Arts_Culture@BIC_Hub’ba

Dr. V. Venkatraju is recognised as Kanchi Kamakotipita Asthana vidhawan nadaswara kalarathna and is a TV-AIR nadaswara vidwan. As an artist he has spent many decades immersed in his Art and music.

Hailing from Shoolagiri talukh in Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu, as a young child his dream was to learn the techniques and intricacies of the Nadaswara, a double reed Southern Indian wind instrument. His teaching took place at Vokta in Andhra Pradesh and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. His learning in these two states contributed to his unique style of performing in the Classical Carnatic music traditions

His gurus were Dr. K S Mani and Dr M K S. Shiva.

Over the years he has performed in many well know venerated places such as, the Lakshmi temple in Sreepuram, Vellore; Thirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam; Kanchi Kamaakshi temple Kanchipuram as well as on various television channels. In his musical journey he has collaborated with various artists and institutions.

At BIC Hub’ba he will perform with his team of accompanying musicians.

Lokacharita, founded in 2013 is a community collective bringing together individuals interested and working in the arts – literature, theatre, visual arts, dance, music and film. Under the umbrella of Lokacharita, a number of programmes take place regularly involving people from all ages groups and demographics.

Some of the programmes are: ‘Lokacharita Samudaya Koota’, where a gathering comes together every second Sunday of the month to discuss, debate and share ideas; ‘Sarihottige’, an informal travelling library populated by the members of Lokacharita; ‘Geetacharita’, tracing histories through song; Workshops for theatre, music and film and Kathanakutoohala, where popular short stories from Kannada popular literature is adapted for the stage and performed.

ಲೋಕಚರಿತ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಕುರಿತು

‘ಲೋಕಚರಿತ’ವು 2013ರಲ್ಲಿ ಆರಂಭಗೊಂಡ – ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ, ನಾಟಕ, ಚಿತ್ರ – ಶಿಲ್ಪ, ನೃತ್ಯ, ಸಂಗೀತ, ಚಲನಚಿತ್ರ ಮುಂತಾದ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿಕೊಂಡವರ ಒಂದು ಸಾಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಕ ಬಳಗ.

ಲೋಕಚರಿತದ ಮತ್ತಿತರ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮಗಳು

ಲೋಕಚರಿತ ಸಮುದಾಯ ಕೂಟ: ಪ್ರತಿ ತಿಂಗಳ ಎರಡನೇ ಭಾನುವಾರದಂದು ‘ಲೋಕಚರಿತ ಸಮುದಾಯ ಕೂಟ’ದಲ್ಲಿ ಆಸಕ್ತ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ಸೇರಿ ಸಂವಾದ, ಮಾತುಕತೆ, ಚರ್ಚೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು, ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರು, ಪೋಷಕರು ಮಾತ್ರವಲ್ಲದೇ, ವಿವಿಧ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿಕೊಂಡ ವೃತ್ತಿ ನಿರತರೂ ಇರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ವಿವಿಧ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ತಜ್ಞರನ್ನು ಕರೆಸಿ ಅವರೊಡನೆ ಸಂವಾದ-ಚರ್ಚೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಇದರ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಉದ್ದೇಶ. ನಮ್ಮ ಹೊಸ ತಲೆಮಾರಿನವರು ಆಧುನಿಕ ವಿಕಾರಗಳಿಂದ ಹೊರಬರಲು ಇದು ಸಹಾಯಕವಾಗಿದೆ ಎಂದು ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾವನೆ. ಈವರೆಗೆ – ವಿವೇಕ ಶಾನಭಾಗ, ಕೆ.ವಿ. ಅಕ್ಷರ, ನಾಗೇಶ ಹೆಗಡೆ, ಎಂ.ಎಸ್. ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ್, ಜಿ.ಎಸ್. ಭಾಸ್ಕರ್, ರಾಧಾಕೃಷ್ಣನ್ ನಯ್ಯರ್, ಬಿ.ಆರ್. ವಿಶ್ವನಾಥ್, ಚಿದಂಬರರಾವ್ ಜಂಬೆ, ಉಷಾ ಪಿ. ರೈ, ಜನಾರ್ಧನರೆಡ್ಡಿ, ವೀರನಾರಾಯಣ, ಕಲಾಗಂಗೋತ್ರಿ ಮಂಜು, ಸ್ವರೂಪ್ ಶರ್ಮನ್, ನಟರಾಜ ಹುಳಿಯಾರ್, ಮುಕುಂದರಾವ್, ಜೆ. ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸಮೂರ್ತಿ ಜಯಂತ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿ, ರಘುನಂದನ, ಪ್ರತಿಭಾ ನಂದಕುಮಾರ್, ಚಿರಂಜೀವ ಸಿಂಗ್, ಎಂ.ಎಸ್, ಆಶಾದೇವಿ, ಸುಂದರ್ ಸಾರುಕ್ಕೈ, ಬಿ.ವಿ. ರಾಜಾರಾಮ್, ಕೆ.ಎಸ್. ನಾಗರತ್ನಮ್ಮ, ಮಲ್ಲಿಕಾರ್ಜುನ ಕಟಗೋಳ, ಜೋಗಿ, ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ ವೈದ್ಯ- ಮುಂತಾದವರೆಲ್ಲಾ ಅತಿಥಿಗಳಾಗಿ ಆಗಮಿಸಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಅನುಭವಗಳನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ಬಳಗದೊಡನೆ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ.

ಸರಿಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ: ಇದು ಲೋಕಚರಿತದಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವವರಿಗಾಗಿ ಇರುವ, ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಎರವಲಿಗೆ ಕೊಡು-ಕೊಳುವ, ಆ ಮೂಲಕ ಅವರನ್ನು ಓದುವ ಹವ್ಯಾಸಕ್ಕೆ ತೊಡಗಿಸುವ ಯೋಜನೆ. ಸತತ ನಾಲ್ಕುವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಇದನ್ನು ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗಿ ನಡೆಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಓದಿದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಮತ್ತಿತರರು, ನಂತರ ತಾವು ಓದಿದ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಮುಕ್ತವಾಗಿ ಚರ್ಚಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ.

ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರಗಳು: ಲೋಕಚರಿತವು ಈ ವರೆಗೆ ಛಾಯಾಗ್ರಹಣ, ಮೂಕಾಭಿನಯ, ಚಲನಚಿತ್ರ, ಪ್ರಸಾಧನ, ಸಂಗೀತ ಕುರಿತಾದ ಶಿಬಿರಗಳನ್ನು ಯೋಜಿಸಿದೆ. ಇವು ಎರಡನೇ ಭಾನುವಾರದ ಮಿತ್ರಕೂಟಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊರತಾಗಿ ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿರುವ ಎರಡೆರಡು ದಿನದ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರಗಳು. ಇದಲ್ಲದೇ ನಮ್ಮ ಬಳಗವು ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಸಂಗೀತ, ನೃತ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ಮೂಕಾಭಿನಯ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಗಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಕನಕಪುರ ಬಳಿಯ`ಅಕ್ಷರಮನೆ’ ಮತ್ತು ಚಾಮರಾಜನಗರದ `ದೀನಬಂಧು’ ಆಶ್ರಮಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಸಿದೆ.

ಗೀತಚರಿತ: ರಂಗಸಂಗೀತದ ಮೂಲಕ ‘ರಂಗ ಇತಿಹಾಸವನ್ನು’ ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನಿಸುವ ಒಂದು ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಪ್ರಯೋಗ ಇದು. ಇದರ ಹಲವು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳು ನಡೆದಿದ್ದು, ‘ಸಖ್ಯದಆಖ್ಯಾನ’ ಎನ್ನುವುದು ಶೃಂಗಾರ ರಸಭರಿತ ಗೀತೆಗಳ ಇತ್ತೀಚಿನ ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನ. ಪ್ರೊ. ಜೆ. ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯವರಿಂದ ಇತಿಹಾಸ, ಭಾವ, ಸಂದರ್ಭಗಳ ವಿವರಣೆಗಳನ್ನೊಂಡ ರಂಗಗಾಯನದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ, ಕನ್ನಡದ ಅಪರೂಪದ ರಂಗಗೀತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತಪಡಿಸಲಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.

ಕಥನಕುತೂಹಲ: ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಲೋಕಚರಿತ ತಂಡವು ಕನ್ನಡದ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಕಥೆಗಳನ್ನು ರಂಗ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತಿಯ ರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ ತರುವ ಯೋಜನೆಯನ್ನು ಕಳೆದ ಆರೇಳು ತಿಂಗಳಿಂದ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡದ ಹಲವಾರು ಕತೆಗಳನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮ ತಂಡದ ಸಮುದಾಯದೊಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಓದಿ, ಅವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವನ್ನು ಆಯ್ದು `ರಂಗಪ್ರಸ್ತುತಿ’ಯ ರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ ತರುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವನ್ನು ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಇದರ ಮೊದಲ ಗುಚ್ಛವೇ ಈ`ಕಥನ ಕುತೂಹಲ – 1′. ಈ ಮೊದಲ ಕಂತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡದ ಮೂರು ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಕತೆಗಳನ್ನು ರಂಗರೂಪಕ್ಕೆ ತರಲಾಯಿತು. ಆ ಮೂರು ಕತೆಗಳ ವಿವರ ಇಂತಿದೆ- ಪೂರ್ಣಚಂದ್ರ ತೇಜಸ್ವಿಯವರ `ಡೇರ್ ಡೆವಿಲ್ ಮುಸ್ತಾಫಾ’ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ: ಕುಮಾರರಾಜು ಎನ್., ನಟರಾಜ್ ಹುಳಿಯಾರ್ ಅವರ `ದಾದಾ ಕ ಪಹಾಡ್’ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ: ಗಿರಿಧರ್ ಎಸ್., ಮೌನೇಶ ಬಡಿಗೇರ ಅವರ `ಶಫಿ ಎಲೆಕ್ಟ್ರಿಕಲ್ಸ್’ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನ: ನವೀನ್ ಆರ್.ಎನ್. – ಈ ಕತೆಗಳ ಹಲವಾರು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳನ್ನು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಾದ್ಯಂತ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ.

Theatre Lab – youth, founded by Kirtana Kumar in 1997 is about children, theatre and the heart. We aim to give children the space to explore drama, have fun and engage with the world around them. 

At The BIC Hub’ba Theatre Lab – youth will be performing staged readings of three pieces of text specially chosen for this occasion and these times. These will be : An excerpt from Ionesco’s ‘Rhinoceros’, an excerpt from ‘Anagrams and Barbed Wire Jesus (the stage version)’ by Zui Kumar Reddy, and an adapted version of Gil Scott Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ by Kirtana Kumar

ShuPri (aka Shubha Priya) is an advertising professional who has lived and worked with the world’s leading agencies in India, Indonesia, USA and UAE. She is currently a branding and communications consultant, living in Bangalore.

To amuse herself, she began creating ARTickles (illustrated or animated poems, some set to music) – a kind of quirk in progress – which eventually became a book called Whimsical Brew. This is her first book, entirely written, illustrated and designed by her.

Ashish Chandra Sen is an  independent media consultant, community radio educator and advocate. He is on the Board of AMARC Asia Pacific and a member of AMARC International’s Governance Committee. He is also Community Media Consultant and Evaluator of Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia’s (CEMCA) Three Year Plan (2012-2015). He is AMARC’s Expert Consultant on UNESCO’s IPDC Programme to develop Community Radio in Bhutan, and a core member of the International Commission on Survivor-Centered Disaster Recovery. He is also Editor of Community Radio News, a newsletter managed by the UNESCO Chair on Community Media; Course Director, Community Communications, Convergence Institute of Media Management and Information Technology; and Visiting Faculty at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Symbiosis International University.
Sen has been actively engaged with theatre for social change since the 1980s in Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore. He has acted in and directed more than sixty productions and has extensively used theatre as a training vehicle for the corporate, academic and social sectors.

Sen started his career as a journalist in Kolkata with the Business Standard, where he subsequently became Assistant Editor. Since the late eighties he has been professionally engaged at senior management levels with frontline development organizations in India and outside like ActionAid, VOICES, and AMARC.

A social entrepreneur and an actor, Munira Sen has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience both in building social enterprises and grass-roots organizations. Munira has been an integral part of the core team of Common Purpose, a not-for-profit organisation, that was involved in setting up the India operation since its inception in 2008. She has also been instrumental in facilitating the South Asia Venture in Mumbai and the Chicago Leadership Academy in Delhi.

Apart from being a successful entrepreneur, Munira is also a well-known theatre artist and she has performed in many theatrical productions in India.

Sudhir Rao, a Chartered Accountant (India) and a Chartered Management Accountant (UK), is the Managing Partner of IndusAge & WRVI Capital – India, a Global Technology Venture Fund platform.

They invest and work on scaling up transformative IP-led technology companies globally.

Their investments currently span Semiconductors, Robotics, Smart Machines & Drones, Digital Networks & IoT platforms with Solution stacks for various sectors including Retail, Dairy, Automotive & Manufacturing.

He lives in Bengaluru with his wife Sadhana, a Writer, Educationist and Curator in Arts & Culture and their son Arnav, a trained Lawyer, StandUp comic and Writer.

His son and wife have had an immense influence on his Right brain through their peripatetic life that took them to different parts of the world in search of their histories, economics, politics, society, art and culture and the very nature of man.

Schooled in the English Medium and having lived across Anglophone India he observes the narrative of idiomatic expressions embedded in Britlish, Hinglish, Punjlish, Benglish, Tamlish, Telglish, Mallish, Scotlish, Frenchlish , Arabilish and many more as he keeps traveling.  He has followed an ‘unNatural Language Processing’ engine but has not yet started applying his effort on deploying AI, Machine Learning, Chatbots, Big Data & Analytics onto this area. He is actively watching the space.

Born in 1943 in Mumbai, filmmaker, screenwriter and author, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, was one of the most important directors of the Indian cinema’s New Wave in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He started his career in advertising before joining the Film and Television Institute (FTII), Pune to do a diploma in direction and scriptwriting. He, along with filmmaker Mani Kaul and others started the Yukt Film Cooperative that produced his debut film Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Dastan, (1978). The film was the story of the conflicted son of a rich businessman, dabbling in Marxist philosophy, struggling to come to terms with the rich-poor divide. The film won several awards including the Filmfare Critics’ Award for the Best Film in 1979. It also set the tone and themes explored in his subsequent filmography: social and economic inequity, class conflict, the search for ethnic identity and the growth of communalism.

He went on to win international acclaim as well as a legion of awards including six National Awards for landmark films like Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai? (1979), Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho (1983), Salim Langde Pe Math Ro (1989) and Naseem (1995). He also produced and directed television series, the most famous of which were Nukkad (1986) and Intezaar (1987), and a series of documentaries for which he travelled for months to the poorest parts of India.

In 2008, he wrote his debut novel Ammi: A Letter to a Democratic Mother. Written as an open-ended letter to his mother, he described the book as “ part essay, Sufi tale, travelogue, diatribe, film script, love story, and a combination of history and polemics also.” His second book The Monk, The Moor and Moses Ben Jalloun published in 2012 questions the foundations of Western academia and highlights the Islamic contribution and transfer of knowledge and ideas to the fledgling Western civilizations from the 8^th to the 15^th century.

Aakar Patel is a columnist.

Indian-Tibetan filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam have been working together for more than 30 years. 

A recurring subject in their work is Tibet, with which they have been intimately involved in a number of different ways: personally, politically and artistically. Through their films and artwork, they have attempted to document, question and reflect on the questions of exile, identity and nationalism that confront the Tibetan people. 

Working through their film company, White Crane Films, they have made several award-winning documentaries, a number of video installations and two feature films. Their documentary, The Sun Behind the Clouds (2009), won the Vaclav Havel Award at the One World Film Festival in Prague. Their feature films, Dreaming Lhasa (2005) and The Sweet Requiem (2018) both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Their installations have shown at Contour Biennale (2017), Khoj Studios (2015), Busan Biennale (2010), Mori Art Museum (2009), and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (2009), among other places. 

They are also the directors of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, which they founded in 2012 and is now one of India’s leading independent film festivals.

Shilok is a marriage of celebration and destruction. The powerful feminine energy in herself which she calls it Shakthi is been used to many arts. The two important art forms she uses to destroy the patriarchy is Dance and Poetry. The dance she uses is Athmanatyam, she named it so because each move is a language of the soul. The poetry she usually writes is in her mother tongue Kannada, through which she is trying to create a language to speak about queerness.

She is a National Award recipient for her radio show “Lesbians in the shadows”, from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Presently she is also working at Shoonya – Centre for Art and Somatic Practice as PR and Marketing Consultant and as a Dancer for Chris Leuenberger Production at Switzerland on EF_femininity Project and Performer for Zubaan Project with “Undraping Silence”. She has received several awards for her work on poetry and has been invited to literature festivals like Bangalore Lit Fest, Times Lit Fest, Equal by Ranga Shankara and so on. Recently one of her poems has been chosen as part of the syllabus at Kuvempu University. Currently she is pursuing a masters degree in Marketing and Management Communications at COMMITS, Bangalore.

As part of BIC Hub’ba, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, India’s premier contemporary dance organisation, will present twenty-five talented dancers in a spellbinding performance directed by artistic director Jayachandran Palazhy. From a rare rendition of raw, honest and haunting images of love, jealousy, confrontation and redemption by Hemabharathy Palani in her acclaimed work Yashti  that won her the best international female choreographer award at the prestigious Festival Quartiers Danses in Montreal (Canada) to the electrifying ensemble pieces that celebrate the intense focus of martial art and sheer playful exuberance of dance, this Mixed Bill performance by Attakkalari is sure to enthrall all.  Primordial animal motifs, leaps, jumps and powerful strikes of Kalarippayattu blend with the fluid elegance and distilled geometry of dance, while cutting edge costumes by Aloka D’Souza,  imaginative lights from Shymon Chelad and evocative music from Miguel Marin and Medieval Punditz add to the magic. 

Sunaad is an eclectic group of singers from Bangalore city composed of the school-going and retired, professional performers and hobbyists, home makers and working professionals, all of whom share a common passion – a love for Hindustani classical music.

Natasha Sharma is an artist and designer whose work spans across the Urban and Social landscape. She is inclined towards creating socially engaged art/ design and community-driven interventions in built environments. By employing multiple mediums and forms at different scales, her practice attempts to navigate the length, breadth and volume of spatial and immersive installations posing questions around ones bodily and behavioral relationship to one’s environment.

Manush John is an independent filmmaker, artist and illustrator. He has designed and installed multiple site-specific art installations exploring the themes of “body” and “inhabitation” around Bangalore. His films explore the tangible while his illustrations and sculptures are an invitation into the unreal and the uncanny.

Prashant Sankaran is a Bangalore based writer and photographer; whose day job is at Interweave Consulting as its Executive Director. His zine titled “Home” and children’s picture book titled “Tutu plays hide n’ seek” were published last year. His writing has been published in Sky Island Journal, Your Story, Arts Illustrated; and his photographs in a few newspapers and The National Geographic Traveller. Indian Institute of Human Settlements had also exhibited his works combining photography and haikus in an exhibition titled “Seen- Unseen” in Bangalore. He is part of the core organising committee of the Bangalore Poetry Festival and serves on the boards of a few social sector organisations.