Citizen Art Days // Kooperative Kunststrategien und Beteiligungspotentiale im öffentlichen Raum

Interview mit Surekha

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-03-31T06:58:09Z

Parallele Welten: How did you came to accept the curatorial work at the Rangoli Metro Art Center (RMAC) being an artist?

Surekha: Because of my kind of work. It's a big responsibility working in a public space. At the RMAC we had to start from the beginning, because in Bengaluru there are not public spaces like this. Here the space needs a different kind of art. So I think my work is getting people together, sort of connecting them and opening the public space.

PW: For most of our students it was the first time working in the public space and they were surprised because of the restrictions they found at the RMAC. Is there a difference working in the public space in terms of rules?

S: It is something in between, I think. I'm from the art background, I've been working as an artist for more than 15 years and we have those spaces that are private and we know what is happening there, we all know how things work there. Here I don't know how the reaction is going to be, you have 2.000 people walking and 2.000 opinions. If one person comes and falls here, he will go the press. Simple things like that... Those are the questions we have to handle here. Since I'm here responsible, I'll try to negociate and find a way within the system, so that things can be done.

PW: How do you see the development of the RMAC? According to restrictions, to the questions of public space...

S: Since the begin we realized that the space could be opened not only for visual arts, but for many different things. Even I sort of opened up...and started seeing in a much more wide perspective. But we are still experimenting, because it's been just 6 months... Somehow it is coming to some direction know. At the begin we didn't know how it would really work. ...an Art Center for the city. Like the word Rangoli for the logo. Rangoli is this ritual people do in front of their houses on the floor, but it is also this form of connecting points. That's the whole idea, the idea of a unique drawing, of a visual form with different dots that connect and make a new form. PW: Do you have a vision for the RMAC?

S: This should be a place full of different sorts of projects… so many things that give people the idea of an utopian art, a kind of art utopia in the space. Also with much less restrictions, with more freedom, giving only importance to the freedom of art expression.

Surekha is visual artist and has realized numerous projects for the public spaces. She curates the Rangoli Metro Art Centre since it was made available for the public in May 2013.

Artikel erschienen in Stadtkunst Kunststadt

Interview mit Deepak Srinivasan

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-03-31T06:56:04Z

Parallele Welten: What‘s the Tree Festival itself?

Deepak Srivinasan: Bangalore's history is tied to trees but nobody is really aware about the cultural and the historical aspects of natural heritage. Trees mean a lot for everyone connected to the city in terms of identity. The sudden growth of the city causes the authorities to run over private and public property and widening the old planted roads, getting of the trees. The numbers of old Bangalory who has been living here for twenty years are incredible low and accordingly the memories of what was. That are starting points for us to conceptualize the festival. It's a larger network of Artist, ecologists, musicians and tree-enthusiasts. We create a space for conversation. We are trying to find creative ways of protest which will involve more and more people, to allow them to see differently and become a part.

PW: What means Citizenship in India?

DS: Only It becomes evident in time of political elections in India. If things are going wrong politicaly class groups which have all the facilities might talk about it but they don't necessarily see it impacting citizenship. Academics NGO's and artists - the intellectuals of the society are the ones who more directly deal with the question of citizenship. Other groups are not really connected to it. The discourse is stuck in this sort of English speaking world. In the post colonial sense in of the divided India it becomes a divided sense of public.

PW: How are you trying to reach communities?

DS: We wanted to be more local in terms of the languages that we're communicating in. So we want to take some of the content back into more local and originally spaces. It has also to be done out of the rich tradition of the left using culture in protest using propaganda. People have to engage with new material which is not symbolic. Aesthetics becomes important in the process. You can‘t be an activist without bringing an aesthetic. We have always been thinking in images. When the public really engages it's not only about that cognitive rational sense of what should be right and wrong or what is democratic. The Indian public is connected to the image. We need to actively bring back the image and image making and thinking about images. It's all about compensation and communication and fighting ignorance.

PW: what is your role as an artist?

DS: I‘m critical of activism and art and the ways it function in the city. We really need a new way of imagining this in between characters. It's not so much of a role of an artist is much more of a facilitator of dialog.

Deepak Srinivasan - performance artist, media practitioner & researcher, founder of the Neralu Begaluru Tree Festival 2014

Artikel erschienen in Stadtkunst Kunststadt

Interview mit Meena Vari

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-03-31T06:55:45Z

Parallele Welten: How did the development of the Interim Semster at Srishti came about ?

Meena Vari: We started at Srishti with the Interim Semester in 2004. There were a lot of departments and every department was separate. Students never talked to each other. We thought that it would be interesting to have an interdisciplinary space build into the system so that students from different semesters and faculties are forced to talk to each other. Interim Semester was created with the focus that students should go out of the class room, connect with the public and create works from the public space itself.

PW: Do you see a difference in the use of public spaces here in India to other parts of the world?

MV: in India there are very few opportunities for people to see interactive performance based art in public spaces, but historically we had a lot of things that used to happen in the street places. You have people walking around like the circus groups. Handicraft and political activists, as part of their daily life, are performing outside. But they don't see it with that art vision, they see it as cultural things.

PW: What do you expect from the participating artists?
We invited artists for the Interim Projects from all over India, international artists, and also artists who are all ready practicing within Srishti. This year we had 22 projects in total during the one month lasting Interim Semester. As an institution, you have to guide people to the future. Where is the future for them, that is what we have to show and thats why practices like yours become important for students here. It is like opening different ways of thinking for them. For me the Interim worked, when the students find open windows and doors to associate with the public in a way.

PW: What is your vision for the future of the Interim Project?

MV: We look at an area, a practice that can have conferences, workshops and presentations, we can invite people, who are already experts. People from all over the world come and participate within the Interim Semester, so why not creating a bank of knowledge, that can be shared with people and which can be refered back. A bank of knowledge which is practiced in the public spaces, or practiced within experimentation that new media and new mediums offer. That would be a kind of a vision.

Meena Vari is Dean of Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice at Srishti. Since 2002, she has been developing, organizing events and projects in close association with faculty members, visiting artists and students.

Artikel erschienen in Stadtkunst Kunststadt