The third edition of the Auroville Art Camp is happening.
It will take place from Saturday March 12th till March 19th at the Pavilion of Tibetan culture.
For the opening of the Auroville Art Camp on Saturday March 12th at 9:15 am, Deepti will give a talk on the theme of this year’s edition, the title of the talk is :
MAKING THE FINITE ONE WITH INFINITY
“….to discover
A new mind and body in the city of God
And enshrine the Immortal in his glory’s house
And make the finite one with Infinity “
Savitri, Sri Aurobindo
You are most welcome to attend and welcome with us the invited artists .
During the week we have also planned open doors so that the community and the schools can see artists at work and interact with them.
The open doors are scheduled on Wednesday March 16th and Thursday March 17th from 10:30 am till 5:00 pm.
The Auroville Art Camp will close with an exhibition of the created artworks.
The exhibition will take place on Saturday March 19th opening at 3 pm at the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture.
We look forward seeing you there.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother assign a highest status to an art which serves as revealer and teacher of a quest for the All-Beautiful.
In this spirit, we decided in 2018 to organise an Artist camp with Artist residency taking place in Auroville for artists.
Auroville Art Camp is not just another art camp. It takes place in Auroville, a unique experiment where men and women, from India and every corner of the World, attracted by the vision of Sri Aurobindo, have answered to the call of The Mother to manifest her Dream.
By organising this camp with artists from all over India, we try to create a concentrated atmosphere for the duration of one week where we may work together in search of Beauty, invoking through Art this new world which is our ideal.
The Art Camp focusses on the collaboration of Indian national artists with Aurovilian artists, as everyone works together on a specific theme.
Art Students are also invited to participate as this is a great platform for exchange and learning.
The theme of this third edition of the Auroville art Camp is the “Every finite is an infinite”.
One of our inspirations to choose the theme was different writings of Sri Aurobindo quoted from ‘The synthesis of Yoga” and from ‘Essays Divine and human’ .
Each year a call for applications is published. Only professional artists are considered, whether they have followed an academic path or are self-taught.
We proceed by selection, our intention is to give an opportunity to artists from all over India to participate regardless of their background and network. We wish for the selection to be diverse so that established artists, emerging artists and young artists can work together.
The attempt is to achieve a diversity of art practices and works. The selection is based upon proximity with Auroville raison d’être foreseen in their work, as also the quality of their body of work, their Artist’s statement, what their art conveys and their approach to the Auroville art camp’s theme of the year.
For this edition like for the other ones, we published a call for artists which lasted two months. We received applications from Auroville of course, and from all over India. The diversity, richness and quality of the bodies of works we received, was stunning. We have gone through strong and inspired artists statements. Their interpretations of the theme “Every finite is an infinite” have been, for many of them, so unique, with so much sensitivity. Regarding the students category, we received applications from students of Art Colleges from many parts of India.
We selected 10 Indian Nationals artists, 8 Aurovilian artists, 1 Indian national art student and 1 Aurovilian art student.
A catalog to introduce the selected artists and art students of the Auroville Art Camp 2022 is available online on the Auroville Art Camp website.
What we hope to achieve through the Auroville Art Camp is to provide artists a time and a space of creation in an atmosphere that encourages concentration and quality; to allow artists to explore their artistic research within Auroville; to encounter this unique experiment that is Auroville, to offer to the Auroville community a moment of artistic interaction, to enable the exchange of ideas and practices for emerging, established artists, and art students alike; to nurture younger artists; to create a network of artists within India, to provide an “in-kind” support for artists (art materials, food and accommodation are provided), with the vision to create a non-profit model to build and sustain Auroville artistic practices.
Artists are performing during their stay a collective art installation in a public space in Auroville with the support of the caretakers of different venues in order to open a way for an interaction with the community which in turn has the chance to experience and engage with art.
The organisation and the making of the Art Camp is a community initiative.
At each step, Aurovilians contribute to the project in so many ways depending upon who they are, what they know, what they foresee.
We, the core team of the Auroville Art Camp organisation are so grateful for that. It’s about goodwill, collaboration and contributing to the dream that is Auroville.
The preparation of the art camp is also an opportunity for being inventive and resourceful.
With each edition, we create an art installation that is set up at the venue of the art camp to welcome the invited artists and create a space that draws creation and beauty. This is an occasion for everyone who participates to share the joy of making and learning and to nurture collaboration and togetherness.
