"Khoj Dus Tak" A unique multi-disciplinary festival at KHOJ International Artists' Association, S-17, Khirkee Extension, Near Malviya Nagar > 11am-7pm on 23rd-25th November 2012
Time : 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Event Details : 'Khoj Dus Tak' A unique multi-disciplinary festival by Khoj in collaboration with art practitioners and Khirkee community.
This is a community-based ‘arts’ festival that has no precedence. 21 projects, 6 events, 27 artists, all come together for the three day festival (November 23-25, 2012) that has been organised to celebrate the completion of ten years of Khoj in Khirkee Extension and it’s the community of Khirkee who will get a chance to double up as artists, musicians, theatre artists, cooks and more. Second, the year 2012 is also marked by the newly furbished Khoj building and Khoj wishes to open the renovated building with this festival. Titled Khoj Dus Tak, the three day Khirkee Utsav will witness a gamut of activities which represent the participatory practices in Khirkee where artists and communities come together to address the visible and invisible transformation in their surroundings. Ranging from an art exhibition (inside Khoj Studios and in the streets) of various community based projects done at Khoj, Khirkee shop makeovers, nukkad natak, mural-making, football matches, hip-hop dance offs, a music concert, kavi sammelan and mushaira, Khirkee walks and more, these events will feature a cross section of the Khirkee residents and have been developed in collaboration with the community and several art practitioners.
Says Pooja Sood: “Khoj has been based in Khirkee Extension for the last ten years and during this time, Khoj’s engagement with Khirkee - the location, its (often changing) inhabitants and its surrounding areas, have given various artists the opportunity to facilitate creative workshops, events, research projects and other participatory activities with different sections of the community. Such community programmes have always been led by the Khirkee extension community to produce collective visions and ideas about creative and urban development. It is to celebrate this continuous process of community engagement that we have organised Khoj Dus Tak.”
The exhibition (November 23, 24 & 25 from 11 a.m to 7 p.m) will be displayed in the newly renovated premises and on the streets. The exhibition will present a history of Khirkee, with old maps and audio narratives from older generations currently residing in Khirkee. It will also revisit some of Khoj’s old and new community projects.
For instance, Window into Khirkee, will conjure a history of Khirkee through old maps, audio recordings of conversations with one of the oldest residents of Khirkee, who is fondly called Masterji. Simultaneously, Khoj also presents a few studies done by Delhi Urban Art Commission and Chintan (an environmental NGO in Khirkee). A video of Khoj’s engagement with Khirkee and its residents show the transformation in Khirkee giving a taste of the story of Khirkee.
Also part of the exhibition is Khirkee-yaan, a project done in 2006, which was the exploration and employment of an open circuit TV system as a network, communication feedback and intervention device in Khirkee. Developed by Shaina Anand of CAMP, Khirkee-yaan is an extension of process oriented and self organised in-situ public media interventions.
Another part of the exhibition is Khirkee’s Khirkees, which is an exploration of the views and scenes, both real and imagined, of the people who live in Khirkee. Juxtaposing the actual with the aspirational, the project looks at creating a new kind of map to represent the lives and dreams of the neighbourhood in constant flux. The project has been conceptualised by Julia Gutge and Malini Kochupillai.
Posters and three-dimensional models from architect and urban planner Sudeshna Chatterjee’s project of May 2011 titled Play @ Khirkee will also be part of the exhibition. The project explored the landscapes of play in Khirkee and its surrounding areas. Taking a socio-spatial perspective and using ethnographic field work, the project explored how play is perceived by the community, how spaces for play are conceived and how children play in urban spaces. Says Chatterjee: “Khirkee is a special place for children. I have seen more free and imaginative play unfold here than in any other neighbourhood in Delhi in a long time. Children in Khirkee have several places to choose from to play in their everyday environment. This ranges from the manicured garden-like-setting inside the large Khirkee park to the dusty barren rectangular DDA park, from the vast rough grounds of Satpula to the sunken rock strewn open spaces around the Khirkee mosque, which is an (un)protected monument.”
Also part of the show is an interactive sound installation. The Sound Visualisation project will generate animated imagery based on the sounds of the streets of Khirkee. A real-time projection of sounds from the street outside Khoj will projected in the form of animated forms that will change colour, shape and size depending on the sound volume and pitch. The effects will be combined to illustrate a colourful visualisation of the Khirkee’s street sounds. The project has been developed by Arjun Jassal for BlueAnt Intelligence.
Last but not the least is the Invisible Constellation (City [In] Visible) project, an offshoot of the City [In] Visible project at Khoj. Invisible Constellation is an online interactive work that generates dialogue and narratives of the fast-changing urban scenario in Indian cities and other developing countries. As part of a six week residency at Khoj in 2008, artist Sreejata Roy and Mrityunjay Chatterjee connected with the residents of Khirkee in order to understand how they have coped with the transformation of the city into an urban, bustling metropolis.
Also part of the exhibition is Super Burka Girl in Khirki, a photography series by Malini Kochupillai where Super Burka Girl visits Khirki and meets some of its residents starting from Krishna Mandir to Select CityWalk mall. Clad in a rainbow-coloured and camouflage-print burka, the Burka Girl is stopped by police and security guards to clarify her identity. Super Burka Girl made her debut in 2010 in Italy before travelling all over the world to question women’s role in society and to subvert ethnic and religious conflicts. The performing artist is Grace Zanatto and photographer: is Malini Kochupillai.
Apart from the above exhibition, the festival will also witness some unique new projects. A Photo Studio will be created in one of the rooms at the newly renovated Khoj for three-days and the residents of Khirkee will be invited to get their photographs taken at minimum price so that they can create memories that mark their lives.
Another project is of Shop Makeovers where eight artists - Upasana Mehdiratta, Gaurvi Sharma, Vinima Gulati, Ram Bali Chauhan, Tulsi Ram, Amitabh Kumar, Sanjib Roy - will work in collaboration with five shopkeepers to exchange ideas and develop a collective method of art-making. The artists will help the shopkeepers to identify and translate ideas about how they can re-decorate their shops. By connecting the artists with the community, the project hopes to demonstrate the relevance of art in everyday life and hopes to encourage more civil participation with art. Says Sood: “We hope that the project will become a catalyst for community arts practice, so that the community can decide on ways in which to engage with art.”
Khirkee Murals is another project where Anpu Varke, a former resident of Khirkee and Nasheen, a current resident of Khirkee, will mark their stay and interaction with Khirkee by drawing murals relating to the changing face of Khirkee and ongoing urban expansion.
For Khirkee Raag, Tarik, a band based in Delhi and Shillong, collaborates with three musicians from Khirkee (Avinash, Hardeep, Reshma) to create an original song about Khirkee. Sounds from the local chai wallah, small production units and hawkers will compliment the musical content.
Khirkee Mosque Ad campaign will also be displayed during the festival. In August 2012, Shraddha Borawake, a practicing photographer, conducted a three day workshop with the youth of Khirkee. The workshop aimed to critically engage the children with media practices and, in the process, helped the children to create an advertising campaign for the Khirkee Mosque. The mosque is a fourteenth century building around which the Khirkee village has grown and has come to visually represent Khirkee.
Khoj will also host Theatre Workshops with children from Swarn Public School in Khirkee which will be a collaborative learning space, co-created by the participants and theatre group Purple Mangoes. The participants will be invited to share personal stories that may be overlooked, suppressed or negated, giving them the opportunity to reflect and accept themselves and others. These stories will be told through play, body movement exercises, improvisations, songs and music. Through this process of storytelling, a street play will be produced that will be staged during the festival.
Khirkee Se brings together three sound projects that will be played in public spaces like barber shops and tea stalls. The first Telephone Pyaar is a fictional audio project, produced in collaboration with young residents of Khirkee, which stages a series of telephone conversations between young lovers. Originally developed in February 2009, this project comprised of workshops that explored various notions of love as they are depicted in popular culture (films, songs and stories) and of visits to “love sites” such local monuments, street corner, dating spots and internet cafes. Picking up on themes that evolved from workshop discussions, the programme participants then scripted and recorded fictional phone conversations. The project has been developed by Abhinandita Mathur.
Then there is Zariyein - a community-based art intervention done in 2006, used images, audio and conversations to explore the diversity of lived experiences in Khirkee. By asking participants to take photographs and make recordings of the impressions of their everyday, the project attempts to unearth the interactions between people and their spaces and experiences. By circulating these images and recordings, the project encourages conversations amongst the larger public in the community, leading to a collective representation of the Khirkee context. The project has been developed by FrameWorks Collective.
Gharelu Nuskhe, a project undertaken in 2009, was part of the 1 Mile Square project at Khoj. The project explores the potential to communicate and share knowledge of medicinal plants found in home kitchen through wireless micro broadcasting. The project has been developed by Aastha Chauhan
For Khirkee ka Khana & Recipe books project, on each day of the festival, Khoj will invite five women of Khirkee to cook special food items of their own creation. The food will then be served to the general public. A recipe book will also be made available.
Bol Khirkee has been created in collaboration with Awaaz.de, where Khoj has provided a telephone service through which Khirkee residents can to exchange songs, sounds, poetry and other information with each other. Through use of an interactive voice recording (IVR) system, community participants can call in and record messages that are further broadcasted to the rest of the community.
Apart from all of the above, there will be a guided Khirkee Walk by Sohail Hashmi (Nov 23 & Nov 24) at 8 a.m; a football match between teams of Khirkee titled Satpula Super Series III (Nov 23 & Nov 24) at 3 p.m.; a Khirkee Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan on Nov 25 (3 p.m.); a music concert by Avi & Wan on Nov 24 (4.30 p.m.) and a Nukkad Natak on Nov 25 (4.30 p.m.)
Entry : Free
Place : KHOJ International Artists' Association, S-17, Khirkee Extension, Near Malviya Nagar, New Delhi - 110017
Event Details : 'Khoj Dus Tak' A unique multi-disciplinary festival by Khoj in collaboration with art practitioners and Khirkee community.
This is a community-based ‘arts’ festival that has no precedence. 21 projects, 6 events, 27 artists, all come together for the three day festival (November 23-25, 2012) that has been organised to celebrate the completion of ten years of Khoj in Khirkee Extension and it’s the community of Khirkee who will get a chance to double up as artists, musicians, theatre artists, cooks and more. Second, the year 2012 is also marked by the newly furbished Khoj building and Khoj wishes to open the renovated building with this festival. Titled Khoj Dus Tak, the three day Khirkee Utsav will witness a gamut of activities which represent the participatory practices in Khirkee where artists and communities come together to address the visible and invisible transformation in their surroundings. Ranging from an art exhibition (inside Khoj Studios and in the streets) of various community based projects done at Khoj, Khirkee shop makeovers, nukkad natak, mural-making, football matches, hip-hop dance offs, a music concert, kavi sammelan and mushaira, Khirkee walks and more, these events will feature a cross section of the Khirkee residents and have been developed in collaboration with the community and several art practitioners.
Says Pooja Sood: “Khoj has been based in Khirkee Extension for the last ten years and during this time, Khoj’s engagement with Khirkee - the location, its (often changing) inhabitants and its surrounding areas, have given various artists the opportunity to facilitate creative workshops, events, research projects and other participatory activities with different sections of the community. Such community programmes have always been led by the Khirkee extension community to produce collective visions and ideas about creative and urban development. It is to celebrate this continuous process of community engagement that we have organised Khoj Dus Tak.”
The exhibition (November 23, 24 & 25 from 11 a.m to 7 p.m) will be displayed in the newly renovated premises and on the streets. The exhibition will present a history of Khirkee, with old maps and audio narratives from older generations currently residing in Khirkee. It will also revisit some of Khoj’s old and new community projects.
For instance, Window into Khirkee, will conjure a history of Khirkee through old maps, audio recordings of conversations with one of the oldest residents of Khirkee, who is fondly called Masterji. Simultaneously, Khoj also presents a few studies done by Delhi Urban Art Commission and Chintan (an environmental NGO in Khirkee). A video of Khoj’s engagement with Khirkee and its residents show the transformation in Khirkee giving a taste of the story of Khirkee.
Also part of the exhibition is Khirkee-yaan, a project done in 2006, which was the exploration and employment of an open circuit TV system as a network, communication feedback and intervention device in Khirkee. Developed by Shaina Anand of CAMP, Khirkee-yaan is an extension of process oriented and self organised in-situ public media interventions.
Another part of the exhibition is Khirkee’s Khirkees, which is an exploration of the views and scenes, both real and imagined, of the people who live in Khirkee. Juxtaposing the actual with the aspirational, the project looks at creating a new kind of map to represent the lives and dreams of the neighbourhood in constant flux. The project has been conceptualised by Julia Gutge and Malini Kochupillai.
Posters and three-dimensional models from architect and urban planner Sudeshna Chatterjee’s project of May 2011 titled Play @ Khirkee will also be part of the exhibition. The project explored the landscapes of play in Khirkee and its surrounding areas. Taking a socio-spatial perspective and using ethnographic field work, the project explored how play is perceived by the community, how spaces for play are conceived and how children play in urban spaces. Says Chatterjee: “Khirkee is a special place for children. I have seen more free and imaginative play unfold here than in any other neighbourhood in Delhi in a long time. Children in Khirkee have several places to choose from to play in their everyday environment. This ranges from the manicured garden-like-setting inside the large Khirkee park to the dusty barren rectangular DDA park, from the vast rough grounds of Satpula to the sunken rock strewn open spaces around the Khirkee mosque, which is an (un)protected monument.”
Also part of the show is an interactive sound installation. The Sound Visualisation project will generate animated imagery based on the sounds of the streets of Khirkee. A real-time projection of sounds from the street outside Khoj will projected in the form of animated forms that will change colour, shape and size depending on the sound volume and pitch. The effects will be combined to illustrate a colourful visualisation of the Khirkee’s street sounds. The project has been developed by Arjun Jassal for BlueAnt Intelligence.
Last but not the least is the Invisible Constellation (City [In] Visible) project, an offshoot of the City [In] Visible project at Khoj. Invisible Constellation is an online interactive work that generates dialogue and narratives of the fast-changing urban scenario in Indian cities and other developing countries. As part of a six week residency at Khoj in 2008, artist Sreejata Roy and Mrityunjay Chatterjee connected with the residents of Khirkee in order to understand how they have coped with the transformation of the city into an urban, bustling metropolis.
Also part of the exhibition is Super Burka Girl in Khirki, a photography series by Malini Kochupillai where Super Burka Girl visits Khirki and meets some of its residents starting from Krishna Mandir to Select CityWalk mall. Clad in a rainbow-coloured and camouflage-print burka, the Burka Girl is stopped by police and security guards to clarify her identity. Super Burka Girl made her debut in 2010 in Italy before travelling all over the world to question women’s role in society and to subvert ethnic and religious conflicts. The performing artist is Grace Zanatto and photographer: is Malini Kochupillai.
Apart from the above exhibition, the festival will also witness some unique new projects. A Photo Studio will be created in one of the rooms at the newly renovated Khoj for three-days and the residents of Khirkee will be invited to get their photographs taken at minimum price so that they can create memories that mark their lives.
Another project is of Shop Makeovers where eight artists - Upasana Mehdiratta, Gaurvi Sharma, Vinima Gulati, Ram Bali Chauhan, Tulsi Ram, Amitabh Kumar, Sanjib Roy - will work in collaboration with five shopkeepers to exchange ideas and develop a collective method of art-making. The artists will help the shopkeepers to identify and translate ideas about how they can re-decorate their shops. By connecting the artists with the community, the project hopes to demonstrate the relevance of art in everyday life and hopes to encourage more civil participation with art. Says Sood: “We hope that the project will become a catalyst for community arts practice, so that the community can decide on ways in which to engage with art.”
Khirkee Murals is another project where Anpu Varke, a former resident of Khirkee and Nasheen, a current resident of Khirkee, will mark their stay and interaction with Khirkee by drawing murals relating to the changing face of Khirkee and ongoing urban expansion.
For Khirkee Raag, Tarik, a band based in Delhi and Shillong, collaborates with three musicians from Khirkee (Avinash, Hardeep, Reshma) to create an original song about Khirkee. Sounds from the local chai wallah, small production units and hawkers will compliment the musical content.
Khirkee Mosque Ad campaign will also be displayed during the festival. In August 2012, Shraddha Borawake, a practicing photographer, conducted a three day workshop with the youth of Khirkee. The workshop aimed to critically engage the children with media practices and, in the process, helped the children to create an advertising campaign for the Khirkee Mosque. The mosque is a fourteenth century building around which the Khirkee village has grown and has come to visually represent Khirkee.
Khoj will also host Theatre Workshops with children from Swarn Public School in Khirkee which will be a collaborative learning space, co-created by the participants and theatre group Purple Mangoes. The participants will be invited to share personal stories that may be overlooked, suppressed or negated, giving them the opportunity to reflect and accept themselves and others. These stories will be told through play, body movement exercises, improvisations, songs and music. Through this process of storytelling, a street play will be produced that will be staged during the festival.
Khirkee Se brings together three sound projects that will be played in public spaces like barber shops and tea stalls. The first Telephone Pyaar is a fictional audio project, produced in collaboration with young residents of Khirkee, which stages a series of telephone conversations between young lovers. Originally developed in February 2009, this project comprised of workshops that explored various notions of love as they are depicted in popular culture (films, songs and stories) and of visits to “love sites” such local monuments, street corner, dating spots and internet cafes. Picking up on themes that evolved from workshop discussions, the programme participants then scripted and recorded fictional phone conversations. The project has been developed by Abhinandita Mathur.
Then there is Zariyein - a community-based art intervention done in 2006, used images, audio and conversations to explore the diversity of lived experiences in Khirkee. By asking participants to take photographs and make recordings of the impressions of their everyday, the project attempts to unearth the interactions between people and their spaces and experiences. By circulating these images and recordings, the project encourages conversations amongst the larger public in the community, leading to a collective representation of the Khirkee context. The project has been developed by FrameWorks Collective.
Gharelu Nuskhe, a project undertaken in 2009, was part of the 1 Mile Square project at Khoj. The project explores the potential to communicate and share knowledge of medicinal plants found in home kitchen through wireless micro broadcasting. The project has been developed by Aastha Chauhan
For Khirkee ka Khana & Recipe books project, on each day of the festival, Khoj will invite five women of Khirkee to cook special food items of their own creation. The food will then be served to the general public. A recipe book will also be made available.
Bol Khirkee has been created in collaboration with Awaaz.de, where Khoj has provided a telephone service through which Khirkee residents can to exchange songs, sounds, poetry and other information with each other. Through use of an interactive voice recording (IVR) system, community participants can call in and record messages that are further broadcasted to the rest of the community.
Apart from all of the above, there will be a guided Khirkee Walk by Sohail Hashmi (Nov 23 & Nov 24) at 8 a.m; a football match between teams of Khirkee titled Satpula Super Series III (Nov 23 & Nov 24) at 3 p.m.; a Khirkee Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan on Nov 25 (3 p.m.); a music concert by Avi & Wan on Nov 24 (4.30 p.m.) and a Nukkad Natak on Nov 25 (4.30 p.m.)
"Khoj Dus Tak" A unique multi-disciplinary festival at KHOJ International Artists' Association, S-17, Khirkee Extension, Near Malviya Nagar > 11am-7pm on 23rd-25th November 2012
!["Khoj Dus Tak" A unique multi-disciplinary festival at KHOJ International Artists' Association, S-17, Khirkee Extension, Near Malviya Nagar > 11am-7pm on 23rd-25th November 2012]()
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Sunday, November 25, 2012
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