maraa is happy to invite the city of Bangalore to City of Pieces: an urban festival of creative practices as part of the annual October Jam. City of pieces is a nine day festival that interrogates the violence of the everyday transformation of the city from the perspective of creative practice. This festival marks the third anniversary of Theatre Jam, a monthly forum to trigger dialogues about art and media in the public space through practice, performance and expression. It travels across different public and semi-public spaces, committed to reclaim dead, found and empty spaces in the city. City of pieces brings artists and creative practitioners to respond to the city we inhabit.
The city transforms and we continue to experience it in fragments, in the debris of what once was and the flash-forwards of its future in fresh grey concrete. And we move through it refracted in fragments with every contact with it. But as this city of pieces forms us it is formed by us in turn- a disjointed tapestry of multiple stories, desires and memories. As the week unfolds, urban pieces and fragments are gathered and re-combined to tell a different story that acknowledges the creative modes of negotiating this city shaped by the violence of transformation. Through storytelling, films, performance, poetry and conversations we hope to make sense of an ever changing Bangalore.
Events
- City Writes | Writing Workshop
- Paper and Pencil | Sketching
- Nukkad Natak | Street Play
- Urban Tales | Films
- City of Words | Poetry
- Paint a Wall | Graffiti
- @ the Bus Stop | Intervention
- Lost Loves | Talk
- Middle Of Somewhere | Theatre Workshop
- Bangalore Talkies | Video Art & Music
22nd October Saturday
As urban reality changes in cities of the world, people bring to the urban milieu a new set of meanings related to immigration, social-assimilation, politics, poverty, education and culture. Is it possible to share lived experiences, realities and transitions through writing – stories, poetry, fiction and non-fiction?
As urban reality changes in cities of the world, people bring to the urban milieu a new set of meanings related to immigration, social-assimilation, politics, poverty, education and culture. Is it possible to share lived experiences, realities and transitions through writing – stories, poetry, fiction and non-fiction?
Details
Rheea Mukherjee, fiction writer and Co-Founder of Urban Confustions, a literary magazine, invites you to a writing workshop that will allow you to spill that traffic induced tension into words. Come explore your thoughts with writing exercises, mutual storytelling and discussions on gender, migration and class in relation to Bangalore. The workshop will culminate in a short creative writing piece and participants will be encouraged to come up with a long term writing project that may result in a city anthology. Professional writers, amateur writers, closet writers, and writers who have not yet written are all welcome.
Venue
Page Turners, 2-5 pm
Contact
To register (before 20th) contact rheeaakka@gmail.com or call 95353-16411
Report
The City Writes writing workshop was conceptualized by Rheaa Mukherjee and Bhumika Anand as a means of generating, discussing and propagating narratives of Bangalore and Bangaloreans. The workshop involved a variety of exercises such as a Dadaist exercise to illustrate the generativity of juxtaposition. Another interesting exercise asked the participants to explore writing from another perspective than their own, which yielded writings from a variety of points of view such as that of the domestic help, smokers, musicians, celebrities and mothers. Bhumika then led a discussion on editing your own writing, which provided an editors view of writing. Lastly, participants participated in an exercise of sensory writing, which focused on the sensuous experience of consuming food.
23rd October Sunday
Did you ever want to draw or sketch before, but didn’t think you were good enough? Here is your opportunity to give it a shot.
Did you ever want to draw or sketch before, but didn’t think you were good enough? Here is your opportunity to give it a shot.
Details
In collaboration with Pencil Jam’s weekend sketch club, Theatre Jam invites you to Paper and Pencil an initiative that brings people to draw and sketch in public spaces of Bangalore. Through your sketches, become perceptive, observant and attentive to the space you inhabit. All you have to do is show up and want to draw.
Venue
Lido Mall, 11-1 pm
Contact
To participate please mail pallavichander@gmail.com or call 98869-28582
Report
City of Pieces and Pencil Jam came together for an afternoon of sketching around Bazaar street. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants noted how the act of illustrating made them conscious of the forms of the city that they inhibit and travel within on a daily basis without a second thought. Other participants noted how their subjects sometimes spoke back to them and contested their portrayal in the illustration, providing a sensory feedback to the process of documentation. The participants also spoke about the difference in sketching done in insular environments and environments-in-flux such as Bazaar street.
23rd October Sunday
There is something incredible about chaos in a city. As much as we complain about its oddities and peculiarities, there is always something that gets us around the madness.
There is something incredible about chaos in a city. As much as we complain about its oddities and peculiarities, there is always something that gets us around the madness.
Details
The city offers new surprises even in moments of absolute frustration. Come watch a play on the streets about these unusual moments of bliss in chaos, humorous anecdotes of urban life from the perspective of objects and creatures in the city. The play will move around Meenakshi Koil Street, Central Street and other gullies in Shivajinagar. The play will be multilingual and 15 minutes long in duration.
Venue
St. Mary Basilica Church, 5:30 pm onwards
Contact
Look out for the October Jam Banner or contact 98807-55875 to know where we are.
Report
Mashaal performed a street play opposite St. Mary’s Church on a busy Sunday evening. The play attracted a large crowd of intrigued passersby and focused on the urban experience. The actors enacted a variety of points of view, ranging from those of the common man to the street dog, interacting with common Bangalore experiences, such as the Metro, autorickshaw drivers and, most poignantly, of being in and of the city. The comedic nature of the script kept the crowd amused for the duration of the play, as did the breaking of the fourth wall by the actors, through which they encouraged audience participation.
24th October Monday
Chaplin in one of his interviews was asked where is the cinema. And his response to it was: “It is all around you outside, all over the city, that marvelous, continuous performance of films and scenarios.”
Chaplin in one of his interviews was asked where is the cinema. And his response to it was: “It is all around you outside, all over the city, that marvelous, continuous performance of films and scenarios.”
Details
As the narrative of the city changes in an erratic rhythm, we present to you a collection of films made by students, independent film makers and artists on Bangalore as it transforms. Spend an evening with stories of migrant workers, rituals, streetlights, priests, children, dance, protest and more. See your city as cinema, the cinema as city.
Films by Ayisha Abraham | Aarthi Parthasarthy | Smriti Mehra | Sindhu Thirumalaisamy | Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao | Yashaswini and Ekta |
Films by Ayisha Abraham | Aarthi Parthasarthy | Smriti Mehra | Sindhu Thirumalaisamy | Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao | Yashaswini and Ekta |
Venue
Rococo Gallery, 6 pm onwards
Contact
Please mail yashaswini.r@gmail.com or call 81056-75223 for any clarifications.
Report
As the narrative of the city changes in an erratic rhythm, we present to you a collection of films made by independent film makers who encountered people and spaces in the city as it was transforming. These urban tales reflect a sense of fragmentation and estrangement in a city, as it evolves spatially and emotionally. These films bring to the surface peculiar and unusual narratives on migration, labour and daily survival as another layer to make sense of this metamorphosis. The films chosen for this festival will hopefully contribute to deepen our critique on how the city emerges as a metropolis, and what this transformation means for people who transit in and out.
Dharmapuri Tank Bund project | 6 min 44 sec | 2011 Prerna Bishnoi, Pooja Gupta, Sindhu Thirumalaisamy
Tade | 8 mins | 2011 Smriti Mehra
Labels from a Global City | 30 mins | 2009 Surabhi Sharma
Zulmat – Darkness | 21 mins | 2006 Ishan Ghosh
in_transience | 26:30 secs | 2011 Yashaswini Raghunandan and Ekta Mittal
Straight 8 | 18 mins | 2005 Ayisha Abraham
25th October Tuesday
While poets might have been less successful at playing the part of the unacknowledged legislators of the world, we would like to believe that they have had partial success as the clandestine architects of cities. But lets not mistake clandestine for unreal, because even though the poet’s cities are built in the realm of imagination and language, which real city would be worth living in if it weren’t supported by a vision of what it means to live together.
While poets might have been less successful at playing the part of the unacknowledged legislators of the world, we would like to believe that they have had partial success as the clandestine architects of cities. But lets not mistake clandestine for unreal, because even though the poet’s cities are built in the realm of imagination and language, which real city would be worth living in if it weren’t supported by a vision of what it means to live together.
Details
We invite you to come with poems and passages, your own or borrowed, that speak of the city that you would like to create. The poetry reading session will be followed by a creative exercise where selected words and sentences from the material you brought will be used as building blocks for our own city of words.
Venue
Alternative Law Forum, 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Contact
To register (before 23rd) please mail monica@maraa.in or call 81056-75350
Report
Those who thought that Bangalore would not be an inspiring city for poets should have listened to the passionate and rich exchange that took place at the Alternative Law Forum during City of Words, an evening of poetry readings. More than thirty poets and poetry lovers met to share their impressions and perceptions of the ever changing city of Bangalore. Love, anger, nostalgia, sex, roads and streets emerged in a play of words that triggered in the participants the desire to consolidate the gathering into a more regular space to express poetic thoughts.
26th October Wednesday
With the BBMP’s efforts of painting the walls of Bangalore in the name of beautification, it remains to be the only dominant representation of ‘public art’ in the city.
With the BBMP’s efforts of painting the walls of Bangalore in the name of beautification, it remains to be the only dominant representation of ‘public art’ in the city.
Details
Paint A Wall invites people who are interested in painting walls in the city. This may be one way to balance this representation by bringing other views, ideas and expressions into the public domain. Bring paints and brushes, and together we will find walls to paint on.
Venue
Alternative Law Forum (terrace) Opposite Infantry Wedding Hall, 2-5 PM
Contact
To register (before 24th) contact tharathomas@gmail.com or call 98867-15312 for further details
27th October Thursday
All sorts of people wait at bus stops in the city – bus stops plastered with relevant and irrelevant information, announcements, advertisements etc .
All sorts of people wait at bus stops in the city – bus stops plastered with relevant and irrelevant information, announcements, advertisements etc .
Details
But what if bus stops became a space for peer to peer communication? We propose you all to share a joke at the bus stop. We don’t meet, but we pick a joke in any language, write it out a piece of paper and put it up on 27th October across different bus stop in Bangalore. The jokes must not be longer than 100 words, cannot offend or discriminate against any religion, community or gender. Keep it simple and remember to have a sense of humor. When you land up at the next bus stop, hope you find a joke to keep you company. If you do manage to stick up a few bus stops, then please send us pictures! This can be an ongoing campaign to express your views, opinions and ideas through humor.
Venue
Bus Stops in your vicinity, day long activity
Contact
Please contact vinay.sreenivasa@yahoo.com or call 98805-95032 for further details
28th October Friday
We invite you to a talk by Arshia Sattar about her book Lost Loves.
We invite you to a talk by Arshia Sattar about her book Lost Loves.
Details
Lost Loves returns us to an older and yet more relevant than ever tradition of the story of the Ramayana as a story of trial and tribulation, of the subtlety of right and wrong, and of love and loss. The book explores the Ramayana as a ‘portrait of consciousness hidden from itself’. In her introduction to Lost Loves, Arshia Sattar reflects on the recent career of the Ramayana, a text which has largely been associated with its political appropriation towards the cause of aggressive religious nationalism. The talk will be followed by a discussion.
Venue
Alternative Law Forum, Infantry Road, 6 PM onwards
Contact
Please contact forekta@gmail.com or call 98807-55875 for further details
29th October Saturday
Middle of Somewhere was a performance done last year, set between scaffoldings in a dilapidated house on Rest House Street.
Middle of Somewhere was a performance done last year, set between scaffoldings in a dilapidated house on Rest House Street.
Details
This performance used personal stories that were interwoven with anecdotes of the city with the story of Akeli, a fictional story. The performance is a never ending project. It grows with people’s stories and fantasies. We invite you to a theatre workshop to re-narrate fears, aspirations, and memories experienced in your life in the city through short improvisations and street performances around Cubbon Park.
Venue
Band Stand, Cubbon Park, 10 AM to 3 PM
Contact
To register(before 27th), please mail pallavichander@gmail.com or call 98869-28582
30th October Sunday
When you live in a city, your encounters with roads, friends, and strangers are all in pieces of images and sounds. What can you interpret of a city that you experience everyday in pieces?
When you live in a city, your encounters with roads, friends, and strangers are all in pieces of images and sounds. What can you interpret of a city that you experience everyday in pieces?
Details
Bangalore Talkies a forum to see Bangalore through different eyes, through different lenses. How do YOU connect to Bangalore – bus rides/auto rides, pubs, darshinis, your neighborhood, street dogs, trees, the weather, street food, construction and deconstruction – it could be about any creature, thing, space or feeling in the city. Collect your stories on anything that can shoot image and record sound. All videos must play on VLC and should not be longer than 5 mins. Submit your entries on DVD or mail it, or upload it and send a link to ekta@maraa.in before 25th October
This will be followed by a music jam between independent musicians in Bangalore.
This will be followed by a music jam between independent musicians in Bangalore.
Venue
Your stories will be screened for the public at Jaaga, Double Road, on 30th October, 6:30 pm onwards. Remember it’s about the story, not so much about making a perfect film.
Contact
Submissions on or before 25th Oct. Please mail ekta@maraa.in or call +91 9632831275 for more details.