Introducing KIPAF

PERFORMERS iNDEPENDENT (Pi) was an independent artists' collective, experimenting and exploring the traditional, modernist and contemporary spaces in the cultural paradigm. The Kolkata International Performance Art Festival was initiated by Pi in 2012 to annually open up the city of Kolkata to diverse traditions of performance, performitivty and interventions. Since then Pi has got fragmented but KIPAF has taken deeper roots.

The festival aims to be a platform for dialogue between site, art, politics and culture. KIPAF acknowledges the nascent nature of Performance Art in India, and will always play a role in the pedagogy of performance art.
The festival is be held between 23rd-26th January every year.

Monday 19 October 2015

An Announcement About Open Call - Closing Date

COMING MONTH 
20TH MIDNIGHT - OPEN CALL 
WILL BE CLOSED FOR CURATED 
SECTION , 
IMPORTANT LINK KIPAF16

THERE AFTER ARTIST 
CAN APPLY BUT IT AS CONSIDER 
AS OPEN SPACE CATEGORY 




Friday 9 October 2015

Invitation for applications


Kolkata International Performance Art Festival - 2016

KIPAF(Kolkata International Performance Art Festival) is an annual event organized by Performers independent (Pi). The festival was initiated in 2012 to annually open up the city of Kolkata to diverse  traditions of performance and interventions. The festival aims to be a platform for dialogue between site, art, politics and culture. KIPAF was conceived to address the nascent nature of Performance Art in India, and continues to play a significant role in the practice, pedagogy and outreach of  performance art in South Asia. KIPAF ‘13,’14 & ‘15 have got participation from  Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Japan, Israel, Belgium ,Italy , Switzerland & various parts of India. 

The Festival happens every year from 23rd to 26th January.KIPAF is also becoming special as many students from institutions like  KAlA Bhavan Shantiniketan, Fine Arts College Surat, Kashhmir Art College travel to Kolkata, as observers and participants of the Open section. The independent nature of KIPAF has been maintained by constantly developing alternate modes of fundraising, involving street paintings, live art, sticker and post card campaigns. Since 2015 KIPAF is taking a workshop based turn, as we invite artists to come a week before KIPAF and initiate workshops.  


The Thematic focus of KIPAF16 is 

“Why kill a Mocking art"

We have proposed three questions as formulations:

1.   What is it that makes us chase what we prioritize as the needful?
2.    Where do we find intimacy in performance art?
3.   How do we interrogate those very intimate aspirations that drive us towards performance as art?

Along with further propositions: 


  • How do we position between art performance and performance art?
  • A street is a space?
  • What is the relationship between performativity, performance and authorship?
  • Folks, let us embrace the fun of burning down the ideas we have cherished as our own. 
  •  us practice the act of distancing ourselves from the familiar, the tropes. Let us do a 
  • We don’t aim to create any commodity or service. A documenter is not meant to document.





Performers independent’s basic concern is to work out the formal, circumstantial, performative 
aspects of our everyday practices of hospitality. We invite you to occupy the ghats and galis of the 
older part of Kolkata, popularly known as the ‘north’. For the next i.e. KIPAF2016, the open call has already been declared -http://ikipaf.blogspot.in/2015/10/kipaf16-open-call.html. Mail us your proposals at kipaf.curator@gmail.com

We are glad to invite you at Kolkata International Performance Art Festival 2016 to be held in the city 
of Kolkata from the 23rd to the 26th of January, 2016. 
We hope that we will have you with us in that time of festival. Pi will provide you with modest 
accommodation, food and lively work atmosphere during the festival.
With regards and love.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely
Curator ,Kipaf 2016

p.s – We are Unable to offer the artists any remuneration or travel expenses to and from Kolkata, 
we take responsibilities of the curated artists’ stay, food and local conveyance 
in the city. We will share the same with all participants as much as our limits allow.

Saturday 3 October 2015

কিপাফ ১৬ আবাদ আহবান

কিপাফ ১৬ আবাদ আহবান 

পড়ার নির্দেশাবলী
      আপনারা নিজ নিজ হাত নিন এবং কান জোড়া ধরে উপরে ও নিচে দেখুন  
পড়া শুরু হল


  

কেন হত্যা একটি হরবোলা শিল্পের 

বিস্তারের/ প্রস্তুতির তিনটি প্রশ্ন :

১.সেটা কি যেটি আমাদের অগ্রাধিকার প্রয়োজনীয়তায় অনুধাবন করে  
২.কোথায় পাব  খুঁজে  পারফরমেন্স শিল্পের অন্তরঙ্গতা আমাদের ?
৩.কেমন খুব ঘনিষ্ঠ আকাঙ্খার জিজ্ঞাসাবাদ যা আমাদের নিয়ে চলে পারফরমেন্স শিল্পের অন্তরঙ্গতায়   ?
প্রস্তাবের আরো কিছু 
- কিভাবে আমরা স্থান নির্ধারণ করব পারফরমেন্স শিল্প এবং শিল্প পারফরমেন্স মধ্যে ?
-  একটি রাস্তা একটি 'স্থান'.
- পারফরমেন্স , পারফরমেন্সমতা এবং কৃতির  মধ্যে  কিবা সম্পর্ক ? 

 ভাবেন, আমরা মজা আলিঙ্গন করি  আমাদের নিজ লালিত ধারনায় আগুন জ্বালিয়ে।নিজ মালিকানা নিয়ে প্রশ্ন করা যাক.অনুশীলন করি কেমনে আমরা দূরে রাখব সরিয়ে আমাদের পরিচিত ভাবের পরিচিত জগত , একটি পারফরমান্স হয়ে উঠুক একটি রূপক হত্যার পথ। 

আমরা  কোনো  রূপে পণ্য বা পরিষেবা তৈরি করতে মনস্থ নই। তথ্য - নির্দেশ - উপাদান যেখানে কেবলি তার মৌলিক অর্থ বহন করে না। 'পাই' এর প্রাথমিক উদ্বেগ দৈনন্দিন অভ্যাসের  প্রথাগত ও অবস্থাগত  রূপায়ন , রোজনামচার  মধ্যের অন্তর্নিহিত পার্ফর্মাসের চর্চা।

আমন্ত্রণ জানাই স্মৃতির শহরে , আসুন আর অধিকার নিন বয়ে যাও ঘাট রাশির ও অলি-গলির জগতে,
যা বহুজনে মনে রেখেছে "উত্তর" বলিয়া।

এই চর্চা থেকে শিল্পীদের কোনো পারিশ্রমিক বা যাতায়াত খরচ প্রদান করতে অক্ষম রইলাম , আমরা শহরের সংকলিত শিল্পীর থাকার,আহারে  ও স্থানীয় প্রচারের  বৈধ দায়িত্ব নিতে সমগ্র প্রয়াস রাখিব যদিও আমরা সকল অংশগ্রহণকারীদের সহিত আমাদের সীমিত ক্ষমতা অনুযায়ী  সমান আচরণ রাখিব। 





সংযোজন : আমরা এই সংস্করনে একটি curatorial দলের কথা প্রস্তাবিত করিয়াছি তাহা এই রূপে  তপতী চৌধুরী (Tapati Chowdhury), চিমুক(chimuk) , সুরেশ কুমার জি (Suresh Kumar G) , সাজান  মানি (Sajan mani) এবং রাহুল, সমুদ্র , টুবাই, বিদিশা, রাইন  , শ্রীময় , সন্তোষ, অংকুর, মোজো , ইন্দর ও  একটি বড় পরিবার বর্ধিত সমর্থনে  এবং ধীরে ধীরে আমরা আরো সুনিদিষ্ট কর্মসুচির দিকে এগিয়ে যাব    -  যে কোনো প্রকার অনুসন্ধান - কৌতুহল এবং অংশগ্রহনের চাহিদা নিয়ে যোগাযোগ হেতায়- kipaf.curator@gmail.com  

23rd January to 26th January 2016
kolkata
Blog:  ikipaf.blogspot.in/

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/kipaf

Friday 2 October 2015

Making Postion Clear - #kipaf16

Please find below a mail Rahul B. had sent out in the afternoon on behalf on Performers independent sitting in font of us with our concents.

As every body is aware that we had a general body meeting on 19th august 2015 and
six of the registered group of eleven members (Performers independent (Registered under West Bengal Act XXVI of 1961 NO S/1L/96269 of   2012-13). In the meeting direction towards next 
kipaf was discussed and how could we possibly open up partnering the other organizations and keep the core of kipaf independent.In the meeting we are also discussed how group
member are personally attacked + victimized and need of our group to resolved.
(we have minutes and audio recording of that meeting)
Also one or two members of a group are proposing a local national bifurcation. We all
rejected this kind of polarazation politics.However on the next day one or two of our
members incollaboration with many who not even registered member of Pi hijacked the 
Pi gmail account and finalize a deal with Art Room to take 1.5lacs rupee as funding core programming of kipaf.
They also refused to keep some other bank account and such other issues.Initially we are
angry and thought about legal steps but law is not the language of an artist.That's why 5members(Tapati Chowdhury -Rahul Bhattacharaya - Ankur Das - Anirban Datta - Chimuk) of Pi decided to continuing doing kipaf in the way it normally done.It's small budget festival
conceptualize your own body mode and interested to exploring hospitality and everyday life. Some individual who have been very closed to Pi like Sreemoy chowdhury , Suman Majumdar , Samudra kajal Saikia have been closely involve in kipaf16 effort. Some other members like Santosh Kumar Shakinala ,Amitabha Adhikhari , Rudra kishor Mondal and Mom Bhattacharaya assumed the zone of neutrality.
we also decided that we will not stopped Art Room funded Kipaf happening or do any negative campaign about it.
But today Art Room Kipaf has launched a personal attacked on Rahul Bhattacharaya and falsely occupied the legal position who are even regular member of Pi . It is a very sad situation between a collaborative to be happen.We still believe that they will see the senses and respect the true artistic charter of Pi.
Please read the letter below to see our official stance.  

Dear Friends of KIPAF,

We are happy to share with you the KIPAF16 call for proposals. http://ikipaf.blogspot.in/2015/10/kipaf16-open-call.html

this year we will be exploring the concept metaphors of  intimacy | violence | hospitality | city | art | performance and authorship


We want to initiate workshops leading up to kipaf16. Our plan is to host 6 artists to lead this workshop over 3 days. 
sharing the KIPAF16 launch poster so that you can please circulate.  also the hashtag for the festival is #kipaf16.

We have been trying to keep the core festival independent and to explore alternative modes of fund raising | Some members of Pi are taking capital investment into KIPAF and planning a parallel festival.  
We are trying to continue with the idea of keeping core programming of KIPAF outside realms of corporate and NGO capital .
best
Rahul


Chimuk.
3-10-2015.

thank you all and looking forward to contribute to this artist driven passion for art in the city and beyond.


KIPAF16 | OPEN CALL

Concept Note

Kipaf 16



Reading instructions
Take your hands and use them to hold your ears
Look down or look up
Start reading

Why kill a mocking art

Three questions as formulations :

1.   What is it that makes us chase what we prioritize as the needful?
2.   Where do we find intimacy in performance art?
3.    How do we interrogate those very intimate aspirations that drive us towards performance as art?

Further propositions

·        How do we position between art performance and performance art?
·        A street is a space.
·        What is the relationship between performativity, performance and authorship?
·        Folks, let us embrace the fun of burning down the ideas we have cherished as our own. Let us question ownership. Let us practice the act of distancing ourselves from the familiar, the tropes. Let us do a killing out of performance!
·        We don’t aim to create any commodity or service. A documenter is not meant to document


Performers independent’s basic concern is to work out the formal , circumstantial, performative aspects of our everyday practices of  hospitality.
We invite you to occupy the ghats and galis of the older part of Kolkata, popularly known as the ‘north’.
Unable to offer the artists any remuneration or travel expenses to and from Kolkata, we take responsibilities of the curated artists’ stay, food and local conveyance in the city. We will share the same with all participants as much as our limits allow.


--------------------------------------------------

post script :  This year we are going with a curatorial team of Chimuk, Tapati Chowdhury , Sajan Mani, and Suresh Kumar G.   

with a larger group of Rahul, samurda, tubai, vidisha, rhine, moy, santosh, ankur, mozo, inder  and some others will give them extended support and help- slowly taking up specific responsibilities


kipaf.curator@gmail.com has been created for the curatorial team | there is where all the porposals will come- 

For any confusiosn regarding the nature of KIPAF16 -  please visit http://ikipaf.blogspot.in/2015/10/making-postion-clear-kipaf16.html


­­
23rd January to 26th January 2016
kolkata
Blog:  ikipaf.blogspot.in/

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/kipaf




Thursday 1 October 2015

kipaf14


KIPAF 2014 invites fellow performers/artists to participate in this issue of performance festival to be held in Kolkata from 23rd to 26th of January, 2014.

Curatorial Note
Every Indian city has its specific forms and activities of everyday and mundane, emerged/emerging in the process of modernization of urban space. The uniqueness of those specific forms has been in constant existential tussle with the newer and, more exploitative forms of capitalism, from quite some time now. Figuratively the city of Kolkata today stands between an aspiration for neo liberal future—to be a global city, and an imagination which revolts against the idea, along with anxiety about the widespread violence that would ensue. Available political discourses represent this moment of flux to make a case in favor of or against development. We at KIPAF see this  ‘tussle’ as living proof  of the politically conscious, represented in their mundane expressions of resistance, as the city seeks to live up to another surge of global modernism. One of the sites for widely experiencing this politically rich content is Kolkata’s street culture. We offer you a platform to explore this political edge in the ‘mundane expressions of bared souls’ of the city by delving into the everyday, and articulating through your performances how the city symbolizes ways of resisting as well as negotiating identity—the very material condition of being human, as well as its foreclosures.

This year we plan to continue with our emphasis on movement as a way of being, and remember the travels of Parvez Kabir, a fellow artist and faculty at Kalabhaban, Shantiniketan, who left us rather suddenly this year. We shall use interactive spaces of everyday life as our platforms, move from one place to another, through serpentine alleys, performing as we go. We shall study the travels between life and death in the city’s old architectural inheritances—the ruined remains. We shall travel by tram, which too shares with Kolkata the paradox of being anachronistic as well as indispensable.  We shall take over roof tops to recreate interactive spaces for performance, and perform at the Ganges ghat.

Performers independent will host and arrange for accommodation and food of the guest participants at our homes and studios. We cannot however provide travel expenses to and from Kolkata.

KIPAF 2014 : our annual commune to expand the circle of friends

Our position:

We don’t ask for project proposals from artists. We would like to invite everybody interested. Unfortunately as our resources are limited we have to stop at a certain point. So please touch us as soon as you want. We are open to receive small notes and visuals from the participants briefing their existing work and if they are planning anything for KIPAF-14.And of course, they do not need to stick to what they send. They can do whatever in the festival. But, this will expand our archive of communication and space for dialogue, and also help in planning the festival little better in terms of logistics and scheduling etc.

We don’t aim to create any commodity or service.

We try to create an atmosphere for communication among artists and friends and also with the place and its people. We presume that art rises or falls out of atmospheres.

Performance art offers us a medium where diverse disciplines can meet. We try to work with the bare minimum as far as money is concerned.

We organize KIPAF with small contributions and donations from friends and public bodies. We think it necessary to keep this festival as a place to practice art and interaction outside the patronage of big capital.

We are unable to offer the artists remunerations or travel expenses to and from Kolkata. We take responsibilities of the artists’ stay, food and local conveyance in Kolkata.

We are basically trying to work with the science and art of our traditional hospitality and local fair ( shadhu-shanga ) practices in our present art and urban contexts.

We propose the following schedule for KIPAF 2014 :

23rd January : 3 CUPS OF TEA
•              Opening and introduction
•              City travel to the probable architectural venues
•              Evening meet and artists’ presentation

24th January : ME & MY CITY OF MIRRORS
•              The day for the artist to explore
•              Evening meet and artists’ presentation

25th January : VISUALS AND WORDS
•              Seminar/discussion
•              Performances
•              Evening meet and artists’ presentation

26th January : IN THE CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
•              Performances at architectural site
•              Closing

The schedule is always subject to changes and improvisations.
Please refer to the below link for further information regarding the Kipaf 14





facebook event page link 

more details coming soon