Vinayaka Mantap renewal of abandoned marriage hall through art

Vinayaka Mantap used to be reception hall where many marriages and festivities happened. It was part of social life of everyone living in that area, now it looks like intrusion into new rebuilt space. It is very important place in the memories of so many people, now half sliced it lost its previous function, but it’s importance will be regained trough mapping this place through performance art. Interesting part of this building is that it is sliced in half it looks like a stage inviting you to display some art and to perform, although ruined it haven’t lost its previous glory.

Since the structure that we are using was a place where wedding and different festivals were organised, we are planning to revive it and make it as an art adda. Place to do art performances, talk about art where public interaction will happen. To start a dialogue between artist and the local public how they see this space now.

Artistic practice and relation to the space

(Jeetin Rangher)Participating at the Art Caravan I experienced the power of the Performance Art. It is affecting both the artist as well as public, sometimes inviting public to join. Performance art is on the edge between life and art and it is intervening and dealing with the problems happening around us. My interest in the Art is nurtured by my sensitivity to the surroundings, nature and social environment, and these themes came across powerfully in the Art Caravan. To carry forward that creative potential, I organized the Green World Art Festival for the first time in November 2010. The project provided an opportunity to interact, experiment and work with local materials and residents. The project encouraged artists to move beyond the comfort of their studio spaces and work under different circumstances and fresh spaces.GWAF is an experiment in spatial imagery with the objective of exploring the typology of a contemporary cultural space. The space opens up the possibility of a social and environmental interaction which allows for a trans-local exchange of ideas and aesthetic experiences.

Festival  in 2010, 2011 were held in Odisha where as 2012 in Valley school Bangalore.

I am also working in Delhi, Orissa and Kashmir (HEALING HANDS- ART INTERVENTION IN CONFLICT ZONES), where I am involved in various collaborative art projects.  I am working in local communities and orphan kids in Kashmir, apart from conducting performance art projects in the streets of Kashmir. HEALING HANDS- ART INTERVENTION IN CONFLICT ZONES is my project conducted in Jammu and Kashmir. Project has been elaborated during years of intensive workshop displays and performances having for guideline intervention in broken public space.  This shape of Project is constantly moving in interaction with places and different social contexts in which it is developing. This Project takes place inside Village centres or outside in the public space, School, depending on the context of the work.

Performance, Welcome to Heaven Bhuvanesh Kumar and Jeetin Rangher, Assam 2014.

In the performance art, my expressions have been focused on observation of social life. My performances are responses and critical reflections on our social, cultural as well as political behaviour.

My art is reaction to the spaces and situations surrounding me. Living in Bangalore I have noticed the quantity of ruined and abandoned space and realised that these spaces require intervention of artist. I have been thinking about this project for a very long time. In my neighbourhood used to be beautiful marriage hall which I remember from the time I was going to school. As Bangalore started growing to become a global city so they started cutting the city by making highways wider on both the side. This process went under lot of protest and resistance but the government at the end went ahead with their plan of widening the roads. Let’s talk about Bellary road now we are left with wide roads and so many buildings and house which were sliced half for the highway construction. Once monumental now this structure stands as an old poet wanting someone to come and listen to its untold stories.

In these abandoned building very often we can find migrated communities inhabitation it, as a reaction to the space I will be taking the character of migrant and through that character I will be leading the whole project. That will be three months lasting performance which will have final result presented as video.

Performance Salvaging time Katarina Rasic and Jeetin Rangher, Gallery Sumukha,2012.

During this project I will be collaborating with two more artists Bhuvanesh Kumar from Bangalore and Katarina Rasic from Belgrade, Serbia. We have been collaborating on different performance art projects. The project will be open for other artist to join and collaborate.

Born in Bangalore, Bhuvanesh Kumar holds his BVA (Painting) Ken School of Art, Bangalore. MFA from College of Art, New Delhi. Bhuvanesh has received Nadoja R M Hadapad Scholarship Award in 2007 and 2012: Karnataka Lalit Kala academy state Scholarship award in 2012. He has participated in various performance art festivals and art camps like Crack International Art residency/Camp at Kushtia, Bangladesh. Art Karavan International,  Green World Art Festival and the Indo-Japan Art collaboration Camp. Etc.

Hailing from a strong Cultural background, traditional practices and rituals have always influenced his art works. Bhuvanesh performances are usually based on rituals of everyday life and festivals; it does not matters to which community or religion they belong to. While conceptualizing he is always relating performance to humanity, identity, celebrations, love and/or political situation. He is always relating the festivals to the contemporary period and reconceptualise it and present according to the time and space. His performances are not scripted, they are inviting people to join and develop the work in present situation.

In the performance on ‘Ugadi’ festival he has reconceptualise the essence of Ugadi  and related it to the contemporary situation and experiment it with the idea of communal harmony and peace etc. And other performance was on mythological story of ‘Holi’ festival which he has related to and critiques the present tax system and its relationship to common people. He has also been working with concepts of identity and shadow.

Relating to the space and its festive history Bhuvanesh will develop different performances during the period of three months. Relating to the space, people and festivities happened there he will make new concepts and develop his work.

Katarina Rasic has finished Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade, Serbia and during her studies she has been awarded with stipend for Young Talents of Republic of Serbia. Katarina is a member of Association of Fine Artists of Serbia.

Her artwork is mostly ecologically oriented and based on use of recycled materials. Main part of her artwork is Recycled fashion / dresses made out of newspapers, plastic bags, vinyl and any other used object that would give her inspiration to make an artwork. She also works in field of performance, painting and sculpture. With her paintings she is trying to express fast development of the city and on growing production of waste. Through her art Katarina is trying to express her concern for on growing pollution as well to constantly find new materials to express her artwork.

Cleaning the space

Her artwork is related to the growing and urbanisation of city structures, so we were talking and planning to collaborate in different levels. With performances as well as building site specific art installation out of the garbage found in the place.

We are planning to gather people in a cleaning action where we will clear the space and the garbage will be used to create artworks. We are hoping to develop an action in collaboration with the group The Ugly Indian.

Relating to the space (research on the history of the space)

We are planning to find people who got married in this hall and make interviews with them. About what was the meaning of this place for them and what is their feeling towards the fact that part of their history is ruined as their marriage is still lasting. What are their memories regarding that building? Why they did they choose exact place for their marriage. What they think should be done to regain the importance of the building. Through these interviews we will enter into the very personal and important meaning of this structure to so many people. These videos will be edited and will be used as the part of the stage for the final performance.

Also we will regain old photos of the building as well as festivals happening inside which will be used in making unique collages which will make alive the spirit of the old structure.

These video- interviews with people will be projected in the space.

Promotion of art

Promotion of young artist

In the building you can find different movie posters.

Idea is to create interactive spaces in which we will be creating artworks and collages from posters on the walls as well as sculptures. The structure will act as a space for interaction between students / Artists and public. Since artwork will be done on the spot it will be at the same time as performance is going on.

People on the street walk by those buildings and look in the posters for different movies, they change every now and then. Movie posters used to be painted by artist as well, using posters as a material for artwork we are planning to connect it in many different levels. First artwork with what we can start is reproduction of some well know artist from India, or to bring out traditional art form with these collages. Since people will be going and looking for usual movie posters they will notice the change (get interested for it) attracted by the artwork. Second we are planning to invite young artist to create their own artworks and exhibit them at the spot, that way giving them opportunity to show their art to the wider public. Third since every artwork will be created out of old movie posters we will include one more important topic into the conversation- recycling.   With this project we would attract public to see artwork the get to know more about performance art. Not everybody visit exhibitions and gallery’s nowadays, but displaying artworks in an open space and art gallery we will bring it more closely to the wider public.

Plan is that during these three months create an interactive space where people will be visiting, performing and discussing about art.

Rebuilding the structure

Festival performance will be constructed out of presentation of previous artworks conducted in the space led by Jeetin Rangher in the role of migrant.

Then interviews of the people that married in the space will be conducted and we will be inviting them to join group performance in which will rebuilding the structure with our bodies and closing with that three months period of creating art.

With this project building will gain new meaning and it will be space to celebrate art now.

Rapid urbanisation of Bangalore has sacrificed many buildings, made them unrecognisable, slicing them in half in order to make space for wider roads. We would like to work with a found space (Vinayaka Mantap) which has been such a victim of rapid growth of the city. One place on the Bellary road, Vinayaka Mantap attracted our attention as it used to be beautiful marriage hall once upon a time, and now sliced in half it has lost its previous glory. We would like to play with history of this space and to try to recover its previous importance through different actions and performances as well as to give it a new meaning and function of the space for the art world. In simple words we are planning to create an art adda to nurture performance art.

Main idea of the project is to revive old abandoned structure of a wedding hall in Bellary road through public performances and installation art, during three months period, which will be resulted in performance- presentation of work done during three months, as well as performance of rebuilding the old wedding hall with our bodies as a final act.

Abandoned place have their own magic they are telling unique story of the decade past. Their charm is one of a kind and they are inviting us to find out their own past. In art, found/abandoned spaces can be used in so many different levels, as a exhibitions space, reaction to the environment with performance art as well as place just to gather and discuss about art. Uniqueness of these places is inspiring and will always put more into one project or artwork related to it.

Sometimes taken over by migrated people searching for shelter, this once so large and monumental structure becomes a story teller of the decade past. I Jeetin Rangher as a project director will be taking a character of a migrant which will be staying in the building and connecting all the actions happening during three months.