To enroll for this free online course: https://courses.mapacademy.io/courses/modern-and-contemporary-indian-art-short-course/?utm_medium=auroartworld&utm_source=outbound&utm_campaign=auroartworld_newsletter

Exhibition dates: 8 September – 18 October 2025
Maji, Maroma Art Gallery
Maroma, Aspiration Street, Kuilapalayam, Auroville

Opening: 6 September, 4 – 5:30 pm
Timings: Monday – Saturday, 9 am – 5 pm

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/expo-by-artist-duo-at-maroma-auroville/article70042634.ece

1. Call for Artists: “TASMAI SRI GURUVEH NAMAH” Exhibition

Tasmai invites all artists to express their creativity for an upcoming exhibition on the theme “Tasmai Sri Guruveh Namah.”

The theme is an exploration of our inner “guiding stars” and a dedication to the inner space that connects us to happiness and peace. Artists are encouraged to create a bridge between this inner space and the outer world, manifesting the highest and widest expressions from within through any creative form.

• Exhibition Dates: Thursday, August 14th – Saturday, September 13th, 2025.
• Urgent Deadline for Artists: If you are interested in contributing your art, please contact Tasmai by TODAY, Tuesday, 12th of August.

2. Ongoing Workshop: 1 Needle rEVOLUTION – Embroidery Satsang

Join a collaborative “Embroidery Satsang” and be part of a beautiful community project. This is a movement to empower people through the upskilling of textile arts.

Participants are invited to hand embroider, macrame, and crochet beautiful textile pieces which will be joined together into a large quilt. This collective piece will be exhibited as part of the ongoing “Textile as Art & Fashion” exhibition. Guidance will be provided for those who want to learn.

• When: Every Thursday at 6:00 PM
• Who: Open to all who wish to collaborate and create.

Visit Tasmai, a Centre for Art & Culture

• Address: 17 Advocate Chinna Tambi Street, Kuruchikuppam, Pondicherry
• Hours: Daily 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM (Mornings by Appointment) | Monday Holiday
• Contact:
  • Phone: 0413 2221052
  • Email: tasmanipondy@gmail.com
  • Website: www.tasmanipondy.com

Please note: Tasmai is a zero-waste, sustainable, and conscious space. Single-use plastics and PET bottles are prohibited.

Applications are now open for the 2026 International Ceramics Competition. The works selected will be exhibited in the Musée de Carouge from 19 September to 29 November 2026. Applications are due December 31, 2025.

Call for applications: 2026 Carouge International Ceramics Competition – The Movement

Emergence Magazine invites you to connect with the living world through simple acts of attention. This practice is designed to open the senses to something beyond yourself.

Since the very beginning, we have been intimately linked with trees, sharing breath within Earth’s great respiration of carbon and oxygen. And while we often reduce trees to ornaments within our landscapes and consume them as expendable resources, they constantly invite us—through bloom, shade, wonder, breath—into closer relationship. In this practice, you are encouraged to respond to such gifts with a renewed quality of attention and acknowledge the threads that bind you and the tree together within a shared biosphere.

https://emergencemagazine.org/practice/encountering-trees/?utm_source=Emergence+Magazine&utm_campaign=466797c49c-Newsletter_20250803&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0be9b497cf-357156590

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/auroville-international-potters-market-begins-from-jan-24/article69119419.ece

There are no restrictions based on nationality, age, or experience level, and there are no limitations on the media, materials, or techniques to be used in the projects. Applicants are also welcome to submit already existing works.

Apply by 16 June 2024. To learn more visit IKT News on our website: – link in bio

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/auroville-signs-mou-with-ignca-to-foster-cross-cultural-understanding-and-promote-artistic-exchanges/article67891842.ece

THE HINDU BUREAU

Clay artist Deborah Smith of Golden Bridge Pottery in Puducherry passed away at her residence on Friday.

Deborah and her partner Ray Meeker, who were drawn to the philosophies of the East, made it to Puducherry where the Mother invited her to start a ceramic studio on the ashram land. Then, Deborah and Meeker founded the Golden Bridge Pottery (GBP), which nurtured generations of clay artists in the country and has been breaking new grounds in ceramics internationally. However, Deborah retired from actively participating at the GBP in 2019, choosing to take time to pen her memoirs. Her soft-spoken personality will be sorely missed, her friends said.

Deborah, who studied Japanese at Stanford University, later apprenticed under master potter Yamamoto Toshu in the Bizen region of Japan in 1968. Later, she joined the ceramics department of the University of Southern California, where she had met her partner. The cremation is to be held at Ashram’s cremation ground on Saturday at 11 a.m., and people can pay their respects at her residence at 25, Rue Dumas till 10.30 a.m., a release said.Clay artist Deborah Smith of Golden Bridge Pottery in Puducherry passed away at her residence on Friday.

Deborah and her partner Ray Meeker, who were drawn to the philosophies of the East, made it to Puducherry where the Mother invited her to start a ceramic studio on the ashram land. Then, Deborah and Meeker founded the Golden Bridge Pottery (GBP), which nurtured generations of clay artists in the country and has been breaking new grounds in ceramics internationally. However, Deborah retired from actively participating at the GBP in 2019, choosing to take time to pen her memoirs. Her soft-spoken personality will be sorely missed, her friends said.

Deborah, who studied Japanese at Stanford University, later apprenticed under master potter Yamamoto Toshu in the Bizen region of Japan in 1968. Later, she joined the ceramics department of the University of Southern California, where she had met her partner. The cremation is to be held at Ashram’s cremation ground on Saturday at 11 a.m., and people can pay their respects at her residence at 25, Rue Dumas till 10.30 a.m., a release said.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/puducherrys-golden-bridge-pottery-co-founder-deborah-smith-passes-away/article67107236.ece

Roof Studio/AV Art Service Presents
Ivana Frousova paints on very unusual material, and here watercolors/waxcrayons are used on prints of News&Notes. Art does not have rules and any definition. Art is where we find it, and the challenge of using common paper becomes the advantage for freedom of expression and gives us opportunity to experience it.
All work is protected by lamination which enhances its longevity.
You could donate for this specific project to Roof Studio/AVART SERVICE
FS account 252 401
All paintings are available, you just need to choose!

“Folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipanya rendered Kabir bhajans at the Auroville Language Lab during a recent tour of the city. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement”

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/a-folk-singers-journey-to-promote-the-unifying-ethos-of-mystic-poet-kabir/article67037614.ece

continue reading ….

https://www.msn.com/en-in/autos/news/musician-nadaka-on-living-in-india-creating-tunes-upcoming-tour-and-more/ar-AA19l23g

Where the human language falls short in communicating a higher idea, ceramic art can present a canvas to express it with eloquence, said Aurovilian ceramic artist Rakhee Kane. 

The artist is showcasing some of her recent ceramic works based on the motifs of seed pods and totems at the Centre d’Art Gallery, Citadines in Auroville, at the “Within/Without” exhibition. It is on till February 11. 

The seed pod has, for long, been a source of fascination, she said. “Seed pods hold an entire universe within them…..; I see them as containers of diverse forms of life,” said the artist, who has established the Aavartan Studio in Auroville.

This concept leads on to the Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao-Tzu’s observation on nihility or nothingness — in essence it is in the emptiness of the earthen pot that its usefulness as a container for holding water is derived, she said. The totem motif, too, ties in with this phase of the artist’s journey. “In tribal cultures across the world, including ancient India, totem poles were a kind of open shrines or reference points where people paused for a moment to perhaps centre themselves.” 

“The totem poles depict various points of my journey; each a place to hold and centre oneself. They act as anchors that, once thrown, allow me to float on these moments. The show is my pause point of reference, a place to which my life has brought me, finally! It is also an offering to my mentors, my teachers, and my inspirations,” she said.

“Sharing this series is my way of taking a pause and evaluating my own journey, allowing myself to touch the core of my experience,” said Rakhee Kane, whose tutelage under the pioneer Ray Meeker, at the Golden Bridge Pottery, in 2005 helped chart a much-needed direction in her work and expanded her artistic vision. 

In drawing motifs from nature, Rakhee Kane’s work utilises a variety of techniques — firing with soda, wood or Raku — and is in constant engagement with a spirit of experimentation. 

The embellishments on each form are enhanced by means of soda firing, cone five terracotta and stoneware. Totem objects and seed pods are, in a way, connected concepts. “Pods being containers of life and the linear totems a reference point to them, complete the idea of the man-made and nature,” Rakhee Kane said.

Lately, the artist has been working on developing new forms that reflect the inner search for a perfect form. “Your inner transformation intersects with your art and reshapes the way you approach it,” she said.

Along this journey, she finds every day objects unlocking their magic in different ways to inspire newer interpretations.

“Clay is an incredibly receptive material. Working with a lump of clay makes one grounded. It is a calming influence at a subconscious level and opens up a connection with one’s spiritual side,” she said.

Read the full article here:

Varma, Dinesh. „Ceramic Art as Expressive Visual Language“. The Hindu, 7. Februar 2023, Puducherry. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/ceramic-art-as-expressive-visual-language/article66481770.ece.

Celebrated Indian architect Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi, who was fondly called as BV Doshi, passed away in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, due to age-related complications, according to media reports. He was 95 years old.

Born in 1927 in Pune, Doshi worked with architecture legends like Le Corbusier. He also worked with Louis Kahn as an associate to build the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and many other acclaimed projects.

Architecture Digest of India took to Instagram to share the news and to offer condolences.

“A master wielder of form and light, Doshi has left an indelible legacy. A loving husband, father, grandfather, and a true inspiration to the people of the country,” the post read. It added, “For us at AD, this is a heartbreaking loss; and we will miss his childlike enthusiasm, curiosity, and humility that touched us all so deeply.”

Read More:

https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2023/jan/24/celebrated-architectbalkrishna-doshi-passes-away-at-95-2540948.amp

Article Published in The Hindu by Dinesh Varma

A hands-on documentary film-making workshop hosted recently by Auroville Film Institute (AVFI) on the white desert terrain of Rann of Kutch has produced a remarkable 16 short films by 20 participants in a span of 35 days.

The film workshop formed a part of AVFI’s flagship programme of taking film-making training workshops to the midst of iridescent manifestations of nature, where film pedagogy meets deep ecology. “Usually film schools are stationary and attract students from all over. But films, especially documentary films, are located at various sites, among real people and places. So what if the film school travels to these real people and places and conducts film-making workshops that spring from these encounters with the real?” says Rrivu Laha, workshop co-director and cinematography mentor.

The objective was to engage with the image of Kutch; deconstruct it critically, as well as reconstruct it creatively, a “challenging but very fruitful process”. “To work collectively as well as individually on the various perspectives, perceptions and projections of Kutch” added Richa Hushing, the other co-director and curriculum designer of the workshop.

The winter workshop was planned at the Rann of Kutch, the venue of the famed Rann Utsav, with its base camp in Hodko village, next to the tent city. Dholavira, Lakhpat, Chari Dhand, Nirona, Nakthtrana, Mandvi and Bhuj with Pragmahal, Darbargarh were the additional sites of exploration.

According to AFI, Kutch was chosen for several reasons — primarily for the fantastic landscape and the cultural ecology of the region. The intention was to explore the tangible and the intangible cultural heritage. Moreover, Kutch held the added fascination of one of the last princely states of India. “We also have here the history of the Sindhu civilisation and the partition of it…. we have Mohenjo Daro on one side and Dholavira on the other. There are so many stories, the narratives of memories and imagination and mesmerising realities of the day-to-day life — the idea was to explore the cinematic wonder of it all” said Richa.

The workshop followed a specific pedagogy where basic film orientation went hand in hand with the landscape orientation. “We worked with ways of seeing,” said Sanket Ray, an associate facilitator. The participants hailed from all parts of India, including two locals from Bhuj, and four international delegates who came from Poland, France, Istanbul and Canada.

Among the films produced at the workshop were ‘Music of Kutch’ by Kabir Dave, ‘Mandvi ka Malam’ by Nakul Jain, ‘Ode to Marvi’ by Priyanshi Shukla, ‘Self Portrait in Kutch’ by Shreshtha Agnihotry, ‘Dholavira… the nest’ by Ricky Radzikowski and Kirtan, ‘The Move’ by Pinar Ekinci (Instanbul).

“The creation happens when some circumstances are present… the freedom to experiment, possibilities of action (place and time) and the support of mentors and peers,” said Ricky Radzikowski from Poland. 

Omniverse Experience Design Company was collaborator for the event with support from Sahajeevan Trust, Ramble (Research and Monitoring in Banni Landscape) and Prag Mahal, Bhuj. According to Richa, the film tourism policy as framed by Gujarat, could enable the trans-mediation of the archaeological, anthropological, the ecological, the tangible and the intangible cultural heritage value of the region through the medium of cinema.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/auroville-takes-film-making-workshop-to-rann-of-kutch/article66357063.ece

2. Dongles: Also we are looking to borrow 3 DONGLES. If you have one to lend us from January 24 to January 29, please do email us with “dongle” in the subject line. Please do include your phone number.

3.Newspaper: We are looking for newspaper to use for packing. Please do email us with “newspaper available” in the subject line if you have old newspaper we can pick up.

Email id: aurovillepottersmarket@gmail.com

Article by Parshathy J.Nath published in The Hindu

Nimmy Raphel and Sharanya Ramprakash discuss the challenges theatre faces after the pandemic

Their journeys have been different. While one began with a strong foundation in dance, the other experienced an exciting theatre life in college. But, the two have met up at a significant juncture.

Read More: https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/meet-this-years-shankar-nag-award-goes-nimmy-raphel-and-sharanya-ramprakash/article66091088.ece

Article by Parshathy J.Nath published in The Hindu

Nimmy Raphel and Sharanya Ramprakash discuss the challenges theatre faces after the pandemic

Their journeys have been different. While one began with a strong foundation in dance, the other experienced an exciting theatre life in college. But, the two have met up at a significant juncture.

Read More: https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/meet-this-years-shankar-nag-award-goes-nimmy-raphel-and-sharanya-ramprakash/article66091088.ece

Submit your story ideas under the themes – Urban Biodiversity OR Environment Action before November 6, 2022.

Big gaps in green financing could hamper India’s energy transition.
India’s green sector is getting only 25% of the annual financing it needs to meet energy transition goals.

Rajasthan is getting wetter and it’s not good news for the desert ecology
The distribution of local species such as treepies and grey hornbills is impacted by an increase in water availability.

[Book Review] ‘First Steps’ tracks the beginnings of citizen science in India
The book documents, in a unique format, the stories of 17 citizen science projects in India and their challenges.
Watch: Mangrove plantations in the Sundarbans are taken up by different groups. But how successful are they?

Explore more videos

Mumbai activists demand that the tree geo-tagging information be made public. Activists and tech experts opine that access to the tree data can improve governance and public participation in tree conservation.

Farmers continue protests against proposed IIT campus in Goa.
The land earmarked for the site, is a thickly forested hill that stands surrounded by farmlands and orchard plains.

Clouds, droughts and other elements of nature recur in Rajasthan’s folk songs. Melodious folks songs in Rajasthan, narrate weather conditions and the emotions linked to environmental changes.

Climate change threatens the habitat of the endangered white-winged wood duck, finds study. Change in temperatures and the rate of precipitation linked to climate change are the leading causes of habitat loss.
Visit india.mongabay.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjNWW1M8cVYsMnw3CeKcW4Q

Joy is the justice
we give ourselves.
It is Maya’s caged bird
sung free past the prison bars,
holding spirits bound—
without due process,
without just cause.

Joy is the steady run stream,
rights sprung up
through moss-soft ground—
water seeping sweet,
equality made clear
from sea
to shining sea,
north to south,
west to east.

Joy is the truth,
crooked lies hammered straight,
whitewashed myths
wiped away.
Stone Mountain
—just stone.
Rushmore
—no more.
Give the eagles
their mountains back.

Joy is the paradise
we can claim
right here,
right now.
No vengeful gods
craving prayer,
no tenth in tithes to pay,
no repenter’s cover charge—
no dying required to get in.

Joy is the sunrise
breaking through night’s remains,
bright shone new
on a shell-wracked shore;
a fresh tide-scrubbed world
redeems what was,
to is.

Joy is on whimbrel’s wings;
the wedge in fast flight,
wandering curlews,
curved-beaks’ cries
stitching top of the world
to bottom.

Joy is the soul stirred
underneath the journey,
gaze snagged on wonder,
not knowing final destination,
blessed as a witness,
moored to ground,
worshipful tears
dripped into grateful smile.

Joy is the silent spring,
unquiet.
Rachel’s world not come to pass.
The season
dripping ripe full
of wood thrush song.

Joy is all the Black birds,
flocked together,
too many to count,
too many to name,
every one different
from the next,
swirling in singularity
across amber-purpled sky.

Joy is being loved
up close
for who we are.

Joy is the last song,
drifting in
as dark curtains fall;
the sparrow’s vesper offering,
whistle lain down
in pine-templed woods,
requiem in me-minor—
church in a cathedral time built.
No stained glass.
No pulpit.
Altars everywhere.
Just listen.
Just look.

Joy is the return,
the wandering warbler
landed in the backyard again,
from who knows where,
to rest,
to uplift lagging spirit.

Joy is the healing,
broken dreams restored—
soaring.
Langston’s words
kettling higher
on hopes,
drifting ever upwards
on ragged-mid-lined rhyme,
dancing to syncopated verse.

Joy is our lives mattering,
Blackness respected.
It is seeing my color,
hue not blinded by privilege,
the pious privilege
of claiming you don’t.

Joy is the proper name,
with no “n” in the beginning
or “i” or double “g” or “e”
in the middle,
with an “r” rolled hateful
hard at the end.

Joy is your truth
being the same behind my back
as to my face.

Joy is the sharp eye
watching little brown sparrows,
and the kind one,
focused
on little brown children too.

Joy is the ancestors
come before,
surviving the struggle,
staying strong
in the midst of withering storm;
from shackled ancestors
through Jim Crowed back doors
to gerrymandered chokehold now.
Still here in spite of it all.

Joy is the payoff,
for those often down
but never out.

Joy is the thriving,
a people who won’t die
in the midst of all this
dying;
the breaths,
ins followed by outs,
easy—
without begging for air
or asking your Mama’s ghost
to help.

Joy is the drive
with no traffic stops,
with no taillights out,
with no tint technically too dark,
with no speed traps,
with no “yes sir, Officer sir.”
No hands at two and ten.
No wondering
where the registration is.

Joy is the flashing blue light
passing by,
not meant for me.

Joy is the good news,
without new dead names,
no chokeholds or murdering knees.
A night of sleep
in your very own bed
without shots in the dark
—no more not waking up,
full of lead.

Joy is the morning jog
without being hunted down.

Joy is the loss
we take to gain,
monuments to traitors
torn down,
lost causes finally buried,
never to be found again.

Joy is the prairie,
where billowed cloud
and wild grass meet;
where the hawks glide
from there to here—
wherever;
its own choice to make,
no border crossing checks.

Joy is the surrender,
to faith of push,
to trust in lift,
giving over to Toni’s command
to ride the air.
To float above
the trouble of this world
on a wish.

Joy is my grandma’s hands,
grits through gnarled fingers tossed
on cold ground
to snowbirds she pitied—
a love for others
that became my own.

Joy is the wild not tamed,
the rarest beast
with talons sharp,
or long teeth bared,
in the faraway place.

Joy is the wayward weed
in the midtown sidewalk seam,
the one I choose to call
“wildflower”
because it dared
to not be planted,
to not be controlled.

Joy is at the end,
a bruised purpling sky
when the night
comes again,
when luck is metered
by stars winking bright.

Joy is the frogs calling,
amplexus orgying delights.

Joy is the close call
that wasn’t close enough.
Death past by you.
Life stopping by.

Joy is a heart still beating
even though
what could have been—
wasn’t.

Joy is the knowing
that what this world
did not give—
it cannot take away.

Joy is the moment
we grab in sweat-soaked
trembling hands,
that slides from possession,
stolen legally in bits and pieces
between yawning cracks
of despair.

Joy is tears,
drops of salt water
fallen in the creases
of an upturned smile.

Joy is the necessity
that must be lain by,
what’s kept hoarded in a sturdy cache
ever ready to apply.

Joy is the gift,
just desserts,
what we deserve
without asking
or constant demands—
the comfort that comes
when no one else
really cares.

Joy is the reward,
the salary already earned—
back pay
with four centuries’ interest
compounded daily.
At least eighty acres—
and two mules.

Joy is the day off,
just because.

Joy is the kiss of that one,
or the just verdict
delivered by twelve.

Joy is the everything,
the nothing.
The simple,
the complex.
Joy is the silly,
the serious,
the trivial.
The whale enormous,
the shrew’s small.

Joy is the murmuration,
then the stillness.

Joy is the inexplicable coincidence.
Joy is what was meant to be.
The mystery of impossibility happening.
The assurance of uncertainty.

Joy is my seeking.
Your being.
It is mine for the taking.
Ours to share.
More than enough to go around,
when it seems nowhere to be found.

Have yourself a heapin’ serving.
Have seconds. Or thirds.
‘Cause
joy is the justice
we must give ourselves.

https://emergencemagazine.org/poem/joy-is-the-justice-we-give-ourselves/

Chitra from Sri mother is weaving baskets from newspapers’ reeds. With weaving newspaper you can choose your own dimensions up to 100 CM diameter in the bottom and many more shapes to come.

Enjoy, for more technical details please

Deadline extended to 22nd September

This initiative will enable local and global artists to showcase their talent by enlivening the culture of Karnataka 

The proposals must be original and not a replica of previous work. It should be inspired by the rich art and cultural heritage of Karnataka or South India. The proposals will be reviewed by an independent advisory panel and BIAL stakeholders.

“This initiative is our endeavour to provide travellers with an authentic experience that captures the rich heritage and essence of Karnataka. Through this programme we intend to support and showcase the talent of the artists and make every journey a memorable one using art as a medium,” said a BIAL spokesperson. 

The airport’s first open call for the art programme in 2020 was a massive success and received 300 entries. This second open call for a monumental sculpture is one-of-its-kind and offers a great opportunity for artists to showcase their talent. 

All submissions must be emailed to artprogramme@bialairport.com by 23:59 hours on September 15, 2022. The winner will be announced by October 10, 2022.

For further information, please visit:https://d1lyi436ccpkte.cloudfront.net/uploads/Open_Call_Forest_Belt_2022_1_7263d3cffe.docx

https://www.bengaluruairport.com/corporate/media/news-press-releases/blr-airport-invites-artists-to-submit-entries-for-a-monumental-sculpture-?fbclid=IwAR2pcWXffIn0zxSY-LeA9B3is6a6g2ygZX_3TRGhxvKKTLmFN5RFKxUMLXU

Charles Zanon, a French-sculptor, says his stay in Auroville has helped him better understand his art

For French sculptor Charles Zanon, participating in the Auroville way of community living, especially its quest for deeper meanings of existence, was to be a clarifying experience as a person, and as artist.

Spirituality, he adds, equipped him with the tools to understand himself as a person and an artist; a twin-track process of evolution of discovering one’s inner consciousness and simultaneously exploring creative expression externally.

Read More: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/a-french-sculptors-journey-from-burgundy-to-black-granite/article65882787.ece

This initiative will enable local and global artists to showcase their talent by enlivening the culture of Karnataka 

The proposals must be original and not a replica of previous work. It should be inspired by the rich art and cultural heritage of Karnataka or South India. The proposals will be reviewed by an independent advisory panel and BIAL stakeholders.

“This initiative is our endeavour to provide travellers with an authentic experience that captures the rich heritage and essence of Karnataka. Through this programme we intend to support and showcase the talent of the artists and make every journey a memorable one using art as a medium,” said a BIAL spokesperson. 

The airport’s first open call for the art programme in 2020 was a massive success and received 300 entries. This second open call for a monumental sculpture is one-of-its-kind and offers a great opportunity for artists to showcase their talent. 

All submissions must be emailed to artprogramme@bialairport.com by 23:59 hours on September 15, 2022. The winner will be announced by October 10, 2022.

For further information, please visit:https://d1lyi436ccpkte.cloudfront.net/uploads/Open_Call_Forest_Belt_2022_1_7263d3cffe.docx

https://www.bengaluruairport.com/corporate/media/news-press-releases/blr-airport-invites-artists-to-submit-entries-for-a-monumental-sculpture-?fbclid=IwAR2pcWXffIn0zxSY-LeA9B3is6a6g2ygZX_3TRGhxvKKTLmFN5RFKxUMLXU

From colloquies on metaphysics to meditation, music and art shows, a series of events led by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville is setting up the finale for the year-long sesquicentennial celebrations of Sri Aurobindo, which coincides with the 75th Independence anniversary on August 15. The Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS), which has been hosting a series of lectures, will be premiering a documentary on Sri Aurobindo on the occasion, said Beloo Mehra at SAS. Titled ‘The Transformation’ in English and ‘Naya Janma’ in Hindi, the 54-minute film was a joint effort of SAS and the Kolkata Sukriti Foundation. At Auroville’s Savitri Bhavan, old-timers and prominent figures from outside, have featured in a lecture series, ‘Invocation: The Gnostic Festival’. In one of the recent talks, Radhika Khanna, head, Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University, presented excerpts from some thoughts on Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga to highlight their transformative power. Ms. Khanna pointed to passages from Sri Aurobindo’s writings on the nature of the “divine Shakti as the timeless power of the Divine which manifests as a universal force apparent to us first on the lower levels of existence” to explain why it was necessary “for our sadhana that we should thoroughly realise this truth in order to escape from the pressure of the limiting ego view and universalise ourselves even on these lower levels where ordinarily the ego reigns in full force…” “Once we reach the stage of understanding that all mankind is one, then it is possible to achieve the goal of human unity in spite of any differences we may face on the mental, vital or physical planes”, she said. In fact, on the limitations of classical psychoanalytical theory vis a vis the yogic understanding of the nature of consciousness, Sri Aurobindo has stated: “The superconscient, not the subconscient, is the true foundation of things. The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light above… you must know the whole before you can know the part and the highest before you can truly understand the lowest.”

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Article by Dinesh Varma published in The Hindu

Jazz, in a sense, is a back and forth with the world, says Auroville-based jazz musician Dhani Muniz, who has come out with a debut jazz album featuring leading artists who have performed widely on music circuits across the U.S. and Europe besides India.

A guitarist, singer, writer and composer born in Albany, New York, and now settled in the universal township where he covers the art scene for an in-house journal, Muniz’s ‘Chimu Fiesta’ has been billed as an album ‘bred out of dissatisfaction and a healthy dose of anger’.

Chimu is a reference to a pre-Incan civilisation now famed for, among other things, the intrinsic violence of their culture. And, the music is a signifier of a certain type of creative violence, one that is most often palpable in the early stages of things — abstract art, modern classical music, rock n’ roll, Delta blues, jazz, and basically all human civilisation.

“Jazz is a give and take with the world”, he says. “Why are so many current jazz musicians so interested not only in hip-hop culture, but in the culture of Africa, of this idea of returning to something more natural, more holistic? It’s a reaction to what they feel in the world”.

The debut album was a product of his collaborative music project “Suite; The Expatriate” and featured a quintet of composer-musicians Jules Arindam, a city-born graduate of the Los Angeles Music Academy on bass, pianist-composer Aman Mahajan, Suresh Bascara, a French-Indian percussionist from Auroville, and Dutch-born Maarten Visser on tenor and soprano saxophone.

Auroville-based Japanese artist Jyoti Naoki Eri has just launched a new label called Nādāsana with the compilation ‘Inter-Galactic Sonar Communication Probe Vol. 1’. 

The 13-track release is tied with the fictional concept of creating a record that will serve as a form of sonic communication on a space probe to the Andromeda Galaxy in the year 2102. Consequently, the direction has generated ambient compositions that range from representing earthly traditions to imagining the sci-fi noises of discovering light years of the universe. 

Alongside featuring India or India-based acts like Kolkata’s Varun Desai aka Yidam, New Delhi’s Vaibhav Batra aka Psychopanda, Jyoti’s own moniker Atomic Phantom, and Jatinder Singh Durhailay, who plays the Dilruba and Taus, the compilation includes artists from Belgium, Australia, Norway, UK (notably Matt Black aka Double Cushion, the co-founder of Ninja Tunes and one-half of Coldcut), Israel, Sweden and Italy. 

Listen to ‘Inter-Galactic Sonar Communication Probe Vol. 1’ below and follow Nādāsana for more information.

Article in THE HINDU by Parshaty J nath

In the past two years we realised the potential of dance films more than ever. In the absence of a stage to perform, artistes began to explore this medium to reach out to the audience. In the process, many of them saw the dance-film collaboration as an exciting option to tell a story or share creative ideas. Though as an independent genre it is still niche and new, it is gradually finding an involved audience.

In this context, Manifest, a dedicated dance film festival, holds much significance. To be held from July 29 to 31 in Puducherry, it will indulge in cinematic exploration of movement and choreography. Organised by AuroApaar along with Narthaki (venue partner is Alliance Francaise), it will include documentaries on dance, mainstream musicals, music videos, and fiction or experimental dance films.

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