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Like a thousand words on Mumbai

A review of the FOCUS Festival that has its eyes on Mumbai without being confined to one theme or genre.
by Medha Kulkarni

Last Sunday, I decided to spend my day checking out the FOCUS Festival that’s currently on in the city. Armed with a basic understanding of what the festival was about, I checked the schedule for Sunday and headed off to town, not really knowing what to expect. However, from the minute I stepped into the Gallerie Max Mueller (my first stop) I knew that this was going to be one amazing fest!

A Fantastic Legacy: Early Bombay Photography, from 1840 to 1900 is an exhibition curated by Susan Hapgood. It’s a visual treat for anyone who loves this city. The grainy black and white images hark back to a time when Mumbai was Bombay, and provide a stunning juxtaposition to the city as it is now. Each and every single photograph is an original.

My next stop was the other pivotal focus for the festival titled A Photograph is Not an Opinion – Contemporary Photography by Women, which is on display at the Jehangir Art Gallery. I think it is truly commendable that the organisers of the festival recognised the need for a separate discourse on gender and art, and thus organised such an exhibition. With works ranging across diverse themes by women photographers from around the world, this exhibition lived up to its name. Instead of pronouncing judgement, it offers people a point from where they can build on.

I decided to take a break from viewing the exhibitions and took a sneak peek at Children’s Digital Photography Workshop with Himanshu Seth. I arrived when it was nearing its end and reached in time to see excited children, who were armed with their digicams, busy planning their next photography exhibition. I spoke to some of the parents present there and asked them what they thought about the workshop. “It’s a wonderful idea. Kids these days are surrounded by technology and know much more than their parents. Such events help us channel this interest and knowledge of theirs in a healthy manner” said Anubha Chati, whose son and daughter attended the workshop.

With no other events lined up for that afternoon, I headed to the next exhibition and stopped by at The Guild, which has mounted a group exhibition featuring the works of Baiju Parthan, Gigi Scaria, Mithu Sen and Pooja Iranna. What I loved about this exhibition was that they brought four established and very different artists working in the same medium, but each having their own style, together. Gigi Scaria’s photographs of buildings arranged in a Tetris-reminiscent manner were perhaps the most engaging works on display.

I headed out towards Art Musings in Colaba next, where I viewed another group exhibition. Titled ‘37 Indian still lifes’, which is a collaboration between the gallery and Tasveer, the exhibition is a fabulous photographic documentation of Indian still life and an exploration of the narrative within it. “Sheer variety!” was the reaction of Shraddha Kulkarni, a viewer I met at this exhibition, when I asked her what she liked best about the exhibition. I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of exhibition goers and they all more or less reiterated what Shraddha said. The best thing about FOCUS, as far the masses of the city go, was the ease of accessibility to works and also the wide variety of works exhibited. No single theme or genre dominates the exhibition.

The FOCUS Festival is will be on for over two weeks from now. Look for event details here. 

                                       (Picture courtesy Goethe Institut, Mumbai)

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Two students, the environment and Germany

Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Programme combines study with green sense; chance for Indian students to be ecological representatives in Germany.

Know a student who is environmentally-conscious who likes to travel to far-off places? This upcoming programme is just what he or she needs.

Bayer is providing young environmentalists with an opportunity to win an all-expenses paid week-long field trip to Germany. This is part of the company’s forthcoming Youth Environmental Envoy 2013 programme scheduled to take place in Germany this year, and it invites entries from students with active participation in an ongoing or completed environment project. The entries will be shortlisted based on various criteria such as sustainability, inventiveness and project management.

From the shortlisted entries, two students will be chosen to represent India as Bayer Youth Environmental Envoys 2013 to Germany. The week long study trip will give students the opportunity to gain a firsthand experience of best environmental protection practices by the company, people and government in industrialised countries.

Last year, Gaurav Maheshwari and Swapnil Kokate represented India from November 4 to 9, 2012 in the programme, where they got a first-hand experience of how sustainable environmental practices are pursued jointly by the people, government and industry. The excursion entailed visits to various waste management and recycling sites as well as workshops on nature monitoring and conservation.

The Programme is a global environment education programme organised by Bayer and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help young people learn about trends and perspectives in the field of environmental protection and sustainability. It is open to all Indian students in the age group 18 to 24 years, holding a valid passport and actively involved in a current or completed environmental project. Further details on the criteria, joining procedures and application forms are available on the India section of www.byee.bayer.com. The last date for submission of entries is July 31, 2013. The application form for the Programme is available online.

(Picture courtesy bikinginaskirt.blogspot.com)

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France says ‘Hello!’

Bonjour India, currently underway, will travel to 16 Indian cities all this month to strengthen ties between the two countries.
by Medha Kulkarni

Have you always loved French culture, and wanted to experience it firsthand? Well, lucky you. As part of the efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties between the France and India, Bonjour India,the Festival of France, is here and will travel to 16 different cities this year.

1985 saw the first Year of India in France, and it was replete with elephants ambling across the Trocadero in Paris to the Eiffel Tower. This year’s Indo-French cultural relationships celebrations comprise of a wide variety of wonderful cultural events. The beauty of this programme is that it has been designed such that it encompasses the entire realm of person-to-person exchange between India and France, whether in art, literature, cinema, fashion, performing arts or sports.

The first edition of Bonjour India was in 2009-2010, and it was so successful that it encouraged the Institut Français en Inde and the French Embassy in India, in association with the Alliance Française India network and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to engineer this one, the second edition which started in January and will go on till April 2013.

Here’s a quick round up of what’s on offer in Mumbai:

March 12-18, Photography, Lost Highway – Part of the FOCUS festival, an exhibition of photographs by Chantal Stoman, at Studio X

March 18, Cinema, An Evening With Short Films, at Prithvi Theatre

March 20, Gastronomy, The Floating Buffet, at Novotel

March 26, Music, Amarallis Ensemble – Pain and Pleasure at the Court of Versailles, at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA.

Look for more details and schedules for other cities here.

(Picture courtesy bonjour-india.in. In the picture is the Amarallis Ensemble)

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A wedding fair for senior citizens

A wedding fair for senior citizens looking for partners and live-in companions will be held at Matunga on April 7.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

All over the world, senior citizens are expected to settle down into quiet oblivion once they retire from work and cross the magic age of 60, silently watching as their families continue with their lives. In our country, however, the problem of ‘old age’ is compounded for those who lose a spouse to death or divorce – and the worst part is, we don’t want to hear our senior citizens say, “I’m lonely. I want to get married again.”

“With the trend of nuclear families increasing in our country, senior citizens are often left to fend for themselves. The country’s senior citizen population is increasing. Today, 10 per cent of all Indians are senior citizens – 10 crore Indians are over 60 years of age, and 12,00,000 of them are in Mumbai alone,” said Sailesh Mishra, founder of the NGO Silver Innings, which works for senior citizens in the country. He was speaking at a press conference held to announce a ‘Senior Citizens Jeevan Saathi Sammelan’, that will take place at Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre on April 7.

“When a senior citizen loses his or her spouse, he/she becomes really lonely, but they are not allowed to express it because society does not expect ‘old’ people to want a companion at that age,” Sailesh explained. “Research shows that while the longevity of senior citizens in our country is going up each year, women have been found to outlive men. But again, it is very difficult for a woman of that age to say that she needs a companion, that she wants to spend the rest of her life with somebody. We feel that senior citizens should also get the chance to find a suitable mate,” he said. To incentivise women’s participation in the Sammelan, all women who attend the meeting will be given basic train fare, lunch and a saree.

The Sammelan is the brainchild of Natubhai Patel (62), the founder-chairman of Vina Mulya Amulya Seva (VMAS) in Ahmedabad, which has to its credit 75 senior citizen marriages and the setting up of 25 live-ins all over India. “We decided to do  such a big meeting in Mumbai because our research says that 39 per cent of senior citizens living alone in this city are senior citizens. With rising crime against seniors, and the fact that their twilight years can be better spent with somebody of their choice, the Sammelan aims to have willing senior citizens meet each other and make an informed choice about the partner they choose.”

 

Sailesh added that women’s participation in such meetings has been found to be very low. “We want more women to participate. Through our counselling sessions, we find that most men are looking for companionship, while women look for financial security. At that age, marriage is not required for sex, but more for love and security.” On being asked if the organisers would ensure that no fraudulent members participated in the meeting, Sailesh said that all participants would be advised to carry out background checks before going ahead with the person they chose. “We will only facilitate the meeting, apart from helping with legal advice and marriage counselling when required,” Sailesh said.

The Sammelan is not open to people below 50 years of age, or those whose partners are still alive. If divorced, the participant must produce documentary proof of the divorce, or if the spouse is deceased, the death certificate must be shown. An ID proof of age is mandatory. The Sammelan is open to widows, widowers, single people and divorcees, all over 50 years of age. The event is being organised by Rotary Club of Mumbai (Nariman Point), in association with Silver Innings and VMAS. Contact 099871 04233/ 09029000091 for details and registration.

Tomorrow: Who participates in these events? What are senior citizens in India expecting from their partners?

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How about an art attack?

Art Night Thursday, an ongoing art show initiative, makes art more accessible and time-friendly to the general public in Mumbai.
by Medha Kulkarni

On every second Thursday of the month, a handful of some of the art galleries at Colaba and Fort stay open till 9:30 pm to hold Art Night Thursday. Chatterjee & Lal, Chemould Prescott Road, Gallery Maskara, Gallery Beyond, Volte Gallery, Sakshi Gallery, The Guild, Lakeeren and Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke are amongst the participating galleries.

It’s a fabulous initiative that started a little over a year ago and has been instrumental in making art more accessible to the general public. Most galleries tend to be closed on weekends and shut by around 7 pm on weekdays. This makes it difficult for the regular office-going crowd, students etc. to ever go catch a show. Thus, keeping the galleries open on a weeknight till late has provided such people with the wonderful opportunity to be able to catch their favourite art shows without missing work.

Art Thursday this month is tomorrow, March 14, and you can get more information on the Mumbai Art Map here.

This month, Art Night Thursday highlights those galleries that are a part of the FOCUS Festival Mumbai, the first festival in the city dedicated solely to the work of young and promising photographers from all over the world.

I suggest picking up an art map from one of the outlets mentioned in the link above, and hit the art trail in the following order:

– Chemould Prescott Road : “Parsis” by Sooni Taraporevala, March 06 – April 06, 2013

– Art Musings : “37 Still Lifes”, March 14 – April 13, 2013

– Goethe-Institut Mumbai : “A Fantastic Legacy: Early Bombay Photography from 1840 to 1900”, March 13-27, 2013

– The Guild: Group exhibition March 13-27, 2013

– The Hermes Mumbai Store: “The Inhabited Space” by Sean Rocha, March 13-27

– Project 88 : “A Village in Bengal” by Chirodeep Chaudhuri, March 14-26, 2013

– Sakshi Gallery: “Poseurs”, March 14-24, 2013

– Studio-X: “Lost Highway” by Chantal Stoman, March 12-18, 2013

Medha Kulkarni, 25, lives in Mumbai and is a curator at Volte Gallery. Her hobbies include reading, travelling and writing.

(Picture courtesy mumbailocal.net)

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With a FOCUS on Mumbai

First-ever photography festival kicks off tomorrow in the city, and it will feature young photographers from all around the world.
by Medha Kulkarni

FOCUS, Mumbai’s first ever photography festival, kicks off tomorrow, March 13, 2013. Spread over two weeks, the festival is dedicated exclusively to the work of young, emerging photographers from all over the world. The best part about it? It’s open to everyone, totally free of cost!

The two pivotal exhibitions of the festival are:

A Fantastic Legacy: Early Bombay Photography, from 1840 to 1900
Curated by Mumbai Art Room owner Susan Hapgood, the USP of this exhibition is that all the works on display are original prints. Stunning portraits, panoramic views of the city and some of the earliest photographs by members of the Photographic Society of Bombay, the exhibition promises to enthrall all those who love this city and continue to be fascinated by it.

Head to Galerie Max Mueller, Max Mueller Bhavan, K. Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, on Thursday, March 14 to Wednesday, March 27. The exhibition is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 7pm, and will be closed on Sunday.

A Photograph Is Not An Opinion – Contemporary Photography By Women
A group exhibition of works by emerging women artists from India and abroad, this exhibition highlights various important themes – the city and the environment, the family album, loss of some kind- while encourage discourse on gender and sexuality.
Head to Terrace Gallery, Jehangir Art Gallery, 161 MG Road, Kala Ghoda, on Thursday, March 14 to Wednesday, March 27. Daily, from 11am to 7pm.

In addition to these two, FOCUS has teamed up with Mumbai’s artistic community to launch a diverse range of several other exhibitions and events. The city’s dynamic art scene coupled with the festival’s outreach has ensured that most of the best galleries and important cultural centers are geared up for the event and this, in turn, ensures that it’s within easy reach of everyone in the city. Additionally, unconventional spaces such as design shops and studios, cafes and other lifestyle spaces will be multi-tasking as galleries throughout the duration of the festival.  A range of educational initiatives, workshops and talks (all free) have been planned as part of the festival.

Get more details here.

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