Additions to the Curatorial note

This Side Up, performance by Amarjit Bormudoi during the hokkorob protest march

Performers independent and the Kolkata International Performance Art Festival have been aiming to engage with and open up the city as a site and as a carrier of political contestations. This avant-garde dream has been superseded by the recent developments in Kolkata, the burst of #hokkolorob.  Hokkolorob, a student movement, emerged from a college campus and spread across the city, finding connections across age, class, gender and political positions. What makes #hokkolorob exciting for us is the new language of protest and performativity it offers. The movement has em(de)ployed forms, performative gestures and occupied spaces that have redefined and expanded the notions of contestation and creative possibilities in this metropolis.

KIPAF 15 is (suddenly) poised in this post avant-garde moment. It no longer is the spearhead of exploration, but an extender, reinforcer and a recycler of memories and moments. We feel an acknowledgment of #hokkolorob, its resistance to gender violence and its metaphoric echoes is crucial to situate art and performativity in this city and our contemporarity.

We share this note with our fellow artists to bring about dialogues and responses.

Get lost

Rahul Bhattacharya
on behalf of
KIPAF team