Trans Studio Project (TSP) 4.0
The Trans Studio Project 4.0 (TSP 4.0) is a three-week intensive transdisciplinary residency project, that aims to bring together professionals for a myriad of different disciplines, too, in the spirit of collaboration, use collective wisdom to produce individual works of art. Transdisciplinary collaboration encourages the exchange of ideas across disciplinary boundaries, facilitating the production of holistic solutions. TSP 4.0 will bring together the professional experience of artists, filmmakers, engineers, and writers to create holistic works of art that educate the local community on socio-political facing contemporary Nepal. Previous Trans Studio Projects focused on the theme of the changing socio-cultural context of Nepal. This project consistently demonstrates an awareness of contemporary social issues in Nepal, which will continue with TSP 4.0. However, a more exact theme won’t be determined until the five participants are finalized. This is because the exhibition’s theme will be determined based on the ideas participants propose and their professional experience.
BAC Trans Studio Project 4.0 Participants
Bikalpa Art Center is introducing the participating artists of the TSP 4.0. The TSP4.0 participants are Manish Lal Shrestha – Nepal, Saroj Mahato – Nepal, Saurav Basnet – Nepal, Sharu Nepa- Nepal and Tiffany Baillet – France.
We would also like to express our gratitude towards all the partners/ collaborators who are supporting the project.
BAC Trans Studio Project 4.0 Residency (26th of April – 17th of May 2019)
Bikalpa Art Center is excited to announce the TSP 4.0 kick off with the grand opening and fundraiser exhibition on Friday, the 26th of April 2019. This event will feature a group art exhibition, Sip and Paint Workshop, musical performance and DJ Party. The three weeks residency consists of workshops, lecture series, talk and presentation and production time.
After three-weeks of collaborative development and artistic production, this project will conclude with a week-long exhibition at Bikalp Art Center on 17th May 2019.
BAC Trans Studio Project 4.0 Final Exhibition (17th of May – 24th of May 2019)
Friday the 17th of May 2019, from 5:00 pm to late the Bikalpa Art Center (BAC) will celebrate the final show of the Trans Studio Project 4.0
This event will feature musical performances Chirag Bangdel (solo) The Midnight Riders (Blues trio band) and an abstract experimental set by the DJ Vital.
The Trans Studio Project 4.0 exhibition will feature mixed-medium installation, video art, performance and video projections from five artists.
Curated by Saroj Mahato
Program coordinator Tiffany Baillet
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Manish Lal Shrestha – Visual Artist – Nepal
Manish Lal Shrestha is a multidimensional experimental visual artist from Nepal and the Founder/Executive Director of Gallery Mcube in Kathmandu.
After his graduation from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai in 2001 AD, he deliberately represented modern motifs in his artworks that set him as one of the pioneers to explore Postmodern Tendency in Nepal. He is highly recognized as one of the influential artists of the younger generation and thus he has been decorated with various awards from the Nepal Association of Fine Arts. Several national and international solo exhibitions to his credit, his reputation is that of young creative genius.
He is also the Founder of Gallery Mcube https://www.gallerymcube.com/
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Second Skin, Installation
Preserving the history of each individual five skins, five elements, five empty thoughts, five senses and five hanging voids predetermine the reality of humans. Cloth remains the memory of each individual, covering the reality of life. Cloth, the second skin becomes a shell of the body. It becomes the armor of social status, dignity and self-respect. It connects with social norms, political differences and cultural interferences. In Hindu religion, white clothes symbolize mourning but in Christianity, it symbolizes joy which is again socio-political transformations and cultural metamorphosis. To differentiate the structure of lives as male and female, clothes bring stylistic differences for both humans.
Void in the work is the objectification of existence. Cloth brings an illusion of humans either for good or bad, corrupt or uncorrupt, sensitive or insensitive and brings judgmental psych. These works for me processed as an anti-corruption campaigns and realize the spiritual meaning of life and its values.
Saroj Mahato – Filmmaker/ Visual Artist – Nepal
Saroj Mahato started his artistic career as a visual artist/ filmmaker from 2000. He studied BFA (Painting/ Installation art) from Tribhuvan University, (Lalitkala Campus) Kathmandu, Nepal (2004) and MFA (Video/ Film) from Korea National University of Arts, South Korea (2011). He is also an alumnus of the Asian Film Academy at the Busan International Film Festival. He has worked at Tribhuvan University Central Department of Arts for five years (2012- 2017) as a new media lecturer. His works have been seen at several in Nepal and abroad.
Saroj Mahato is the co-founder and director at Bikalpa Art Center (BAC) found in 2014. BAC is one of Kathmandu’s most promising contemporary art spaces. He has been working at BAC from 2014 as director and curator. As curator/ managing director, he has organized several international art projects like residencies, exhibitions and events which can be found under blog posts. During the course, he has successfully worked with multi-local as well as international partners, collaborators, sponsors.
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Portrait of Nepal, Video Installation
It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, which is a particularly moving saying in regards to portraits. The complexity and multiplicity of individual identity, and how an individual’s identity relates to the community’s identity, is beyond concise verbal and written articulation. Portrait of Nepal captures this complexity with the simple expression of the moving images. It is digital portraiture that challenges generalized assumptions of Nepali people by drawing attention to an exceptional individual.
The 5 digital portraits are 2-3 minutes looped video looking directly at the lens. 1 in the middle stands normal symbolizes balanced resolution amongst the complexity of 4 up-side-down. These digital portraits recreate the experience of looking deeply into a person’s eyes; creating an emotional connection between the viewer and the subject. This connection encourages the viewer to have an empathetic reception to the subject’s story.
Saurav Basnet – Theater Artist – Nepal
Saurav Basnet 27 years old, a theater and performance artist from Nepal.
He is interested in experimenting and making movies. Saurav Basnet works are more improvisational based performances. He is graduated from an Information and Management bachelor.
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Blind Trust
3 Trash Bins, Installation
We trust the Bins for its purpose, which is to store the garbage.
- The first trash bin filters whatever we put inside. Hence we see it works against its purpose
- The second bin throws back in our feet whatever we put inside and
- The third is the regular bin without any flaws.
The three trash Bins show how blindly we trust the existence of something that we see. Sometimes we fail to acknowledge the traits and flaws of a substance without knowing it’s interference in reality. Ultimately it is us how we choose to be affected or how we choose to ignore.
Bin is something that we trust blindly. We don’t feel offended by its presence until and unless it affects us directly. And we start questioning about its morality, it’s existence, its purpose, later.
Sharu Nepal – Theater Artist – Nepal
Sharu Nepal is graduated from the University of Delhi, where she had English literature and Philosophy as her major subjects. She did her masters from Tribhuvan University in Conflict, Peace and Development studies. She is a certified Psychosocial Counselor and a Theatre artist. She thinks to explore things through art and work for social welfare the best way to express herself.
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Faults Forbidden: Nice or Nasty!
Performance and Video
This work talks about an Individual’s emotions. It shows the bond between an individual and a society. A person disguised in a pattern made bandage walks around the street and performs doing no harm to others so as to see how people would react.
Its a form of performing arts which borrows the ideas from Live Theatre and Improvisation.
It basically is trying to explore the dimensions of Individual Identity beyond the biological construct, beyond any gender, beyond predetermined societal roles and responsibilities, beyond any race, caste or any authority. This is a silent performance in terms of voice. Silence is always powerful. These kinds of performances leave an impact on people and also in Contemporary art as it is visible yet abstract. So people can creatively be thoughtful and have their say.
As a person, I believe in Individuality and self-created space. If we see ourselves as a human, beyond gender role and societal responsibility from most of the fear that we have been embracing we will find a balance. Also, we tend to act in discipline respecting freedom. But we’ve been conditioned in a way that we tend to feel isolated if we think differently than the societal construct and invite many psychosocial problems. We can still be indifferent to society and think about ourselves. It’s good if we reflect on our actions and try to act responsibly. This work for me was an experience to experiment with going out on public to collect their reactions. Being on our own and act rightfully is very emotional. It is bliss at the same time. It was such an amazing feeling to have received a lot of unexpected responses from the public. It was beautiful to observe that people were concerned and curious about what is happening around them. I got a lot of responses positive and negative. But I wasn’t offended with the negatives. Rather I was on my own performing in that character which I enjoyed.
Faults are always forbidden in our society and fear is obvious. This will restrict ourselves to a confined zone. It is okay to be weird and find one’s own space in a creative manner.
Costume: Bandage
The bandage was really a good idea to leave people guessing. They were curious about my gender, nationality, age. Which actually met the motive of my work.
And I chose to play with the color red, painted on Masks, gloves and shoes with some tags. Which respectively mean confidence in voice and our actions if its rightful and ethical.
Tiffany Baillet – Fashion Designer/ Interdisciplinary Artist – France
Tiffany Baillet is a visual artist from France. Her artistic practice is multidisciplinary, three main mediums are representative of her work: upcycling clothing and costume, film photography and work around video. She approaches as much of the purely plastic dimensions of these mediums as its sociological and social implications or its relationships with the intimate and daily…
Graduated from a Fashion and Design degree previously, she is currently a student in the University of Bordeaux Montaigne in what is called a “ Professional Masters” program, which is about doing Art for Social Action.
She explores the idea that the artist is the creative initiator of a project, the artwork is the process of sharing and the public is the creative collaborator.
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PLANT THE PLANET
Upcycling Costume, Performance and Video
“PLANT THE PLANET“ aims to raise awareness about Climate Change and question our possible futures, which is the most pressing issues of our time. This work is not only about creating an artifact that brings questions and criticism, but it is also about bringing art out of the gallery, bringing art to public space by performing in the streets of Kathmandu. It is about raising awareness in public space.
Made out of upcycling material, I am wearing a glass bulb over my head which pipes are connected to it and goes to an oxygen bag in which plants are the source of the oxygen I breathe in. One opened eye on my t-shirt is a representation of the Universal Eye, the Consciousness, an Awakening. This work was represented in the exhibition by a short video documenting the performance in narrative fiction.
Kathmandu is considered one of the most polluted cities in the world. The rivers running through Kathmandu is no more than an open sewer; residential and industrial garbage is not handled effectively, poorly managed road expansion drives, unchecked vehicle emission and pipe-laying work for the Water Supply Project across Kathmandu Valley makes the air quality so toxic that it has posed a serious respiratory health hazard for valley residents. My proposition is responding to those facts in a metaphor, reaching the border between fiction and reality.
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- Friday 26th of April, 5:30 to Late: Grand Opening Fundraiser
- Saturday 27th of April, 11:00 am to 3 pm: Workshop with Khasti Studio (Screen Printing).
- Sunday 28th of April, 1:00pm to 3:00pm: Artist’s portfolio presentation.
- Monday 29th of April, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm: Workshop with Nepal Communitere (Welding and carpentry).
- Tuesday 30th of April, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm: Workshop with Nepal Communitere (Welding and carpentry).
- Wednesday 1st of May, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Talk and Presentation by Fashion Revolution Nepal on Power Consumerism and sustainable ecosystem glocally
- Wednesday 1st of May, 6:30 – 9:00 pm Movie Night ‘Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (2012).’
- Thursday 2nd of May, 3:00 – 5:00 pm: Lecture series ‘Schooling of Nepali Contemporary Art Then and Now’ by Dr. Abhi Subedi.
- Friday 3rd of May, 6:30 to 10:00 pm: Live music performance
- Saturday 4th of May, 6:30 to 10:00 pm: Jam up session
- Wednesday 8th of May, 6:30 to 8:30 pm: Movie Night ‘Loving Vincent (2017).’
- Friday 10th of May, 5:00 pm ‘Evening with the artists, open studio’
- Friday 10th of May, 6:30 – 10:00 pm Live Music Performance
- Saturday 11th May 6:30 – 10:00 pm Jam up session
- Monday 13th May, 1:00 – 3:00 pm Workshop Writing Didactic Panel
- Wednesday 15th of May, 6:30 to 8:30 pm: Movie Night ‘Manifesto (2015)’
- Friday 17th of May, 5:00 pm to late: Trans Studio Project 4.0 Exhibition Opening (exhibition continues until 24th May, 6:00 pm)
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‘Trans Studio Project 4.0’ on display
Final show of Trans Studio Project 4.0 on Friday
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