Stage Talk is a stream that seamlessly merges the verbal and the visual, description and demonstration, explanation and enactment.
This year’s Stage Talks are
Chocolate As It Should Be
Chaitanya Muppala, Manam Chocolate
🗓 26th January 2024
⏱12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Embark on a journey with Chaitanya Muppala, India’s first level 3 certified chocolate taster and Founder & CEO of Manam Chocolate, as he unravels the epic tale of cacao and chocolate evolution, from its ancient Mesoamerican origins through wars and industrialization to the present-day craft chocolate renaissance. Through a unique tasting experience, Chaitanya distinguishes the familiar industrial chocolate from craft chocolate that Manam Chocolate is championing in India, offering a delicious exploration of the past, present, and future of this magical ingredient.
Kapas-Cocoon-Colour-Couture
🗓 26th January 2024
⏱2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
We may take pride in the fact that the very first evidence of the four elements of clothing dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization. But today, most of us do not really know how our clothes are made. How much of ecological and environmental balance depends on what we choose to wear? The cost of our ignorance is going to be paid by our next generation, as global warming is already showing its signs. Are we ready to adopt conscious living at least now? What is cotton? What is organic cotton, are we still spinning our cottons and silks by hand and weaving our clothes by hand? How far have we come from the use of 100% natural dyes and natural fibre? Can we return to that safe age? This stage talk throws light on organic cotton, Ahimsa silk, natural dyes, handweaving and other hand processes. The value chain of yarn to finish.
Drunk on Love: Kabir and His Vision
26th January 2024
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Vipul Rikhi presents his latest book, Drunk on Love: An Essential Introduction to the Life, Ideas and Poetry of Kabir (2023), on the life, vision and songs of Kabir. This session is an introduction to Kabir, the 15th century Bhakti-Sufi poet who lived in Varanasi, as he is remembered, loved and celebrated even today by the ordinary folk of India. The talk about Kabir and the book will be interspersed with some live music, as Vipul will sing some of the songs of Kabir featured in the book.
Innovating for Inclusivity: Open Source Hardware for the Blind
27th January 202411:00 am – 12:00 pm
This session will delve into the journey of Vijay Raghav Varada, an entrepreneur and engineer in the field of 3D Printing and assistive technology. He will share his experiences from founding Fracktal Works, his 3D Printing Company while still a student, to winning the prestigious Hackaday Prize 2023 for his Electromechanical Refreshable Braille Module meant for digital inclusion for the visually Impaired. The talk will explore the challenges and triumphs of innovating in the realm of assistive technology, emphasizing the importance of affordability and accessibility. Attendees will gain insights into the process of transforming a vision into a tangible product that has the potential to significantly improve the lives of communities worldwide by leveraging global Open-Source communities, importance of documentation in the success of Open-Source projects and latest tools that give individuals as much power for innovation that earlier needed whole teams of experts.
Prana: Art, Nature, and the Suffused Worlds
27th January 202412:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Our breath connects us to all life forms, and we become suffused beings in breathing in and out throughout our lives. The experience of breath is subtle and tacit and we often forget in our rushed lives that we are entwined with all of nature. This session looks at how breath becomes a vital guiding principle in artistic creation. Through painting and writing, we engage with the line of breath as it moves in and out of ourselves and into those of multiple beings, landscapes, and the expanding cosmos. Being alert to breath changes how we connect with everything around us and leads us on journeys that are adventurous, mysterious and mystical. This session will explore some of the traditional Indian aesthetic concepts and their value in contemporary art making, alongside reflective demonstration.
Intersection of Art and Gender
27th January 20242:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Introducing my inspiration Louise Bourgeois and the essay about her by Siri Hustvedt. Speaking of female rage and self-analysis that is vastly different from that of any male artist. Looking at Frida Kahlo’s work and her rage, beauty, and personal stories that translated into art. Speaking about my work “Woman at leisure” and what inspired me. Pictures from my life and women I know and love and inspire. Speaking about the Zubaan book cover The Stomach That Chewed Hunger (2022) and how the gaze has helped me be a more secure artist. Ending it with some unpublished work “men are chairs and women are mats.”
Multiple Modernities Within Bharatanatyam Today
27th January 20243:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Dance is a dynamic form. Its history and evolution too is, therefore, naturally dynamic. This demonstrative talk traces the history and evolution of dance from the time before it was performed by devadasis through colonialism and the postcolonial nationalist era which prompted the ban on the devadasi system and the disenfranchisement of hereditary dancers on the one hand, and a “reinvention” of Bharatanatyam by the privileged classes of South India on the other. This demonstrative talk explores the multiple ways in which Bharatanatyam has manifested itself in modern times, through examples, including the speaker’s choreographic works with her dance company Vyuti, which will be showcasing it’s latest work ‘The Endless Mind’ also in the festival. The session hopes to establish the different ways in which Bharatanatyam was re-invented often subscribing to the dominant notions present in the form and in ways that resisted and challenged these dominant notions through a further re-invention.
From Text to Performance
28th January 202411:00 am – 12:00 pm
Celebrated theatre couple Noor Baig and Mohammad Ali Baig speak about turning short stories to acclaimed plays … from Page to Stage. One of Noor Baig’s short stories ‘Alone’, from her collection A-quaint-essences (2020) was turned into a full-fledged theatre production by Mohammad Ali Baig, and was staged across the country. Know how it happened in a tete-tete/interactive session.
haikuCHARADES
28th January 202412:00 pm – 1:00 pm
An interesting and entertaining session along the lines of the game ‘Dumb Charades’. This performance has been staged several times to high praise. It worked most beautifully at TRIVENI Haiku Utsav I organised in February 2023 and it was a grand success at the Haiku North America Conference at Winton Salem 2019. Five haiku will be read out and shown on the screen and Anita will mime just one haiku from the five – the audience has to guess the poem. The poet or the dancer will briefly discuss the poem and what inspired them. We have five such rounds. This way I read out many haiku but only the haiku that lends itself beautifully to mime and body language will be enacted. Audience participation is vital here and that is the fun aspect!
The Politics and Theatrics of Community:
A Short Theatre Performance by the DAD and QT Centre and the Long Process Behind Making It
28th January 20242:00 pm – 3:00 pm
The Drama Association of the Deaf (DAD) and Queer-Trans Wellness & Support Center (QT Center) are coming together to work on a unique project that amplifies Deaf and queer voices. In a collaborative theatre project, we’re aiming to create a story with Deaf and queer characters that are whole and complex, with flaws, idiosyncrasies, and cultures that add to the richness of the world. The making of this play itself has been very rewarding. By bringing together two groups of people that haven’t organically interacted together before, we were able to find commonalities, reflect upon subconsciously held biases, and make efforts to reach out to each other. We hope the end result will create a similar effect on our audiences. In our talk, we will enact one act from our play and also take you behind the scenes to our workshops in which we ideated, discussed, and developed this play.
Through the looking glass: Helping children see the ‘new’ in the ‘old’
28th January 20243:00 pm – 4:00 pm
“Sculpted Stones – Mysteries of Mamallapuram” written by Ashwin Prabhu is the newest offering in the “Looking At Art ” series of books published by Tulika Books. The pedagogical premise of the book is to question the notion that ‘fact’ , ‘technique’ and ‘knowledge’ have to be the only entry points to the study of history and art, and ask if it is possible to use ‘observation’, ‘description’ and ‘imagination’ instead to introduce children to these subjects. It does all this in the context of Mamallapuram, a treasure trove of art in South India.
What’s most valuable about this learning proposition is the fact that it can free children from the fear of being wrong, thus making their engagement with history and art far more inclusive and non-intimidating. The author will use a generous selection of visuals from the book in his session to demonstrate the promise of this approach.
