from Banglanatak.com - retrospectively

Erasing Boundaries by Manas Acharya

In the past few years banglanatak dot com has undertaken an initiative to broaden the horizon of curatorial art practice as an innovative social development method. We have tried to transfigure it into a new platform for exchange, assimilation and improvisation between the traditional folk artists of Bengal and the contemporary mainstream urban artists across the globe. The idea behind curating these activities, spanning from interdisciplinary

collaborative art project to public space art, is to explore the possibilities of collaboration by erasing the demarcations that segregates the various art practices across the world. In 2009 we started a uniquely innovative interdisciplinary art initiative titled, ‘POTential - An effort to explore’. ‘Potential II’ a similar workshop held in 2010 at the Natyashala II, EZCC Campus at Salt Lake, Kolkata was an extension of the former. An open studio was also organized at

Akar Prakar Art Gallery, Kolkata.

The 12-day workshop for Potential II commenced with an orientation programme spanning over 2 days during which, the guest-artists from London visited Naya village in West Midnapore. During this visit they shared their art as well as learnt about the history and nuances of Patachitra Art. A film documenting the workshop from the previous year was screened every evening for the Patachitra community. The guest artists also initiated small participatory events where the theme for this year’s workshop, ‘Transformation’, was introduced.

This was followed by an open studio in Kolkata where 20 artworks were developed collaboratively. This included Patachitra paintings, films, animation, a documentation of the community participatory game ’Chinese Whisper’, photographs, drawings, video installations and even scrawls and scribbles based on the theme ‘Transformation’. As a coordinator it was a unique experience for me to have witnessed this workshop.

The Earth Day 2010 Workshop was yet another interesting experience. The workshop was based on the theme ‘ART FOR EARTH’ and was held in a public space. ‘Transit’ the new-media artists from London, the experimental artists from ‘Khoj Kolkata’ and a number of young talented artists, along with Patuas and Baul-Fakirs evolved an installation performance voicing their concerns for environment on the 40th anniversary of the Earth Day.