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At ARCUREA, artists take the spotlight to animate complex concepts of archiving and curation through their performances. Delving into diverse subjects like lullabies, Kabir’s philosophy, and silent cinema, they illuminate archival knowledge through engaging acts. These performances challenge conventional notions of archives and the artist’s role in utilising them for curation and research. ARCUREA presents four live performances, each exploring unique perspectives on archives. The meaning of archives, how one uses an archive, the possibilities that open up when one brings their use of archive into their practice, the access to archive and the absence of archives – all these aspects are touched through the conceptualisation of the programming of live performances.
Screening of Behula, a digitised 1921 silent film based on a story from the famous medieval Bengali epic Manasa Mangal. The film stars Patience Cooper and is directed by Camille Legrand and is produced by Jamshedji Framji Madan.
Behula tells the story of rivalry between the goddesses Chandi, wife of Shiva, and Manasa, his daughter. The merchant Chand Sadagar is a faithful devotee of Chandi, and Manasa attempts to attract him. Rejected by Chand Sadagar, Manasa condemns his son, Lakhindar, to perish on the night of his marriage to the beautiful Behula. The next morning, Behula discovers her husband’s inanimate body after he suffers a snakebite. She sets out on a long voyage along the Ganges until she succeeds in bringing him back to life.
The screening will be accompanied by a musical ensemble by Borno Anonyo and other featured musicians.
Gurupriya Atreya and Vedanth Bharadwaj will be taking us into the holy land of peaceful sleep through sleep songs across boundaries, cultures and languages. The duo has researched and archived several lullabies passed down through oral tradition in over 40 languages from across India and the world. Soothe your senses with lullabies, said to be the oldest genre in music, and sink into a dreamlike state in this unique musical offering.
Lady Anandi: Redux is a continuation of Lady Anandi, a documentary theatre performance where an actor is haunted by the ghost of her great grandfather — a female impersonator in late 19th century Marathi theatre — every time she goes up on stage. It is the story of two actors separated by a hundred years. Lady Anandi: Redux is a re-opening of the archives of previous shows, alongside excerpts of the ‘real’ show. It will open up questions of embodiment, re-citation, process and the roles of director and audience in creating a performance.
Kabir leads us by the hand into a ‘deewaana des’, a ‘crazy country’ far beyond any small-minded, mean-hearted allegiance to one religion or one nation – a crazy land where a house arises from the ashes of the one you burn down, belonging arises from an unbelonging, and a heady state is attained, when you cut off your head.
Gurupriya Atreya and Vedanth Bharadwaj will be taking us into the holy land of peaceful sleep through sleep songs across boundaries, cultures and languages. The duo has researched and archived several lullabies passed down through oral tradition in over 40 languages from across India and the world. Soothe your senses with lullabies, said to be the oldest genre in music, and sink into a dreamlike state in this unique musical offering.
About the artists
Vedanth Bharadwaj is a multifaceted musician who dabbles in several genres of music. He sings the time bending lyrics written by mystic poets from Bhakti, Sufi and Folk traditions while accompanying himself on the Guitar and Banjo. He started his journey in Indian Classical music at the age of 4, went on to learn Western Classical Music and is currently a disciple of Sri Ramamoorthy Rao. Vedanth composes music for dance, theatre, Indian and Foreign feature films, ads, documentaries, albums and is a much sought after sound designer.
After scoring music for the blockbuster Tamil feature film Aruvi he debuted in Hollywood as music composer with the feature film His Father’s Voice. Vedanth loves working with children, and is one of the directors of the Chennai Children’s Choir, a choir of children from economically challenged backgrounds. They represented India at the Serenade Choral Festival, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC. Vedanth hopes to spread love and peace in this world through his music.
Gurupriya Atreya is a singer and arts curator. Trained in Indian classical music since her childhood, she is currently a disciple of Ustaad Faiyaz Khan. She strives to delve deeper into understanding the world of Bhakti Poetry, Thumris, Ghazals and Khayal Gayaki. Gurupriya lends her voice to singing playback for films, ads and voice overs.
To restore the glory of Chamber Music, she launched The Living Room Kutcheri. Her home has had a loyal audience base over the last 5 years, having hosted a variety of performances in music, dance, theatre, and storytelling. GoUNESCO featured her home in their heritage documentary series. They now host performances in Bangalore and Bombay. She is currently studying ‘Arts practices for Inclusion’ through which she exposes varied art forms to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Gurupriya dreams of bringing communities and cultures together, holding each other to form an inclusive society.
18 March
Lady Anandi: Redux is a continuation of Lady Anandi, a documentary theatre performance where an actor is haunted by the ghost of her great grandfather—a female impersonator in late 19th century Marathi theatre—every time she goes up on stage. It is the story of two actors separated by a hundred years. Lady Anandi: Redux is a re-opening of the archives of previous shows, alongside excerpts of the “real” show. It will open up questions of embodiment, re-citation, process and the roles of director and audience in creating a performance.
About the Artist
Anuja GHOSALKAR is the founder of Drama Queen, a Documentary Theatre company, in India since 2015. Her multi-disciplinary practice extends the idea of theatre to create audacious work, with a focus on little histories, archival lapses and blurring the hierarchies between audience and performer. Critical to her performance making and pedagogy are iterations around form and process, modes of media, sites, technologies and narratives on gender and intimacy. Her performances, lectures, workshops have been programmed by University of Oxford, Hong Kong University, University of Cambridge, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sophiensale, Museum of Art and Photography, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, National Centre for Biological Sciences, among others. As visiting faculty at many art institutes, she leads practice-based pedagogy and has written on film and performance for Forum Modernes Theater, Routledge, Outlook India, Nang Magazine.
19 March
