We are looking for Bengaluru-based artists to contribute to our research project, ‘Performing the Periphery’, a collaboration between NIAS, Bengaluru, the University of Exeter, UK and MOD Institute, Berlin/Bengaluru.
Our project concerns the ways in which performance responds to the growing city. How can performance intervene in rapidly changing Indian cities to generate more inclusive discussions about an inclusive and accessible urban future? We are particularly interested in the peripheries of urban expansion.
There’s a little more about the project here: http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/drama/research/projects/performingperiphery/
We invite proposals for workshop activities and interactive interventions (see below for the application process). These will be held in suitable public spaces. We are looking for ideas that conceptualise performance in its widest sense, and that engage passers-by in thinking about the present and future of their city.
For instance, the work could take the form of a guided walk for a passing audience; an invitation to passers-by to make small interventions into street space; the sharing of methods for observing unnoticed elements of city life; the recording of activities that are easily overlooked, etc.
We would like to offer the following as a prompt for your own ideas:
Dotted around Bengaluru are a number of ‘inscription stones’ that record aspects of the city’s history. A recent project by Uday Kumar has involved documenting these stones and considering their archaeological significance for areas of the city, often on the peripheries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSoKcU1VklE
https://www.scribd.com/document/356763365/Stone-Inscriptions-of-Bangalore
This has made us wonder how we might think about the ephemeral aspects of everyday life, and how we might mark them in passing. What is memorable, and yet difficult to capture or preserve? What ordinary things go unnoticed?
How could performance or performative elements explore the desire for permanence and inevitability of impermanence in recording the life of a city? (e.g. non-permanent records; repeated acts; video records; use of technology to record actions or overlay images onto place).
How could local people contribute their sense of what is worth recording and/or preserving in their vicinity?
How might this speak to the peripheries of the city and the pressures of urbanisation?
Locations: We are interested in basing this work at sites next to or near existing ‘inscription stones’ (see online map). However, we are also open to further suggestions. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=10MkVJhxpkbsDbhXxJpAS82KtKMI&ll=13.073077466370464%2C77.55408420849608&z=13
Work period:
We are looking for proposals for up to six days of work in street spaces. We would welcome suggestions for shorter periods, to allow us to include several different approaches and locations. The application process is deliberately open to all disciplines that include performative methods.
Observation – February 6,7 or 8 to include meeting with the project team (one day)
Workshops – February 12-17
There will be an exhibition and discussion on February 21 or 22, with documentation of the work displayed in a public setting (exact location to be chosen). Participation in the project implies permission to display and document work produced in events and publications relating to the project. Intellectual property of the artwork remains with the artist.
Application Process: Please send us your ideas (up to one page of A4) plus a brief CV and links to any information about your work online, by January 10.
Honorarium: INR 28000
Contact: Professor Cathy Turner, Drama Department, University of Exeter: C.Turner@exeter.ac.uk