For research towards a comparative study of Bengal scroll painting and Gond art from Madhya Pradesh. The researcher will travel to the Naya village in West Bengal, home of the Patuas who create the pata chitra paintings, and to Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, home of the Gonds. She will explore their visual landscape in light of the changes that their art has undergone due to state patronage and market forces.
For the making of a documentary film on the local Ladakhi film industry. The film will explore how and why the Ladakhi film industry emerged, how it sustains itself and where it wants to go.
For research and field work to compile Sindhi oral narratives in the border region of western Rajasthan and Kutch. In particular, the various forms of the premakhyans (love narratives), which are the most popular of the various Sindhi oral narratives, will be contextualised and investigated. The research will lead to a series of articles or a short monograph.
For building of an archive of photographs of urban middle-class women of Bengal from the 1880s to the 1970s. The project will critically and thematically archive and read the economy of photographic practices including modes of representation and resistances connected with the lives of urban middle-class Hindu/ Brahmo women in Bengal.
For research into and documentation of the history of cartoons in West Bengal and Bangladesh towards a book in Bengali. The research will examine the relationship between public life and cartoons while paying particular attention to individual cartoonists whose work has contributed significantly to the development of the form.
For preparatory research towards a screenplay for a feature-length film on Hindi writer Nirmal Verma. Through in-depth historical research on Verma’s European period, study of Verma’s published and unpublished writings, interviews with individuals who played significant roles in Verma’s life, the researcher will extend his literary knowledge of Nirmal Verma into a cinematic language.
For three editions of the annual summer artists’ residencies, PEERS. The grant will enable Khoj to offer ten residencies, and hold a one-time retrospective exhibition of art work emerging from PEERS. It is expected that this continued support for PEERS will expand the initiative’s reach and scale, and facilitate a greater engagement of contemporary artists with the public at large.
For a series of intensive and rigorous theatre and puppetry workshops with students, teacher trainees and teachers, with a view to reinforcing and institutionalising theatre arts pedagogy in primary and collegiate education in the Dharwad area.
A 35-day theatre workshop in Akingam village in Kashmir, with the purpose of reviving and revitalising the Bhand Pather theatre form. Performed in open spaces, especially as part of community celebrations, this theatre form has experienced a setback over the last few decades due to the militancy and insurgency in Kashmir. The workshop will reacquaint younger Bhand Pather artists with their legacy.
For a workshop-conference that brings together about 80 folk musicians of western Rajasthan to examine the changes in their music, repertoire and instruments, and discuss questions around the material welfare and dignity of their communities, and articulate their concerns, observations and insights. The findings of the discussions will be put together as a document, which will be circulated among government departments and non-government agencies.
For the photographic documentation and preparation of a full inventory of approximately 1,000 modernist paintings and prints from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century in the collection of Rajya Charukala Parishad, Kolkata. INTACH will eventually publish a detailed catalogue and hopes to convince Rajya Charukala Parishad to make its collection available as a permanent exhibition in the public domain.
For supporting a colloquium on ‘Accessing Arts Education: Possibilities and Challenges’. The colloquium will promote dialogue on national-level policy on arts education as articulated by the National Council for Educational Research and Training, debate curricular possibilities and limitations, highlight existing arts education initiatives and reflect on the experience gathered on the ground.
For development of Family Tree, a film installation for public space. Family Tree will explore the psychological consequences of migration, especially loneliness, melancholy and the emotional turbulence caused by life and work in alien surroundings. The installation will attempt to deform the concept of the family tree in order to consider 21st century family lives, which are dynamic and constantly in motion.
For the publication of a book that will highlight Khoj’s contribution to contemporary art practice in India and simultaneously serve as a critical compendium of alternative contemporary art practice of the last decade. The book, with over 200 colour illustrations, will showcase the seminal work of over 80 visual artists, carry lead articles by art critics and sociologists, and feature artists interviewing artists.
For the dissemination of Cotton 56, Polyester 84, a theatre production set in the mill lands of Mumbai. This production is the outcome of an earlier IFA grant and brings to light issues concerning the lives of the mill workers of Girangaon who lost their jobs en masse as a result of the textile strike in Mumbai in the 1980s. To fulfil the play’s artistic and political agenda, twenty performances of the play will be staged for working classes, primarily in Mumbai and other places in Maharashtra, in order to provoke new ideas and perceptions about their own identity and position in today’s world.
