"Exhibition of the works of Amitabh Sengupta at the Kalakendra Art Gallery, Auroville"
The works of Amitabh Sengupta show a broad spectrum of styles and reflect the challenges faced by Indian artists in the 20th century. A major exhibition of his work is currently on display at the Kalakendra Art Gallery. Find out more about his influences and his significance for the Indian art scene.
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CADALFEST at Adishakti
The CADALfest took place from December 16th to 20th, 2022, in Adishakti. I hadn't planned on going, but I was thoroughly surprised by the four days of round-table discussions, poetry and film screenings, concerts, and theatrical performances by a fascinating group of artists, activists, and academics. I picked out a little something and on Saturday, attended the „Adivasi Round Table discussion with Vandna Tete, Ganga Sahay Meena, Seral Murmu & Ashwini Kumar Pankaj, moderated by Gopika Jadeja“ followed by the…
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Dancing with the wind - Gilles Grimaître plays Avant-garde at CRIPA in Auroville
Gilles Grimaître visits Auroville for a few days during his Pro Helvetia artist residency in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Pondicherry to engage with Carnatic music. The program he chose for the evening of December 17th, 2022, was a passionate, loving introduction to usually not-so-accessible Western avant-garde music. Grimaître started off with Johannes Brahms's Drei Intermezzi op 117, a romantic crowd-pleaser, followed by a more challenging piece by Olli Mustonen (*1967) called ‘Jehkin Iivana’. Nobody would know the…
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Simplicity
"Simplicity is complexity resolved"
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Shiva Tiruvannamalei Deepam
Yesterday, I followed something in my mind that is difficult to describe. In everyday language, I might say I followed my intuition. But it's a bit more complex. I went back to Tiruvannamalai. It was the last day of the Karthigai Deepam Brahmotsavam Festival. So, on December 6, 2022, a fire was created on that mountain, as has been done for 2500 years. There is, of course, an ancient story about this. Brahman, the universal Self, manifested itself as Brahma (the creator), Vishnu...
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Intermiscence - Kena Upanishad
I'm just back from devotions and meditation. It's the anniversary of Sri Aurobindo. He left his body 72 years ago, as they say here. I've spent the last few days reflecting and talking a lot about his commentaries on the Kena Upanishad. I came across the word ‚intermiscence‘ there. It's used almost exclusively by Aurobindo. I asked everyone I met what the word meant. A friend here found a translation into German: ‚ineinanderfließen‘ (it describes in German...
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Jumping fish
As a teenager and student, I started meditating, and I still have vague memories of my first meditations from that time. Strength and calm, concentration – mostly at night. These were very special moments. I didn't do it often. As a student, I continued to meditate very irregularly. I remember some of these mostly 1-2 hour meditations as if they just happened. I always lacked the words (when I forced myself to name it, I reluctantly said transcendental), I…
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Review https://artservice.auroville.org/article-conceptual-art-during-the-covid-lockdown-by-artist-aabhas-mahindre/
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Labyrinth - process aesthetics
“the eye thinks even more than it listens” (Deleuze) I now recall that, before I started reading Deleuse, I had been wrestling with a process aesthetics. I had cobbled together a 100-page manuscript, with notes, quotes, structural sketches. I wanted to move away from the idea that art consists of objects perceived in a particular form, because this leads to two essential threads of consideration: 1.) What constitutes an object we designate as art, and 2.) why is the perception...
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Diagrams - philosophical
I'm slowly approaching Sanskrit. On Thursdays, Nishtha holds a seminar on the Rigveda. The joint recitation in Sanskrit, the detailed analysis of the translation, Nishtha's philological considerations, and the explanations of the psychology of the gods open up access to these ‚sacred‘ texts. I remember my Latin studies, the Indo-European roots, the sounds that echo in the Ragas, phonetics as an expression of existence, language as sound and vibration, communication as rhythm. The breath of life, yoga, vitality, thinking in...
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What to do?
The last time I seriously wondered what I should do was during college. I studied philosophy, and I was often asked what I wanted to do with it. What a stupid question, I always thought. It's an inner drive, almost a compulsion, that you can't resist. Any such attempt must fail, there's only thinking ahead. So it wasn't really a question of what I should do, or what was to be done,...
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Sleeping
Yesterday I fell asleep with the expectation of waking up early to meditate. I set my alarm for 6 AM. In the evening, a French yoga instructor and mountain guide told me that the early morning hours in India are the best for meditation – I already knew they were good for *ryas*. She also spoke of the morning chants in the cities; I remembered the mantra chants in the temples. I woke up at 5:30 AM. Temple chants were...
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