ARTS and CULTURE

Soul revival, that's the feeling one was left with at the conclusion of the Biennial dance festival in Bangalore. The first festival in the city with contemporary dance as its theme, Biennial hopes to have two shows annually and justify its name! It was hosted by Attakalari, a trust formed in 1992 by artistes from different disciplines to have a platform for contemporary physical expressions in India. Attakalari Bienniale (pic: Arun Patre) The ten day dance festival (6th February-15th February) hosted shows of dance troupes from India and abroad at multiple locations in Bangalore which included the Chowdiah Hall, JSS…

Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira was started way back in 1955 by Sri G Vedanta Iyengar. The institute has since been conducting various music related programmes. It, in fact, celebrated its Thousandth concert day on 13th February 2008. Sri Rama Lalitha Kala MandirAs usual, this year, a series of concerts are being organized for a period of one week, starting 7th February 2009. The venue is Mangala Mantapa, NMKRV College, Jayanagar. While admission is free, seating would be on a first come basis, especially as all the artistes who would be enthralling the audiences with their music are very popular.…

It's not a great time to pick for an evening of theatre.... on a Wednesday evening. First, the traffic. Of all our theatre spaces, Chowdiah is the least well-connected by public transport. Leave alone not being close to any bus stop, it is not even convenient for auto-rickshaws. So, one decides to drive, battling the guilt of using the car for only two people. And one realises that the ‘evening of leisure’ will not begin until the wretched having-cars-autos-and-two-wheelers-squeezing-past drive is over, as also the eternal hunt for that elusive El Dorado, the Parking Space. It took us an hour…

‘Prakruti' simply means ‘Nature'- unrefined, natural, as it is. This is the name of the organisation which was started by MS Prasad, an PR consultant and an event management professional, four years ago. Along with Praveen Rao, a well known figure in the field of music in India and abroad, particularly orchestrization and composing, Prasad started ‘Prakruti' and registered it as a Trust. Audience at a concert at Cubbon Park Bandstand (pic courtesy: Prakruthi) The purpose was to bring music and breathe life into the dead Cubbon Park bandstand. That was almost four months ago and there has been no…

Our last article on Bangalore's history talked about its electrification, the first city in Asia to be electrified. Continuing with our series on Bangalore's development, we will now see how a sleepy town was transformed into a robust city by industrialisation. Mysore Lamps factory at Yeshwantpur (pic: Gopal MS) The medium and large scale industries started to appear in Bangalore in the mid 19th century. We owe much of the origin of the Government Press (operated in Wesleyan Mission Society), which was the first one to start the trend in Bangalore, to Rev. J Garret. Later, he not only set…

Chitra Sante is an 'Art for All' event organized by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. The event has escalated to national level since its first edition in 2003. Artists from all over India showcase their art works in this one-day event. The event displays affordable art works of all kinds. This year's event had about 1500 stalls, showcasing art works of over 2000 artists of all ages. Photographs were allowed for the first time as a part of this event and got a very good response from the public. A sea of people filled the Kumara Krupa Road from dawn to dusk…

Ever wondered why Bangalore has several firsts to its credit? Be it industrialisation, automation, machine-tools, aviation, aerospace-research, advanced studies, information technology, the city has been the Mecca for trying out developmental projects. It sure speaks of the progressive nature of its people and their innovative spirit. In a series of articles, Citizen Matters will try to cover the various innovations that the city has pioneered through recent history. Receiving Station, MG Road (pic: Gopal MS) Ask the citizens of Bangalore to name the city's biggest problem and they are sure to say either traffic and/or power cuts. They will surely…

Meet Prakash Michael. 56 years old, freelance graphic designer and an alumnus of the JJ School of Art. Prakash runs a graphic design studio in Bangalore and is one of the most resourceful art directors I have met or worked with. Prakash MichaelWay back, when there was no desktop publishing or Photoshop, Prakash did the layouts, assembled his artworks and somewhere down the line, nipped into his dark room to print bromides of b&w logos and images. A true one-stop shop in drawing board publishing.Over the years, the end-to-end responsibilities of freelance became a serious limiting factor. "I just didn't…

What film societies do is show meaningful cinema - at a meaningful hour. Befittingly remembering Hal Ashby during his death centenary month, Bangalore Film Society (BFS) screened the intriguing director's "tantalizing knuckleball" comedy Being There, a few weeks ago. Shampoo, Bound for Glory, The Landlord, The Last Detail, Coming Home and Being There - with each of his films drastically different from the other, it makes a certain categorisation that erudite critics and viewers like to 'assign' to artists and their work, an exercise in futility. However, this could also be the chief reason why he never received as much…

It's unusual to find an art gallery that isn’t just that, and named after its own address. 1, Shanthi Road was once a building that was not initially an art space; it was built up into a multi-use space to include an art gallery, living spaces for the artists to work in, and domestic spaces as well. This unusual journey was undertaken by artist and auteur Suresh Jayaram. Suresh Jairam (Pic: Deepa Moham) "The ideology" says Suresh Jayaram, sitting at his ‘office’ table in the open quadrangle of the art gallery, "was to have a living space that would also…