Panel Discussion

Discussion ( Opening day of the workshop on 23 March.2011 at 5 p.m)

Topic : Erasing Boundaries (Recent Cross Media art practices)

Panel :

Sanchayan Ghosh

Madhuja Mukherjee

Adip Dutta

Ahsavari Majumder

Moderator: Sampurna Chakraborty

Short bio of the panelist:

Sanchayan Ghosh

Sanchayan Ghosh is an art practitioner who is versed in site specific installations and stage settings. He is a recipient of the Charles Wallace scholarship. At present he is the Head of the Department of Painting, Kalabhavana, University of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan.

Adip Dutta

Adip Dutta an art practitioner diversely working on sculptural installations. He writes significant text on art practice and curates prominent expositions. Presently he works as Faculty in Rabindra Bharati University,Kolkata.

Ashavari Majumdar

Ashavari Majumdar has trained in the Lucknow gharana of Kathak under Pt Vijay Shankar at Padatik, Calcutta and Pt Birju Maharaj in New Delhi. She has performed as a solo Kathak artist and held Kathak workshops in venues in India and abroad. Ashavari has graduated with honours in English Literature from St Stephen’s College and earned a first class Master’s degree from the University of Delhi.

He experiments with Kathak technique explore the interaction between movement, text and image in various ways. She is involved in re-examining the relation between movement and text in traditional as well as ‘contemporary’ abhinaya and has also produced a critically acclaimed dance theatre piece drawing on ‘daily’ movement, martial arts and Kathak.

Ashavari was awarded a National Scholarship by the Government of India to pursue her training in Kathak. She was also awarded a scholarship by Emory University for a PhD program in English. She has scripted and directed a number of short films including a dance film produced by Channel 4, UK on the occasion of 60 years of Indian Independence.

Currently she is developing ‘Shurpanakha’-a project funded by the India Foundation for the Arts

Madhuja Mukherjee

Madhuja Mukherjee teaches in Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She is the author of the book New Theatres Ltd.,..., published in 2009, by NFAI, Pune. Mukherjee has also edited the volume Ray at Work..., a publication of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, in 2005. She has written articles in international and national journals on topics like Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan as star, the Indian studios, New Indian cinemas, gender, media, sound cultures and film music etc.

Mukherjee has also written the film Ekti Tarar Khonje (2010) and is presently involved with other productions (including films by Heimat Films, Germany). Recently she has co-directed an experimental video Re-take and a short film Red Orchid on 35 mm. She has written and illustrated graphic stories ‘Threads’, ‘Yellow Leaves’, etc., published in Drighangchu, No.2 (a journal for graphic novels).

Sampurna Chakraborty, also a product of Kala Bhavana Visva Bharati University, comes from the discipline of art and theory and alternate (parallel) practices, will be observing the whole event and will add her commentaries on the account of such collective and collaborations and their consequences