The National Workshop aims to enable artists and potential live art hub partners to develop strategies for creating a common shared vision and plans for building on the strategies agreed upon during the Conference. It will also focus on sensitizing, empowering and promoting artivism at central and local levels. Most artists are still focused on beauty and balance at the aesthetic level. They have yet to venture out of their comfort zones to tackle socio-political aspects. The Four Days Workshop will start by building on the outputs of the international conference- Glocalization of Art: Contemporary Art Practices’, then explore and create new art forms that will be exhibited at the open day on Day 4. The Workshop will conclude with the establishment of an informal network of artivists that contribute regularly to the eventual establishment of the Live Art Hub.
Glocalization of Art: Contemporary Art Practices: 1-4 December 2010, Following the International Conference, a National Workshop was held from December 1-4, 2010. The workshop’s aim was to enable artists and potential Live Art Hub partners to develop strategies for creating a common shared vision for the Live Art Hub, to build on the strategies agreed upon during the conference, to give participants an guided group experience in developing a contemporary art project in alternate media and to promote a democratic, sharing culture that will provide the foundation for future work within the Live Art Hub project. It also focused on sensitizing, empowering and promoting artivism at the central and local levels. We felt it was important to promote this because most artists are still focused on beauty and balance at the aesthetic level; they have yet to venture out of their comfort zones to tackle socio-political aspects. The workshop built directly on the outputs of the International Conference, then explored and expressed new/alternative forms of art that were then showcased to the general public on the open-day on December 4, 2010.
The workshop started with a Heritage Walk guided by the internationally well-respected urban planner and active public intellectual Mr. Anil Chitrakar at Patan. This activity allowed the group to focus on the concept of “glocalization” given Mr. Chitrakar’s ability to explain the presence of the historical, the local and the global in particular temples and other architectural and urban sites. Not just for those unfamiliar with Patan but also for those very familiar with the city, Mr. Chitrakar’s guided tour helped change fixed notions of what is local, what is global and the manner in which they influence each other. After returning from the walk the participants discussed and developed their conceptual plans for their art projects within their groups. The facilitators, resource persons and coordinators supported each group while developing their concepts and through the creation process of their projects. This encouraged all the participants to interact with one another and helped create a sense of equality and encouraged a group democratic process. Through this process of interacting, arguing and creating without any hierarchical social positions, an understanding and a practice of everyday democracy emerged. Divided into six different groups for the collaborative projects, participants from Kathmandu and other parts were mixed together in each group to promote the exchange of ideas and learning process in a balanced way since participants from outside the valley have had less exposure compared to those from within the valley. On the open-day seven socio-political-conceptual pieces were presented by the groups using different alternative media including installations, performance as well as interactive forms. The Workshop concluded with the establishment of an informal network of artivists that regularly contribute to the ongoing the Live Art Hub project.
PARTICIPANTS
- Ms. Sushma Shakya
- Mr. Prakash Ranjit
- Ms. Bidhata KC
- Ms. Manju Syawla
- Ms. Samjhana Rajbhandari
- Ms. Ganga Subedi
- Ms. Sunita Rana
- Ms. Saurganga Darshandhari
- Ms. Rabita Kisi
- Ms. Satyashila Kashaju
- Ms. Prabha Gurung
- Mr. Mahendra Rai
- Mr. Sudearshan Rana
- Mr. Bhuwan Thapa
- Mr. Ganesh Kumar GC
- Mr. Keshab Raj Khanal
- Mr. Tika Dutta Dahal
- Mr. Uday Karmacharya
- Mr. Mekh Limbu
- Mr. Rajan Kaphle
- Mr. Jyoti Duwadi
Participants were divided into six different groups as A, B, C, D, E and F for the collaborative projects, participants from Kathmandu and other parts were mixed together in each group to promote the exchange of ideas and learning process in a balanced way since participants from outside the valley have had less exposure compared to those from within the valley. The facilitators, resource persons and coordinator are also joined in one of the groups as participants and created an Interactive Art Piece. All together seven art art pieces were created using alternative and mixed media.