Delhi-based artist Paribartana Mohanty has facilitated an online workshop to explore the idea of the ‘self ’. Titled on Bruce Lee’s eponymous film Enter the Dragon, the free workshop takes the participants on an artistic inquiry with the help of resource materials by thinkers and scholars..
In a conversation with The Morning Standard, Mohanty informs that the resource material of texts by Ursula K Le Guin, Franz Kafka, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Premchand, and the film, From My Window/ From Your Window, by Claude Faraldo, form the entry point here.
“To keep ourselves safe, from Covid-19, we, in a way, locked ourselves safe from the outside world. Our ‘self ’ went through a lot of suffering, fear and isolation. We also saw a lot of migrant workers leave Delhi on foot. Around that time, I was in the US and came back to India in one of the flights that brought back the citizens,” he says, while adding that lots of thoughts crossed his mind looking at the tragedy.
“‘(Are) only individuals/isolated bodies safe and ‘other’ bodies toxic or contagious? Who am I? What should I say when I introduce myself ? Where did I come from? Where am I going?’... This made me to do this workshop again.” This workshop is a continuation of Mohanty’s long-term project, ‘Game for Artists and Artists’ Communities’. The project centres on labour, exploitation and resistance in the creative fields.
He says, “Many artists are feeling vulnerable given the difficult times. Upcoming artists wonder how to approach an art gallery, how to make their presence felt and what is their future among other questions. One of the ideas of this workshop is to create an art community.”
Till: October 9 Register at: www.knma.in