3.4.2023

Found in Translation

Artists often seek equations, correlations and meaning in the other, be it another field, another person, another species. This month brings us acts by Cie József Trefeli, who on their India tour tease out Hungarian roots and folklore in the performance pieces "JINX 103" and "Creature", while also seeking through their project to "Meet in the Middle". Focusing on the planetary system, "The Observatory - Second Site" questions how perception changes the object.

This month, Omer W asim seeks out to compare the use of indigenous weeds, plants, and water in Switzerland and South Asia during his residency, while Tapan Moharana takes shadow puppets to his studio in Switzerland. Johanna Bruckner embarks on a study of interspecies intimacies in Nepal, while Art Writers' Award winner Ranjana Dave seeks to explore the relationship between spoken language and dance during her residency in Switzerland. Elisa Storelli and Rohini Devasher will jointly undertake the Connect India residency in Bengaluru where they each develop research towards an artistic project.

Signing off with pictures, we share how memory and ecology inspire two artists who recently showcased their works at Photo Kathmandu 5.

Pro Helvetia New Delhi

One Hundred Thousand Suns. Paradigm 2. Courtesy of artist Rohini Devasher

EVENTS

Cie József Trefeli on India tour

JINX 103 by Cie József Trefeli. Photo credit: Gregory Batardon

The diverse styles in which József Trefeli choreographs include contemporary dance, cabaret, theatre, musical comedy, and opera. Compagnie József Trefeli will present their performances "JINX 103" and "Creature" as well as work on their choreographic project "Meet Me in the Middle" on their India tour. More information here.

Exhibition - The Observatory: Second Site

Planisphere Room. Photo courtesy: Khoj Studios

"The Observatory" by Rohini Devasher and Legion Seven began with an interrogation of the complicated history of observational astronomy and the ways in which ‘seeing’ is strange and more ambiguous than one might imagine. Questioning how perception impacts sight and transforms the object, "The Observatory – Second Site", takes on the shape of a model planetary system, an orrery, at the centre of which is Saturn. More soon at prohelvetia.in.

RESIDENCIES & RESEARCH TRIPS

Omer Wasim on residency in Switzerland

Omer Wasim. Photo credit: Khadijah Mobin

Omer Wasim is an intermedial artist from Pakistan. His practice queers space, subverting the frames of development and progress that shape human relationships to cities and nature. His work bears witness to the relentless erasure, violence, and destruction of our times by staying with more-than-human bodies. Wasim’s proposed project during his residency draws from the use of indigenous weeds, plants, and water in pre-modern healing and care traditions in Switzerland and South Asia. Read more here.

Tapan Moharana on residency in Switzerland

Tapan Moharana. Self-portrait.

A multidisciplinary artist from Odisha, Tapan Moharana lives and works in New Delhi, India. Tapan’s current practice evolves through an amalgamation of various local and indigenous art forms, like shadow puppetry and Shadow Theater practices of his neighbourhood. Part of his ongoing project “Lighted Cave”, Tapan’s work is process-based and experimental. Traveling with this work, Tapan plans to carry some objects and further develop his work at the residency. Read more here.

Johanna Bruckner on residency in Nepal

Johanna Bruckner. Photo credit: Ruth Bruckner

Johanna Bruckner is an internationally exhibited artist based in Zurich. She is interested in the conditions of labour that have been emerging in response to the technologies of communicative capitalism. Johanna’s planned work investigates emerging conceptions of interspecies intimacies in Nepal. It begins by approaching reforestation and afforestation programmes, which take into consideration the tree species to be planted and the interspecies organisms that build climate adaptation and resilience. Read more here.

Ranjana Dave on Art Writers' Award residency at Villa Sträuli in Switzerland

Ranjana Dave. Photo credit: Raj Das

Ranjana Dave is an artist and writer. Her practice, emerging from her movement training in Odissi and her writing and research, unfolds at the intersection of text and movement. During her residency in Switzerland, Ranjana will explore the relationship between spoken language and dance, with attention to practices of ‘translation’ as forms of improvisation that shape how we make meaning of codes. More soon at prohelvetia.in.

Elisa Storelli & Rohini Devasher on Connect India dual residency at ICTS

Elisa Storelli (L) & Rohini Devasher (R) to begin Connect India residency at ICTS

The selected participants Elisa Storelli and Rohini Devasher will begin their Connect India dual residency at ICTS in Bengaluru this month. Elisa Storelli’s practice is centred on the artistic examination of time, which she refers to as “chronomorphology”. Her research delves into the ways time has been measured, calculated and experienced across cultures and centuries. Rohini Devasher is an artist and an amateur astronomer. Her films, prints, sounds and drawings map the complexities of time and space. Read more about their proposed projects here.

GALLERY

DISPATCHES FROM PHOTOKTM5

Last month saw two supported artists at Photo Kathmandu 5 take very different approaches towards shared concerns of ecology and recovering memory.
Here is a glimpse of the two artists and approaches.

In ‘What Plants Were Called Before They Had a Name ‘, presented at @Photoktm 5, Uriel Orlow seeks encounters with different indigenous spiritual guides of the Guatemalan Altiplano and elsewhere, as a way of recovering memory and linguistic presence. See more on Instagram.

For PhotoKTM 5, Paloma Ayala hosted a cooking workshop and a lecture performance where she story-told family histories linked to the agricultural worker´s displacement and ecological damages happening at the MX/US border. See more on Instagram.