You might have travelled past familiar localities such as Basavanagudi, Wilson Garden and Kamaraj Road. What if you were to view those places through the eyes of performance? As part of Project 560 Found Spaces Festival, an initiative of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), six artistes will be conducting artistic interventions at found public spaces in Bangalore.
Arundhati Ghosh, executive director, IFA, says: “Five years ago, we got a grant to look at theatre infrastructure. We found there are hardly any spaces for theatre and noticed that a lot of theatre artistes were moving away from proscenium spaces and visual artists who want to work outside galleries. There are shrinking spaces in the city, but no one is thinking in terms of cultural spaces. We chose to name the project 560 as it is the first three digits of the city’s pin code.”
Arundhati adds that some of the performances are a part of a series that are already in performance, but will be culminating at the Project 560 Festival.
Big ‘Ben’ Galuru
When: June 6 and 7 at 9.30 am and June 6, 7 and 8, at 7 pm
Where: Kempegowda Tower Park, Mekhri Circle
Big ‘Ben’ Galuru performed by the theatre group Rangasiri, will bring to life the history of Bangalore of the 1500s. Sandeep Pai, co-ordinator of Rangasiri, explains further. “There are four watch towers of Bangalore that were built by Kempegowda II, the son of Kempegowda I. The watch towers were built to show till how far Bangalore will grow; today they are important centres of the city. We wanted to create a performance around these watch towers, but as we couldn’t include all them for our performance, we chose the one at Mekhri Circle. The performance is about Kempegowda II’s life. ” Speaking about the name of the performance, Sandeep says: “Big Ben is the identifying tower of London, so we should also speak about the towers of Bangalore!”
Basavanagudi Live Art Project
When: June 6, 3 pm to 6 pm, first performance. June 7, 3 pm to 6pm, second performance. June 8, 4.30 pm to 6 pm, silent walk
Where: Basavanagudi
Dimple Shah, a performance artiste, in an endeavour to engage citizens from different backgrounds will conduct three performances: one on the street opposite National College, another on the street outside Bull Temple and a silent walk from the street outside Bull temple towards National College, ending at Ramakrishna Ashram Circle. “I will be walking along with ten women participants, comprising of students and local women. People can join walk along the way. I want to frame my walk around respect and dignity for women. ” There will be two other performances, one is about aspirations of the youth and in the other, Basavanagudi’s history will be re-visited.
Art Adda
When: June 6, 4 pm to 7 pm. June 7, 5 pm to 7 pm and June 8, 5 pm to 7 pm
Where: Sree Vinayaka Kalyana Mantapa, Byatarayanapura Ram Mandir, Bellary Road
Jeetin Rangher’s performance at a now defunct marriage hall, will centre on the character of Harud. With Bhuvanesh Kumar and Katarina Rasic, Jeetin will revisit the past of the marriage hall. “On the first day, we will initiate a discussion with the audience on different kinds of marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act. There will also be a projection of images and we will show videos of interviews with couples who got married in the hall,” says Jeetin, a performance artiste.
Katarina, an artiste from Serbia, will present a personal story of her grandparent’s wedding. “I will also distribute soap paper to the audience. I will ask them to write of their painful experiences and after that I will take the papers and wash away the writing,” she adds.
Mall-Wall
When: June 6, 7 and 8, 4 pm to 8 pm
Where: Phoenix Market City Climbing Wall, Whitefield Road
Mallika Prasad and Ram Ganesh Kamatham, actors of Actors Ensemble India Forum, will create a site specific performance on a vertical wall. “We are drawing on some historical aspects of Whitefield and of the mall itself,” says Mallika.
Maasti Chocolate
When: June 6, one performance at 6 pm, another at 7 pm. June 7, 7.30 pm.
Where: Basavanagudi
June 6 marks the birth and death anniversary of Kannada writer Maasti Venkatesh Iyengar. Theatre personality, Mounesh Badiger will conduct a walk on roads of Gavipura, Basavanagudi and Gandhibazar. “He spent most of his life there. Till date, people remember him walking towards the club from Gandhibazaar in the evenings and later having a chat with D.V.G. at the bugle rock park. He is also remembered for giving chocolates to kids he would pass by while walking along the streets of Gandhi bazaar. Hence, the event has been named Maasti Chocolate ,” says Mounesh.
Mounesh and his group Aadyanta will stage plays, adapted from Venkatesh Iyengar’s short stories, at Bugle Rock Amphitheatre and Suchitra Film Society.
Ice Spot & Billboard Sur-faces
When: June 7, 3pm to 7pm and June 8, 5pm to 8 pm
Where: Wilson Garden and Kamaraj Road
080:30, a Bangalore-based collective seeks to take performances outside proscenium spaces. “We look at the city as a studio, and see how art and infrastructure can meet,” says Naveen Mahantesh, a member of 080:30. Their first performance intervention Ice Spot will be in spaces at Wislon Garden that were previously lakes, but have now become playgrounds. “Ice blocks are the common material we will work with. Different artistes will engage with the space differently. says Naveen.
In their second performance, Billboard Sur-Faces at Chhabra 555, Kamraj Road, they will work around billboard surfaces and traffic signals. “The themes of traffic signals, billboards and the general shopping mood run through the performance.”
For details call 23414681 or >visit India Foundation for the Arts .
