Addressing an issue in an innovative way

Visual delight

In an event called ‘H2 Zero’, held at NGMA recently, an innovative concept of movements and visuals was brought forward for the benefit of art lovers in the City.

This was part of ‘Carte Blanche’, an initiative for temporal art interventions by the use of objects. H2 Zero is a movement installation that comprised strong visuals portraying the political, social, economical and physiological identity of water.

The audience was treated to a rare performance of bodies interacting with the architectural structure of a space. Along with this, an array of props were used like empty water and beverage bottles, plastic bags and umbrellas.

In fact, Veena Basavarajaiah, one of the choreographers, even asked the audience to participate in this event by lending umbrellas to the cast. This use of props was to create images that were strong evidence of the present situation of the abundance, inadequacy, abuse and absence of water. On the whole, the performance addressed the issues related to water problem.

This idea was devised by choreographers Deepak K Shivaswamy and Veena Basavarajaiah. They work in collaboration with other City based dance artistes like Akhshay Gandhi, Jahnavi Kamath, Keerthi Basavarajaiah, Nayana K Bhat, Purnima A Kumar and Vinay Kumar. Going one step ahead, the project has collaborating photographers Gomzy and Kay Kay. The idea behind this is to capture every movement on frame and conduct a photo exhibition of the same.

Says Veena, “Deepak and I started this project one month back. But this is not an awareness campaign. Through this, we just want the people to stop for a while and think about what they can do to use water in the most productive way as possible. We try to address issues like lack of water and pollution.”

About the performance she says, “To be honest, we were all scared that it would rain as we were performing in an open space and under really unpredictable conditions. But at the end of it, we are happy by the response we got from people.”

The event saw women dressed in black and men dressed in formals performing to an enthusiastic audience outside the building. They performed numerous movements and lifts so effortlessly which only great dancers can pull off. There were moments when two artistes performed at a time but this was no less enchanting than when the entire troupe came forward.

The grounds were filled with a big group of people who came to watch the show. Most of them were bowled over by the breathtaking performances and also the concept. Says Amrin, who is a professional, “The theme of the show caught my attention. This was the reason I brought my entire family for this. All the sequences were flawless and done with sheer agility. It would be nice if such events were held more often.”