Professional Snapshot
Pankaj Tiwari (1990), is a theatre maker and curator from Balrampur India, currently based in Amsterdam. He is currently working as co-curator with Zurich Gessnerallee, Switzerland. He is also invited to curate a festival around ‘Object, Memory and Migration’ for the University of Minnesota (2021-22). Between 2011-2018, he worked as creative director for ‘The Fotons’, a performance-based group from India. He is also part of a collective ‘Inquilaab (2019)’, which consist of Amsterdam based Indian artist, Sarah Naqvi.
January 2020, Pankaj initiated Current: a Space, Amsterdam, which curated performances and worked to build a new audience and a culture of intersectionality. Pankaj uses theatre, food and farming as a medium for community building.
He has been part of jury members and the advisory board for several national and international art residencies and festivals. Few of them include Belluard Theatre Festival Switzerland (2020), DUST Amsterdam (2020), First playback gathering Mumbai, India (2019), Theatre of the oppressed residency Tejgadh (2016,17). Pankaj was invited to perform at theatre Spektakel Zurich (2020), Santarcangelo Festival, Italy (2020,21), Lamakaan Hyderabad (2017), Grand Theatre, Groningen (2020), Veem House for Performance (2020) etc.
His recent work, The Art of Walking (2020), a walk between Amsterdam and Calais(France), has been supported by multiple production houses and theatres including Hau Berlin, Production House Rotterdam, WPzimmers Brussuls, Spring Festival the Netherlands, Boulevard Festival The Netherlands, Journey Festival the UK, Performing Borders, UK, Gessnerallee Zurich. etc.
Pankaj studied masters in Society and Culture from IIT Gandhinagar (2017) and Masters in Theatre, DAS Theatre Amsterdam (2021). He had also completed his master in Education from Azim Premji University, Bangalore (2015). He has worked as a theatre facilitator, consultant and educator with institutions like Ambedkar University, Pearl Academy Delhi, Kranti Mumbai, Breakthrough India, Disha India etc. He was part of 4th IETM Croatia (2018), Theatre Spektakel (2019), Bread and Puppet theatre (2018), Imaginary School for the future of Performing Arts, Giessen (2019).
His selected work include Carnival: the fest of Bodies (2013-17), 30 Days in September (2011-16), Laal Batti Express (2014-18), They do not move (2017), The Souvenir(2018), Synthetic Mediation (2019), The Art of Walking(2020), Doing Time (2020), Walks of Art against isolation (2021), We are Here (2021).