The
Art is always understood in the realm of taste and entertaining through any
medium. But,the global confluence of Art has a different version in the
millennium. I can see the Avantegardists’ are back in the land of Assam to
raise a voice through Art for the sake of Art. They do not only like to
entertain people by their artistry, also highly passionate to create a
different but meaningful line of attack. The contemporary political and
traditional society surround of the artists are the main fuel to adapt these
new approaches of Art.
The
ground of Art has been tried to realise in an assimilating and culturally
imbibing compound of Silpagram in Guwahati, Assam recently. It was an Art
happening cum Festival titled Kala
Samannayaa 2014-an International Art showcasing event. I participated in
this Festival as a member-volunteer, arranger, observer and an Art lover. The
idea of building up the Kala Samannaya
imagined the world with its various multicoloured artistic cultures as if various
multicoloured small globes are moving within a large globe (the logo of Kala
Samannayaa).
The
formulation of Kala Samannaya was
introduced to be believed as an evidence of the assimilation of Art ability. Kala the Indian terminology to understand
the knowledge of Art has been implemented in the context of multicultural as
well as multiethnic perception. The Assamese word Samannaya means the cultural integration and hence Kala Samannayaa indicates the absorption
of Art ability of many kinds. Sharing knowledge of Art in a tangible and
intangible way required a deep breath from the very beginning of the Festival when
the artists and Art lovers were in their own way of
experimenting taste. At the end, the entire
exhibiting forms of Art showed a reflection of the social impact at global
perspective.
Imbibing
very many forms into one platform was indeed a hard endeavour. Being a research
background of folklore and dance enthusiasm I was intensely busy to find out interlink
between the art forms or to draw a common language from them. I was happy to
see different innovative Indian based Art forms some of which had traditional
fervour or some were contemporary. The inducing context of the Festival and the
pre-prepared subject matter helped to reduce the gap between the forms but not
the artists. It might be a challenge for all to prove a collective thought over
an individual contemplation. There were visual Art forms, theatre, dance and
musical performance among which the medium of visual Art perhaps were anew in
the region to hypothesise the theme of the Festival i.e., ‘Humanity’.
The
new medium of ‘Performance Art’ according to the concerned artists was prepared
during the Festival camp. I have seen three or four of them were conceptually
different in their performance. The Arts were reflected the suppressive hierarchy
and an awkward part of the social system of the Nation. These Art performances were not felt pleasant
but reasonable, faithful and direct towards its expression. There were no
scripts and the duration of their performances were short (maximum of 5-10
min). The expressions were spoken word, direct communication with the audience
without an essence of familiar theatrical performance. They were completely
aware of the audience and hence could be considered as different from the performing
artists’ category. Their performances were direct and simple (not dramatic)
incorporating satirical elements and undoubtedly conceptual. Few of them were
about the behavioural attitude of people which acclaimed as unnecessary towards
building up a culture. For e.g. the usage of words
‘Welcome’ and ‘Thank you’ (Performance
Art by Chimuk and his co-performer, West Bengal), the physical activity with massage
oil and relaxation (Performance Art by
Jeetin Ranghar and his co-performer, Bangalore). It revealed the protesting of
ongoing social system, common adaptable behaviour and attitude of people. They
called it ‘Protesting Art’. The artists were seen as a protesting sensible
human to fight for the human rights through the medium of Art. It looked
more an awareness than an Art. Again, with the symbolic expression and unaware
of audience, the performing artists, on the other hand, highly depended on script
and hence dramatic norms were revisited through rehearsal.
The dance, music,
theatre etc. were all traditionally set up to perform in an elevated area. I
was sitting to get involve into the melody and rhythm of the performing items
on stage. It was transparent and a polite indirect hypnotisation to get into
the rhythm and its meaning. Now, it is important to notify here that most of
the Indian performing Arts still follow the Nāṭyaśāstra,
the Indian treatise of 2000 years old Dramaturgy ascribed by Bharatamuni. Specially,
the concept of Rasa has been tried to maintain in a very traditional way and the
audience are passive bearers to get into the essence of the performance. I
could see the similarity between the performance Art and performing was the
performer’s body with real physical entity in both cases.
Fortunately,
I was a part of the unconventional performance ‘Quit from Split’- a pre-event
of the Festival. This performance can be regarded as in between of Performance Art
and performing a phenomenon. It had no specific time plan and neither a definite
beginning. The audience were unwittingly a part of the scene ‘split’ and the
musical essence picked up in between the rock and traditional Indian vocal
submerged by a narrative dance based on Indian style of Abhinaya. It seemed that traditional India is reviving in case of
performance with the help of experiment. I would say that there have been started
a movement in this region to create a different language of Art Performance in
the realm of indigenous literature, folklore, social structure, political
scenario, environmental consciousness, negotiating culture, ethnicity etc. in
very many ways. The paradise of Folklore, the land of Assam is welcoming the
global perspective of Art. This new emergence of Art can prove anyone can be an
artist by simple performance without following any traditional norms.
The
complex climax of Art performance in the realm of the Festival connotated self
respect and critically avoid violation although amalgamated folk vs. modern, conventional vs. unconventional was just a beginning to overview
‘Art’. Different strategies implemented were Public Art, Art Camp, Children Art
workshop, Stage Performance, Performance Art, Exhibition and Installation,
Souvenir-an academic account. The theme was intricately difficult to catch in
the Art forms but of course among the Art workers. The adjoined/connected
people including the organising body, event managers, advisory reputes, guest artists
and the participators were seen in a pace of working on the theme concerned.
All of them were so much ready and
negotiating to work in a different
circumstance and a new platform. The periphery of the Festival showed the
negotiation of context, audience and the management. The working body and the
performing participators cum artists had also been observed in a state of
miscalculation and at the same time pressurised by ‘humanity’. I got a little
chance to talk with a few of the artists (there were all together 50 artists).
Some of them loved to work in the atmosphere at any circumference but there
were also some for whom the Festival was completely void. Nevertheless, the
forms had not been seen submerged and made themselves open for all to interpret
self, between real and illusionary, corporeal and immortal, transparent and
difficult.
Continuous
touch of six days in the Festival and bounded by so much of artistry, I found
myself interpreting in between of Satirical Performance Art and Performing
forms of traditional India, of simple and complex criterion. Honestly, thoughts
are still awaiting to put them into the papers. However, for this huge scale of
endeavour, I feel responsible to say,
‘A
high five to Kala Samannayaa,
Cheers!!’
Looking
forward to see further more approaches to understand many more micro forms.
