative collaborations between the artists and the exchange with the location and communities that will be visited. These will be addressed through workshop like situations, assigning tasks and ‘exercises’ in order to create and deliver collaborative projects as a creative response to the visited places, people and practices.
The methodologies used are based on different artistic practices (visual art, theory, community based practices, theatre and performance making) brought in by the organizers of the projects, as this is an artist’s lead experiment.
4. Time frame of the project
‘Reloading Images India’ is planned to happen between 15th October – 15th November 2010.
By July 2010 the informative website with all the information and the call for application will be online. We are aiming at selecting the participants by end of August 2010. The final Open Studio has been agreed with 1 Shanti Road Studio Gallery to happen between 11th and 15th November 2010. After the completion of the residency, the website will be implemented with all the material documenting process, projects and outcomes, by the end of 2010.
5. Projected output of project (is it a workshop, a discussion, a showing etc.)
The project will inaugurate on the 15th of October 2010 with an initial workshop in Kolar Vimochana, in the outskirts of Bangalore. This is a non-profit structure devoted to cultural activities ranging from women rights to farming, and here we will be starting the program with a 5 days workshop, run by Maraa and Reloading Images, in preparation of the journey. During this initial stay we are planning to invite artists, video-makers and cultural practitioners from India to share working methods, trigger ideas and initiate conversation around the nature of collaborative practice.
After the initial session, the group will start a twenty days journey visiting the following places/people/practices:
· Anegundi, near Hampi, Karnataka: to meet women who preserve indigenous food recipes, and to discuss/experiment through creative outputs. Key issues: conservation of heritage, social and economic empowerment, and food culture. http://thekishkindatrust.org/
· Hyderabad, Ramoji Film City and the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Andhra Pradesh: to interact with film studies students, exploring collaborative script writing and video making in the Ramoji Film city. Key issues: cultural and film industry, popular culture. http://www.ramojifilmcity.com/
· River Nila, in Mallapuram, Kerala: to walk along the banks of river Nila and interact with various communities who are living there and are engaging with the river’s conservation. Key issues: natural heritage, environmental issues, rural tourism, folk music and culture. http://nilafoundation.org/
· The final week will be spent in Bangalore as a location, focusing on the Grey market and its economical and social position within Bangalore’s fast economical growth. Key issues: urban space, marginal economies, counterfeiting, parallel trade, legal/illegal. All the material, experiences, projects and conversations produces during the mobile residency will be arranged in an open studio ‘exhibition’ at 1shantiroad studio gallery. They will host the group for 5 days that will culminate with an open studio session/exhibition on the 13th and 14th of November. http://www.1shanthiroad.com/
List of activities:
· 5 days workshop on content based practice and creative strategies for collaborations, in Kollar (outskirts of Bangalore), designed by Reloading Images and Maraa’s Collective;
· 20 days journey with stops in the 4 abovementioned locations with specific social, economical and environmental connotations; the visits and the act of traveling itself will constitute the core of the residency;
· a web-based radio station will act as the main creative tool employed by all participants, to document activities, encounters and exchanges. The initiative will connect different local realities and communities at a regional, national and international level. This is a pilot project with the long-term objective of becoming a permanent radio station for Indian and Asian artists, accessible globally online;
· a final open studio in 1 Shanti Road Studio Gallery, the group will present the project outcomes through public talks, screenings and presentations;
· an interactive website will operate as the virtual interface of RI India. The website will feature an interactive map of India that will offer an alternative and creative reading of the territory. It will visualize the ‘learning route’ followed during the residency, reflecting on historical layers and present connotations. As an online multimedia project it will include the radio station, visual materials, well as functioning as a repository of conversations amongst communities and artists, art projects and other network initiatives triggered by encounters with people, places and practices;
· a final publication to be presented and distributed internationally, will display a more reflective outcome on the nature of this collaborative project. Using the map as a starting point, it will act as an artistic travelling guide, collecting all the collaborative projects and discourses that emerged during the project;
· future project presentations in Europe, at the Goldsmiths University (London) at the Department of Visual Culture in a format of seminar/workshop yet to be detailed.
6. Who is your target audience for your project?
The project will try to implement and foster a network for artists and cultural activators in supporting each other with skills of management, contents and networking in the development of further collaborations. The initiative will connect different local realities and communities at a regional, national and international level. It will help to create different sites of learning across the country, reflecting on historical layers and present connotations. The partnerships and the participants will benefit from an already existing network (Europe, Middle East, USA and South America) of art related associations, artists and cultural activists that are already part of Reloading Images. This platform aims to generate future collaborations and projects throughout this extended network.
7. How do you propose to disseminate information about the project to your target audience?
Reloading Image India's website will be the main tool to disseminate information about the project worldwide. In the first phase, during the call for application, it will act as the main informative interface for the general public, displaying general information about the project, application and the organizations involved.
The call for applications will be also be announced online through the network of Maraa and Reloading Images (NewYorkRioTokio e.V.), as well as all other affiliated parties: Sarai (Delhi), CitySpinning (Bangalore), 1ShantiRoad Gallery and through our European partners: Goldsmiths University (UK), Newworknetwork (UK), Fondazione Pistoletto (Italy) and other International portals for artists resources.
Through the interaction between the organizers, the participating artists and the hosting organizations the project will assure to open a series of possibilities for future interactions and collaborations between India, UK, Germany and worldwide (residencies and exhibition opportunities, artist’s collaborations, networking between organizations).
8. How do you think your project will create impact on the art communities/the cultures that you want to engage with? How will it develop the field of your art form?
As an experimental mobile residency, Reloading Images India will provide a common ground for Asian and International artists, through a process-based series of activities and collaborative practices.
The program of workshops and the site-specific interactions will provide the participants with a set of skills, fostered through learning, producing and presenting work. The act of traveling and the mobile radio project (transmission and realization) will provide a vital platform for collaborative practice, encouraging projects and conversations between the participants and the visited communities.
The conversational framework around travel, sustainability and alternative modes of artistic and social production across South India will activate cultural and creative exchange between the participants and the people, places and practices encountered.
The network of Reloading Images India will offer a ground for collaborations and support future initiatives of the participants, also by providing management support and project development tools. The project will create visibility for the participating artists through the final presentation/installation in Bangalore, through the online website and through the international distribution of the publication. The network will also enable long term collaborations between European and Indian cultural organizations for future possibilities.
The website and the on-line radio station will be readdressed as an Art and Culture on-line network. At the end of the project, the website will be implemented with all the materials (images, video and texts) collected throughout the residency. Ongoing evaluations will be conducted during the program for reviewing the development of the activities and an open final assessment will question the participants to direct feedback on the program.
We believe that this project will address key issues in these sectors, like livelihoods, identity, denial of voice, sustainability, exchange, hospitality and self-organization through different critical and creative approaches: open learning and collaborative practices, arts and culture, new media and human interaction. We expect to initiate an open dialogue in the public domain, bringing forward the abovementioned key issues, not only within the arts sector but also toward a wider audience.