An exploration of concepts

The PechaKucha Night, held at Cobalt recently, was all about discovering a different style of art representation. This event, which was supported by the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and Jaaga, consisted of five artists from Germany, showcasing their artistic capacities in the given-time slot. The performance style included 20 slides being shown for 20 seconds each, where most artists had a narrative to go with.

The different art representations for the evening included modules by Dijana Zoradana Elfadivo, Anna Marziano, Kai Tuchmann and Angelique Doludag, and Fabian Hesse. Dijana, who’s a fashion designer and collage artist, showcased works by creating a connection and dialogue with children, whom she worked with, about their cultural textile. She tried to depict how she and the children researched and sketched a textile identity by building collage art on the body using textiles, costumes, vintage cloth, natural, urban and traditional elements.

The evening also saw other works like an interactive slot by the Kai Tuchmann and Angelique Doludag, who are actually working on a documentary based on ‘Room of one soul’ by Virginia Wolf, but depicted something unrelated to their work. They tried to depict the concept of hospitality through their interactive conversations with the crowd. They offered apple slices, murukku and water to the crowd, while making
conversation with them. “We were trying to depict how it was to meet people, interact and just get to know them,” commented Kai.

Fabian Hesse, who is a visual artist and an artist-in-residence at Jaaga and who loves to explore public space, read some text and made the crowd touch and feel a rabbit, which had human and rabbit ears, and tried to shed light on the concept of mutation. “I’m deeply impressed with the gods and goddesses in India — Ganesha who has a elephant head and other gods with several hands,” said Fabian.

Unni Madhavan Kishore, an art curator, said that though the format of the event had been retained, it could have been a crispier presentation. “The artists took us across different dimensions, in a really short time. The presentation needs to be bettered, but for a first time, it was a very appreciable performance. The crowd seemed to be genuinely interested in the different works, and this kind of events will surely help to expand the art circuit,” said Unni.

Hemalatha, who is an arts teacher, said that it was nice to see different types of arts being explored in the City. “It’s always a pleasure to see different forms from outside too. Bangalore, being a cosmopolitan city, helps to expose us to different cultures, which I consider lucky to be a part of,” she shared.