Experimental Media and Performence

On 21^st August 2013, Bikalpa Art Center held an opening of 10 days long ongoing artists-in-residence program “Experimental media and performance” where eight artists from different countries collaborated together. Throughout the residency, the artists collaborated into a new form of contemporary art with improvisation, installation, dance, projection, light and many more which was very new in Nepal. The residency involved the eight different artists; Jerry Gordon from US, Yanjah from Japan, Danae Brissonnet from Canada, Satedru Sovan from India, Supriya Manandhar, Ram Maharjan, Ritesh Maharjan, Bhaikaji Manandhar from Nepal.

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Bishal Manandhar, Nepal

Bishal is a Chicago based Nepali artist who normally does work on traditional motif. In this residency he has expanded his repertoire to include installation work. Two of his installations have been included in this exhibit.

In this residency, he explored his ideas with two different installations separately. One installation was setup inside the gallery space where he had waved net and plastic to create a case. The other was installed outside the gallery in open space synchronizing with the fruits on the tree and ground.

He expresses his idea of both installation saying, “through this process that we often try to forget our pasts. Here, I want to encourage all of us to keep our past in our present as we walk ahead.

Another aspect of life that has come to light during this residency is our feelings of entrapment. In our own lives we often feel caged or trapped, but at the same time we ignore the cages that those both people and animals live inside by forcing us to really experience the feeling of being trapped. I want to encourage all of us to be more sympathetic and compassionate to the trapped souls all around us.

Danae Brissonnet, Canada

Danae working as a muralist, illustrator, puppeteer, seamstress, storyteller, adventurer, and woman-of-all-trades, she demonstrates extraordinary talent and economy, with sleeves always rolled far above her elbows. The insatiable interpreter of local cultures and folklore is currently in the thick of a tireless string of residencies around the globe. Having left brilliantly realized murals, prints, and puppets in the streets of Mexico, Nicaragua, Quebec, Vermont, California and Nepal, the seamlessly trilingual wayfarer is currently en route to upcoming projects in British Colombia and France.

In this residency, Danae painted mural on the outer wall or Bikalpa Art Center along with other participating artists and volunteers. She says about her mural, “For this piece I’ve been inspired by the surroundings and the climate. The people are meant to invent their own story using the images of the man, the houses, the women, the peacock, the majestic snake, the bird, the photo taker and the mountain man. The action of making a mural itself is the main concept of doing street art, of changing the community by changing the environment and giving inspiration and a moment of reflection to the people.

Jerry Gordon, US

Jerry is a improvising musician, sound artist and poet living in Osaka, Japan. He regularly collaborates with other improvising musicians and dancers, and organizes regular performance events in Japan. In this residency, Gordon worked in collaboration with the other participating artists Supriya Manandhar and Ritesh Maharjan.
The collaboration with Supriya was a daily practice of combining separately created visual loops and sound pieces. Each creative cycle started with choosing two different objects to animate or use for making sounds. After working with the object, they exchanged them–like small gifts or challenges to inspire the next creative act. This exchange happened three times—a total of six objects. The finished work we assembled is a result of both choices and chance meetings. Unstable, it generates its own poetics, taking on a life and meaning independent of our control. You may see the final output in video work presentation tab or on our youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/bikalpaartcenter

Ram Maharjan, Nepal

Ram is recently graduate student at Tribhuvan University, Fine Art. He is more interested in working in community explore his creativity in new forms every time. In this residency Ram collaborated with another participating artist Ritesh Maharjan where he made a video installation and some three dimensional objects. In relation with these three dimensional objects they used paper and weaved lines over all the other objects.

Ritesha Maharjan, Nepal

Ritesh is graduate student at Kathmandu University, Music Department. He is interested in using his classical music knowledge in very contemporary approach. He says that when he gets chances to work with visual artists he feels happy and and be able to experiment his skills .

In this residency Ritesh got chance to collaborated with two other participating artists, Ram Maharjan and Jerry Gorden. In collaboration with Jerry he allows himself to play music in very experimental form. At the other side he also worked with Ram using paper and making lines as musical modes that symbolizes the connection between one object to another.

Saradru Sovan, India

Satadru is a multi-disciplinary artist in India. He is Fulbright Fellow alumnus who studied at DANM (Digital Arts New Media) at the University of California.

In this residency, he did two different works. The first was a research-based project doing authentic encounters with the burning issue and the body using digital LED lights and animation work . The project rendered with social art activism. The second part is to confront the issue with a LIVE EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE with improvised sound and light, which took place in the open-air Patan Durbar Square in collaboration the other participating artists; Improvised live music performance by Ritesh Maharjan (Nepal) & Jerry Gordon (USA), Improvised live dance performance by Yangjah (Japan), Danaé Brissonnet (Canada), Satadru Sovan (India), Supriya Manandhar (Nepal) & Bishal Manandhar (Nepal)

Supriya Manandhar, Nepal

Supriya is a visual artist working across a wide range of media. She also runs a blog about her art teaching experiences.

In this residency, Supriya collaborate with Jerry. the work that they did was a daily practice of combining separately created visual loops and sound pieces. Each creative cycle started with choosing two different objects to animate or use for making sounds. After working with the object, they exchanged them–like small gifts or challenges to inspire the next creative act. This exchange happened three times—a total of six objects. The finished work we assembled is a result of both choices and chance meetings. Unstable, it generates its own poetics, taking on a life and meaning independent of our control. You may see the final output in video work presentation tab or on our youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/bikalpaartcenter

Yangjah Shin, Japan

Yangjah　is dancer, artist and a Korean diaspora born in Japan and living in Osaka. She searches for her own expression of body based on Butoh while working on improvised collaborations with a variety of artists. She seeks the circulation of moments which can become fulfilled through an empty body.

In this residency, Yangjah did series of improvisational performances in different locations in collaboration with the participating artists and volunteers.The main work, Video installation of performance that she dis was about empty spaces in South Asia, such as shelves on the wall, always look attractive to me.

They exist for the rational use of daily life and at the same time as a beautifully absent space, freeing the room of furniture. The relationship between the bodies in this film and the empty space creates moments that shift daily life into extraordinary life and also in reverse. For creating the video piece, I worked with twelve performers –artists and staff members of Bikalpa Artist-In-Residency Program–who joined an improvised dance and sound workshop by Yangjah and Jerry Gordon. I created a time and space to let performers experience the improvisational quality of being now and here. The floating, empty space is so still and calm that it accepts our bodies, allowing them to be changed in various ways beyond our expectations.

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