“Jyotishka” in Bengali (from Sanskrit), means a luminous celestial body. It is an event that situates itself at the intersection between LocaL, gLobaL, and CosmiC. HISTORY The event began as a way to address the lack of a consistent independent art festival in the culturally diverse town of Santiniketan. While the artistic hub of Santiniketan has a lot to offer visiting and residing artists, from university courses, art residencies and workshop opportunities, to traditional and post-Bengali renaissance style festivals, yet there was not as such an event which was dedicated to promoting independent art practices, and to nurturing the link with the contemporary global art market. Hence the theme for the first year (2017) was “rogue academics”, playing off the foundational academic heritage of Santiniketan and its positive and negative connotations. MISSION Jyotishka is meant to encourage local artists in the Santiniketan area, as well as artists across the various culturally diverse regions of Bengal (and Bangladesh) to come together and forge new and lasting relationships through art and innovation. By making this our priority we reduced the stress and complication which normally arise when attempting to host an international festival. Nonetheless, during all three festivals we had an impressive list of international artist participating which is testimony to the cosmopolitan nature of Santiniketan but also to the successful international networking platform of two artistic communities which are the backbone of Jyotishka Festival: namely, the transcultural collective HiHiRi PiPiRi and the performance art collective Performance Independent (Pi). FOOD AND WOOD { delicious encounters•foods for the woods•come•peal your skin and fry the rest }{ The theme for the 2020 festival was “food and wood”, which continued to explore the intersections between local and global as can be gleaned from culinary practices. Hence art was transformed into food, and art making into eating. The lines were blurred significantly. Falling on a leap year February 29th day, Jyotishka was again informed by our alliance with the cosmic, be it astrological, astronomical or mythical. – Braille Darpan – – A Theatre Production Directed by Sophie Ray Lee – – at Theatre House – কালকে সবাই আস আর দেখ আমার নতুন জামা কাজ (experimental fashion show) সাথে নাটক আর গান আর নাচ Poster designed by Reiko Shimizu Special thanks to all the organizers, participating and artists and this year’s four diverse venues:
HiHiRi PiPiRi Mud House Mirzapur Theatre Space Iasonus House Milon Mela Theatre House |