PAN Asia Festival

The recently concluded 10th anniversary edition of the PAN (Performance Art Network) Asia Festival, centred around the theme ‘A.L.A.R.M. – Approaches to Live Art in the Revolution of Media’, cemented the importance of performance art within the contemporary arts landscape.

Dot, Dash, Line and its Narrative

It starts with a dot: the immediate effect of putting pen to paper, the first mark on the blank canvas. Stretch the mark a little in any direction and there you have it: a dash – an entity that grows first into a line that divides the drawing plane.

Sporting the Saree

Can sarees be fun? The Saree Speak group, with its new avatar of the old kitty party, the rush of meeting strangers and games around the saree will have us believe that sarees are not only fun but also a source of deep community building

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That Martand Khosla is an architect by education and practice is very evident from the works at his second solo-exhibit at Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi.

DAMnedART

As far as I can remember, Chennai’s relationship with water has always been contentious.

Beyond Bricks

One of the most important festivals celebrated in Thiruvananthapuram is the Attukal Pongala offered to the Devi of the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple.

Future Threads

If the narratives and stories designers and craftspeople weave into their textiles and clothing link past histories to current times, then trend forecasting in design quite imaginatively can be viewed as mythological stories about the future

Mind The Gap

Among a growing number of architects seeking to bridge the gap between conscious social interactions and aesthetic training is the Madras Office for Architects and Designers (MOAD) that focuses on situation-specific solutions

The Inside Story

In art and architecture, the myth becomes an antidote to oblivion, giving misplaced importance to private creation where – besides the building or the canvas – the artist or architect too becomes a figure worthy of worship

Under The Starry Night

Loving Vincent, the world’s first fully painted feature film, is not just a tribute to the master artist, Vincent Van Gogh, but a telling narrative that goes beyond ‘making’ a film to actually ‘designing’ one, too

Set In Stone

The heart of Indian cinema lies in its songs, and sometimes the heart of the song lies in a fort or a palace or a historic monument, giving songs a powerful imagery that goes beyond the lyric or the tune or even the performers

Reconnecting Roots

Monolithic form taking centre stage, often using bright and multiple colours, layered with intricate patterns are some of the significant features of a typical work of Gond art. In an exclusive interview with Gond artist Bhajju Shyam, we rediscover this art form’s innate connection to nature and the artist’s own roots, deeply embedded within the different colours and textures of the earth

Hope For The Loom

The SavetheLoom project that revived Kerala’s handloom cotton and khadi, despite the devastating floods, is testament to how fashion as a system relies on a network; one that can be harnessed for social good and collective innovation

Circle Of Life

While some believe they are man-made hoaxes, others believe aliens are responsible for it. We throw in a few more outlandish theories to the mix in an attempt to add to the considerable body of non-knowledge on crop circles

A Stone Is Cast

Art as a space has the ability to both transcend barriers and break them, while also creating newer, more sensitive and tolerant boundaries from which to view, like unexpected ripples distorting perceived perfection

The Transformers

Chennai-based architect Krithika Subrahmanian walks us through her studio space and shows us why a keen sense of balance is the key in design and architecture

Heart Of Clay

From the ‘abode of the Godmakers’, the distinctive characteristic of the soil used in idol-making is more than just raw material; it is an amalgam of an ancient history that the earth holds

Real And Ethereal

‘My works do not stop at the visual level and every viewer becomes a serious thinker. He creates his own story according to his perceptions and questions the society in his own way.’ Krishna Setty

A Beast, A God, And A Line

Famous French historian Marc Bloch’s 1949 book The Historian’s Craft begins with a simple yet poignant phrase: ‘Tell me Daddy. What is the use of history?’ Years later, Serge Gruzinski, another French historian, chose to contemplate the same question in his 2015 book L’histoire, pour quoi faire? While Bloch discussed what constitutes history and how it should be configured, Gruzinski took the discourse a bit further and incorporated it within contemporary narratives.

International Print Biennale, India

MARCH 26 TO APRIL 22, 2018, NEW DELHI

Beyond Transnationalism: The Legacy Of Post Independent Art From South Asia

Last year, the UN Refugee Agency’s annual Global Trends study concluded that war, violence and persecution have uprooted more men, women and children around the world than at any time in the seven-decade history of UNHCR.

Black, White, Red And Grey

Appupen’s fourth graphic novel ‘The Snake and the Lotus’ set in the fictional world of Halahala, is a quiet reminder of a dark reality, one that is as scarily familiar as it is unfamiliar

Down The Road Of Stories

Discovering Auckland’s mood in graffiti with a walk down K-Road gives a colourful recap of the city’s past few decades

Watch Me If You Can

Italian photographer Leonardo Pucci’s first artistic solo exhibition titled ‘Episodes (without a real border)’ captures stolen moments of intimacy that find its balance – sometimes precarious, sometimes profound – in the minds of its viewers

Natural Lessons Of Differences

The magic of trees, open skies, meandering rivers, thick forests, playful gardens with visual bridges through it – all these can teach us to look at the variegated patterns of life in the colours of nature.

This Side, That Side

In Search of Dariya Sagar might be about the Sindhi community’s Partition trauma, but with its questions of identity, communal baggage, fear and shame, it could well be the story of the human condition today.

Beyond The Wall

Prayaag Akbar’s debut novel Leila forces us to recognise the walls we’ve built, both in our minds and in our societies, and ask ourselves honest questions about why we guard them so tenaciously.

Bridging The Gap

The G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture situated in a reconstructed warehouse is more than just a venue; it is a space where innovation and collaboration come together to find expression.

Mapping It Out

Maps divide, and put us in our place, literally. But they are also an integral part of our identity and can be a beautiful and peaceful study of lines, forms, textures and space.

In Two Minds

From psychologically sensitive biopics to farcical comedies, cinema is forever engaged with the idea of fractured identities.