Prof. Shivaji K Panikkar, Prof. Lu Xinghua
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Art Topic: West Heavens Salon Series - Art and Activism
Speaker: Prof. Shivaji K Panikkar, Art Historian
Host: Prof. Lu Xinghua, Philosopher
Language: English with Chinese translation
Admission Free. Reservation is required.
The presentation will attempt to define activism in the context of art making and viewing practices in India. Defined away from the notion of art as reactive reflection of socio-political realities, activist art would be considered as interventionist in approach, and political in terms of practice. While all art ideologies may be said as aligning itself with one or the other political premise, activism would be seen as precisely based on belief in the proactive agency of the art and artists within the socio-political scenario.
The presentation will sketch the revolutionary historical role artists have played starting with Communist movement and proletarian struggle in 20th century India which start with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). Any art worth naming as directly addressed and engaged with people’s struggle and reality began in Bengal in the early 1940s in the context of the great famine with the works of SomnathHore, Chittaprosad, ZainulAbedin and similar others in theatre, cinema and photography.
Chittaprosad in the late 40s and Hore in the mid 50s and artists such as J. Swaminathan and Ramkumar also withdrew from the Communist party in 1953 and ’54 respectively and practiced varied modernist linguistic modes. The Indigenist trend of 1960s and the pop-figurative-narrative revival of 70s in art too were only culturally motivated avant-garde, based on elitist mode of art historical reflexivity and scholarship. It is from a critical view of the above that the short lived collective of ‘Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association’ was formed. The presentation will elaborate the ideological premises of the Radical collective.
The presentation would engage with the contemporary dalit, gay, feminist and other politically motivated artists working with people, collectively or independently – with deprived children, adivasis, and others who are ravaged by communal violence. Considering this growing social and political awareness amongst practitioners of art over the past two decades in relating art to social and political causes, the presentation will try to critically address and theorize the contemporary artist’s engagement with political and social issues as a larger problematic within the growing interest in New Media/Meta Media Art.
Professor Shivaji K Panikkar
Professor Shivaji K Panikkar is an Art Historian specialized in Indian Art. Currently he is the Dean, School of Culture & Creative Expressions,Bharat RatnaDr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD). Having taught for over twenty-five years, he wasthe Head, Department of Art History and Aesthetics, M.S. University of Baroda (2000 -2007). His publications include Saptamatrka Worship and Sculpture: An Iconological Interpretation of Conflicts and Resolution in the ‘Storied’ Brahmanical Icons (1997), Twentieth Century Indian Sculpture: Last Two Decades (edited) (2000), Towards A New Art History: Studies in Indian Art (co-edited) (2003), sequel volumes Artof Ancient/Medieval India: Contextualizing Social Relations (co-edited) (2004/2005)andArticulating Resistance: Art and activism (Co-edited, 2012).
He is one of the Project Directors of the traveling workshops on the theme Curating Indian Visual Culture: Theory and Practice, which is an initiative of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Bangalore. (See http://www.curationtheory.com/)
About West Heavens
West Heavens is an integrated cross-cultural exchange programme. It aims to untangle and compare the different paths of modernity taken by India and China, to facilitate high-level communication between the two countries' intellectual and art circles, and to promote interaction and cross-references between the two countries through social thoughts and contemporary art. Since 2010, the project has organized more than 100 events including forums, exhibitions, film screenings and workshops, as well as publishing more than 10 books. Website: westheavens.net
施瓦吉·K·帕尼卡尔, 陆兴华
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Art Topic: 西天中土沙龙系列-艺术与行动主义
主讲：施瓦吉·K·帕尼卡尔, 艺术史学家
主持：陆兴华，哲学家
语言：英文，中文翻译
本活动免费，凭预约参加。
这场讲演将试图在印度的艺术创作与观看实践的语境中，去定义行动主义。远离被定义为对社会-政治现实的被动反应的艺术概念，行动主义艺术亦可以被视为一种方法上的干预主义和实践中的政治。当所有的艺术意识形态都被视为同某种政治前提一致时，行动主义的基础恰被视作是在社会-政治情境中，对艺术与艺术家的前瞻性力量所怀有的信念。
讲演将会从印度20世纪以印度人民戏剧联盟（IPTA）为肇端的共产主义运动与无产阶级抗争开始，勾画出艺术家在其中所扮演的富有革命性的历史角色。所有值得一提的艺术都直接与1940年代在孟加拉以大饥荒为背景的人民抗争有关，如SomnathHore, Chittaprosad, ZainulAbedin和其他一些在戏剧、电影和摄影领域里工作的艺术家和他们的作品。
如Chittaprosad在40年代晚期，Hore 在50年代中期，以及如J.Swaninathan和Ramkumar这样分别在1953和1954年退出共产党的艺术家，他们在创作中实践了各种现代主义的语言模式。1960年代的本土主义（Indigenist）风尚和70年代复兴的波普-具象-叙事的艺术形式，都只是文化驱动下的先锋派，其基础是精英模式下的艺术史反思与学术。而短命的“印度激进画家与雕塑家联盟”正是在针对上述艺术的批判下所成立的团体。就此，讲演将详细阐述这一激进团体的诸种意识形态前提。
讲演还将涉及当代贱民，同性恋，女性主义者和有其他政治动机的艺术家，他们以团体或独立的方式与人们一同工作，包括被剥夺权利的孩子，阿迪瓦西（部落人）和其他遭受社区暴力蹂躏的人们。在最近二十年间，艺术工作者的社会与政治意识日益增强，他们将艺术与社会和政治事业相联结。本次讲演将会尝试在对新媒体/超媒体艺术（Meta Media Art）兴趣渐浓的背景下，对当代艺术家对政治与社会问题的介入进行批判性的论述，并将其理论化。
施瓦吉·K·帕尼卡尔教授简介
施瓦吉·K·帕尼卡尔教授是一位专研印度艺术的艺术史学家。目前他是德里的安贝卡博士大学文化与创意表达学院的院长。他曾在M. S. 巴罗达大学任教长达25年，并任艺术史与美学系的系主任（2000-2007）。他曾出版过《七母天崇拜和雕塑：“故事性”婆罗门偶像中冲突与和解的肖像性阐释》(1997年)，《二十世纪印度雕塑：最近二十年》（编辑，2000年），《走向新的艺术史：印度艺术研究》（合编，2003年）及其续刊《远古与中世纪的印度艺术：讲社会关系语境化》（合编，2004/2005），以及《表述阻力：艺术与行动主义》（合编，2012）。
他是主题为“策展印度视觉文化：理论与实践”移动工作坊的项目总监之一。这个项目是由班加罗尔的印度艺术基金（IFA）所创始的。（详见 http://www.curationtheory.com/)
关于西天中土：
“西天中土”是一个综合性的跨文化交流计划，旨在梳理、比照印中两国各自不同的现代性脉络，推动两国知识界与艺术界之间高层次的交流，促进两国社会思想与当代艺术的交织互动。自2010年起，已举办论坛、展览、影展、工作坊等各项学术活动百余场，出版书籍十余种。网址：westheavens.net