Press Release
Over 15 film screenings
Talks by renowned personalities like Mita Vashisht, Gayatri Sinha, Udayan Vajpeyi
Jaipur, 24 January: As a part of the ongoing moving image exhibition at Jawahar Kala Kendra “तह–सतह: A Very Deep Surface by Mani Kaul and Ranbir Singh Kaleka: Between Film and Video”, a series of collateral events are also being held over a period of six weeks.
A first full retrospective of India’s avant-garde filmmaker Kaul’s films, including his rare final digital works is on view at JKK. Films like Uski Roti (1969)and Duvidha (1973); short films like Yatrik (1967), Chitrakathi (1976), Arrival (1979), The Cloud Door (1994) ; feature films like Ashad ka ek din(1971), Ghasiram Kotwal (1976), Bohj (2000) and essay films like A Monkey’s Raincoat (2005) and I Am No Other (2002), among others are being screened as a part of Mani Kaul’s Retrospective.
Eminent artist Ranbir Singh Kaleka, exhibition curator Ashish Rajadhyaksha and distinguished others will be giving talks and participating in discussions sharing their artistic ideas. Talk by Hindi poet and essayist Udayan Vajpeyi on ‘Life with Mani’, an evening of poetry, music and ideas will be held on 3 February. On 11 February, there will be a discussion on Mani Kaul and Rajasthan by Mr. Uday Prakash and Dr. CP Dewal moderated by Malchand Tiwari. Talk by art curator and critic Gayatri Sinha on ‘Shadow Encounters: Video Practices in India’ will be held on 3 March. Indian television, film and theatre actress Mita Vashisht will be in conversation withAshish Rajadhyaksha for ‘That thing called the actor..’ on 4 March.
It is to be recalled that the exhibition has been curated by well-known film historian and scholar Ashish Rajadhyaksha. This exhibition is a conversation between India’s leading avant-garde filmmaker Mani Kaul’s classic celluloid films from the 1970s and 1980s and his digital experiments in the 2000s, reworked here in multichannel formats, alongside several video-on-canvas works by internationally renowned artist Ranbir Singh Kaleka. The exhibition has installed over 10 single and multichannel video stations, a sound installation which includes poetry and music alongside video projections on canvas. The exhibition aims to ask new questions about the moving image in 21st century India.
The exhibition is on till 4 March and daily walk-throughs are held at 5.30 pm. Exhibition is closed on Mondays and public holidays.