Prototyping institutions
Three Walks of Art
Against Isolation
Kitchen_A habitat of dissent
Prototyping institutions: I with Dimitri van den Wittenboer, are developing a long-term research project that deals with the potentiality of space. We are exploring how commoning as an artistic strategy can challenge current institutional and public spaces and it's structured.
To develop our ideas we are going on monthly residencies in different locations and invite conversation partners from different fields to have a critical discussion about our research. We also want to have some public sharing moments of our residencies. To create value-based prototypes and sharing with others.
Three Walks of Art Against Isolation
The walk has a simple framework of walks, where one artist will walk with one audience, the artist, decide and design the walk. After an hour we all will meet at the Museumplein. We will have some Chai, share some performances and experiences and then we will leave to our places. The walk is mostly dependent on the artist and their design.
A habitat of dissent is a proposal for a durational performance intervention in public/semi-public and institutional spaces, in which we create a series of artistic interventions exploring the idea of ‘Safety Net’ in resistance and building a culture of care.
It is our attempt in recognising our position and creating agency in the ongoing revolution happening in India. As artists who have recently moved for residencies and are the new residence in Europe are now identifying our roles as artists in resistance rather than residence. ‘Safety net’ here can be understood as an overarching framework that provides a space to fall back, retrieve, and fuel the ongoing revolution from this distance and document the labor of resistance.
A Habitat of dissent is collectively created by Sarah Naqvi and Pankaj Tiwari.
Index of Dystopia
Radio Quarantine
Hello Stranger
Index of Dystopia is one part of a larger project called, The habitat of Dissent, which explores the idea of ‘Safety Net’ in resistance and building a culture of care.
In Zurich, During the period that the artist is present in Zurich(quarantine), they will hand stitch textile declaration that curates key developments in the race towards autocracy in India. The ongoing work will be mounted in a public square in Zurich where it will hang over people who choose to sit under it and host pedestrians in its shade, replicating a dark cloud of impending doom. During the public exhibition, the audience can interact and can be part of the ongoing stitching.
In association with artist: Sarah Naqvi
Radio quarantine is a daily show(17th to 25th March) from a few artists, being at quarantine in
Zurich. The show is about the wait, and also about hope. It is about the excitement and also about the fear. It is about art and also about politics.
The show broadcasts each day between 7 to 8 pm in the evening. The daily show is created by the artist during the day and then in the evening, it is presented to the listeners in Zurich. It consists of a variety of topics from critical theory to collective singing, from revolutionary protest songs to personal stories, from dialogues with invited guests to interact with locals, from a poetry reading to music creation, from being host to being guest. The show is about being with the city and its people, without being able to be with them physically. The show is just love, sheer love.
How important is it to have meaningful interactions in public space and what are the possibilities to meet
strangers in times of the pandemic? Hello, Stranger is a research project that challenges the growing individualization of European city-centres by practicing public interactions with strangers. Especially, in time of the Covid-19 restrictions, spontaneous encounters with people whom we do not know are decreasing.
In association with artist: Dimitri van den Wittenboer
Gessnerallee Zurich
Current: a space
DUST
For Gessnerallee, my larger vision is to make “political art popular”. I am imagining preparing the land for farming. First, you plow the land. Then you leave it, then you seed it, and then slowly the small plants will be seen. After that, the work is to keep watering it. We do this with sensitivity while giving some flavors of newness in terms of content, form, and politics.
“Current”, is a playful encounter with the canals of Amsterdam. It is a space for acting and thinking with the flow of water.
The idea of Current: a space is that anyone who is interested and willingly to join the initiative or co-organise an evening can do that. Current: a space doesn’t belong to anyone, it is not owned by someone. We want to emphasize that we approach the initiative as a collective good, that is open for people to ‘use’ or engage with. On top of that, working with people from different backgrounds - socially, economically and ethnically - is crucial to us.
DUST forms a shifting landscape. Settling on things it mustn't, shouldn't, couldn't and should've, could've and must have. Dust is a place for study and practice, an epicenter of experimental energy. A place where the practice is possible in the future. A place where practice can create worlds. It travels and takes the forms it settles on.
DUST is forever fugitive. It has already stolen the future.
Sonic Sabarmati:
Coding the Currents
Sonic Sabarmati is the first part of our larger project, Coding the currents. This project is an initiative of PAST collective( Agat Sharma and Pankaj Tiwari). This project is work on speculative fiction as an enquiry into post-human ecology.
The Site of his project is river Sabarmati. We start conversation with river through different art and science medium and practices. This is about breaking the boundaries of Art and science and creating a conversation between them. Its an exploration of Unknown, its an speculation between truth and untruth. It works on the limit of science and try to see the possibilities through art.
Meraki’s Kitchen
& Theatre
It's a new venture, a performance space cum cafe, till now only at digital medium conceptualize and curated by Pankaj tiwari. With the help of our collaborator Chetna,(Rangbhumi, Mumbai), We got a physical space and will be starting soon in Mumbai.
The idea is creating a cultural space, where artist can sit, talk, create, rehearse and perform. To build a sustainable art space, which is supportive to artist and art practices. This place will have a small cafe, where people can cook or can buy things to eat. For now this project is in the initial stage and we are figuring out the logistic part of it.
The Souvenir
A series of stories by different performers. This project is conceptualise, designed and curated by Pankaj Tiwari. This is an ongoing project, which started on 18th September 2018, with its first story by Adesh kushwaha, a theoretical physicist. These stories are true life incidents, self reflections of people.
First it was thought of a four week project but then it continues. This project was produced by Meraki’s Kitchen & Theatre and supported by IITGN. The costume for the project has been designed by Sukanya Pasi.
Sabarmati Cafe & Theatre: 2017-18
Laal Batti Express
Memories
Sabarmati cafe is a performance cum cafe space. The idea of the cafe is to bud the cultural community around the IITGN campus. Food and art were the medium of the culture building processes at Sabarmati cafe and theatre. Ecology, community and newness are the core values of this space. The project was initiated and led by Pankaj tiwari, supported by IIT Gandhinagar.
A play exploring the life of daughters of sex workers from Mumbai. The play was evolved with the participants own stories . The play has been performed in various national and international festivals. Ths production was evolved and curated by Pankaj tiwari. All the actors in this are the daughter of sex workers and they themself telling their stories in an performative manner. This play has been appreciated widely by media and critics.
A curated evening on Memories by Pankaj Tiwari, at Royal Opera house., Mumbai. A private show for a management institute. The actors of the show are the students and faculty of the institute. The show has conceptualized and directed by Rangbhumi, Mumbai, and mentored and curated by Pankaj Tiwari.
The Fotons
We are a collaborative art group working on various cultural and social issues. Fotons, boasts of artists/energies, from diverse artistic backgrounds such as Films, theatre, music, design, dance, and academic backgrounds. The group steadily works on issues, which tries to break the hegemony of the artistic spaces. The group tries to explore different spaces, where the artistic talent can be displayed in different forms. We at Fotons strongly believe that theatre or any other art form can be expressed out in any given environment. Through the medium of art, we engage with different communities, spaces, and audiences.