Connecting two countries

Cultural meet

The sudden and unexpected downpour didn’t stop people from joining in for an evening of art and poetry called ‘Love Comes Later’ held at Art Corridor, Taj West End recently.
     
The evening that was put together by the German Consulate General  Bengaluru saw the coming together of Indian literature and German photography.
      
The event revolved around interesting conversations between German photographer Marlene Apmann and author Anita Nair.

The idea of hosting such an event was to contemplate the Indian understanding of marriage. The occasion did well to take people through different perspectives on social relations.

It provoked those in the audience to contemplate the status of women and the concept of marriage – arranged or not. 

The evening began with Anita reading her first poem which was about the expectations of a young girl regarding her marriage.

She shared thoughts about women and how for many women, marriage is less about expectations and more about living in it.

Anita Nair said, “I wrote a few new poems based on this series called ‘The Wedding Album’. The poems are quite contrary to what one would expect in a wedding album. I saw Marlene’s pictures and later created my body of work around it.”

She also read a poem written about Draupadi.

Marlene spoke about how she was curious to see how poetry will add a new layer to her photographs.

“My work is titled ‘Love Comes Later’. It has been put together by my colleague Anja Bohnh and myself. We were impressed with the choice of wedding locations in Bengaluru. Indian weddings are a big affair when compared to Germany. Here there are 500 or more people at weddings but a German wedding will have only about 100 people. My work revolves around Indian weddings and Indian brides,” said Marlene.  

The event was also an occasion for people from India and Germany to understand the art, culture and way of life of people in both countries.

Andrea Christ, Deputy Consul General of Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bengaluru), said, the evening was not a dialogue between two people but
between photographs and poetry.

“Events like this not only help people understand the political systems of two countries (in this context India and Germany) better but also the social customs. This understanding will bring the people of both countries closer to each other and lend a deeper understanding of each other’s culture,” said Andrea.

Those in the audience were impressed with the way Anita and Marlene, blend poetry and photography.

Ann, a photographer from Germany, said that it was curiosity that made her attend the event.

“I am a photographer and when I heard that it was an event about photography I wanted to see what it had in store. Every photograph tells a story,” said Ann.

Tara Lokanath, a guest at the event, said that she got a better insight into the German culture after interacting with Marlene and understanding her work.

“Her pictures do well to create an impact in the onlooker. She has captured the emotions and feelings of Indian brides and pomp of Indian weddings. Anita’s poetry sent out powerful messages of not so happy marriages and questioned the institution of marriage itself.”