Voice of Santiniketan:I love My Santiniketan the most
A Gobbet Day activity, 2006
1st August, 2006, Natyaghar ,Visva Bharati , Santiniketan
by Monogobbet Society Santniketan
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MONO ACTING COMPETITION- Santiniketan, My Dearest
Organized by MONO GOBBET SOCIETY, SANTINIKETAN
VENUE-NATYA GHAR, SANTINKETAN
Context:
Sanitiniketan given its cultural legacy and the heritage it carries with itself in the recent past has been confronting with new urban cultures of the city and specially the tools of urban culture like media and the digital world. A site which proclaimed the modernity of the early 20th century is on the cross-roads of an urban- rural juxtaposition and it has its obvious mark on the cultural practices in Santiniketan. Interestingly, there is lot of apprehension about Santiniketan and its contemporanity all over India which has always tried to frame Santiniketan from the point of view of a traditional institute (Indian traditionality).But as an insider one always experiences a growing community which is looking towards the appropriation of the urban in the rural context. Today Santiniketan becomes a more vulnerable site with its duality and dialectics and as such it is also becoming a new site for nurturing individual differences and co-existence. The present project evolved out of this urge to map this growing community.
Concept:Santiniketan has always been an exponent in evolving methodologies in community based interactive events. Since 1930s, with various events like Briksharopan, Halokarshan and other ritualistic activities, it has been practicing a community based cultural activity that has been successful in dissolving the performer and viewer positions. Basically, the most important criteria for any community based activity is to participate in the present cultural practices and disappear, but the most important aspect is the insider-outsider situation. The Gobbet day activity is an attempt to evolve ongoing community based activity that will operate from the position of an insider. Hence, everybody who is a part of the Mono Gobbet Society is equally part of the context and has no space to complain and this is how the society itself is contextualized. This society is at present made up of students of Kala Bhavan with no fixed membership and the responsibility to carry it on depends on individual choices; anybody can leave the society and join at any point. This Society of Fools declared August 1, 2006 as the GOBBET DAY to begin its maiden venture into the fools’ domain.
On the Gobbet Day, the Mono Gobbet Society planned to organize an mono- acting competition to decide the Voice of Santiniketan (an appropriation of popular television events like Voice of India, Indian idol etc) with the theme Santiniketan My Dearest. This event was basically a game and like every game it had its rules. Each actor was given a minute’s time to prove his/her love for Santiniketan but non-verbally. The idea was to subvert the whole existence of an invisible community whose voice cannot be heard or acknowledged. So each participant acted for one minute in front of a camera which was placed in a closed created room on the back stage of Natyaghar, the main site for any cultural activity in Santiniketan.
The audience who were all invited as judges saw a projected experience of
the performances. Like the performer, the audience was also live documented and
projected on a separate screen next to the projection of the actors. Each of
the judges/audience was given three different colored fans to decide on the
gradation of the performance. Each performance was preceded with a gong (a very
common method implemented to begin any cultural event in Santiniketan).
As the event progressed, the whole context of the performer-viewer situation
dissolved into the context of who is the real performer. Finally, the three
performers were decided according to the grading and they were given Golden
Chhatim (1st prize), Silver Chhatim (2nd prize) and Only Chhatim (Third Prize).
Chhatim is the leaf of a tree that is considered to be auspicious and is used
in various activities of this site. The whole ideation is very organic and
open-ended, with no fixed agenda, where the idea of the author, the idea of
responsibility and accountability is questioned.
.Short animated films made by the students of Kala Bhavana as part of the Gobbet Day activity
A Gobbet Day activity, 2006
1st August, 2006, Natyaghar ,Visva Bharati , Santiniketan
by Monogobbet Society Santniketan
.png)
.png)
A Gobbet Day art activity with the
community in santiniketan,Natyaghar,2006
GOBBET DAY: 1ST AUGUST 2006MONO ACTING COMPETITION- Santiniketan, My Dearest
Organized by MONO GOBBET SOCIETY, SANTINIKETAN
VENUE-NATYA GHAR, SANTINKETAN
Context:
Sanitiniketan given its cultural legacy and the heritage it carries with itself in the recent past has been confronting with new urban cultures of the city and specially the tools of urban culture like media and the digital world. A site which proclaimed the modernity of the early 20th century is on the cross-roads of an urban- rural juxtaposition and it has its obvious mark on the cultural practices in Santiniketan. Interestingly, there is lot of apprehension about Santiniketan and its contemporanity all over India which has always tried to frame Santiniketan from the point of view of a traditional institute (Indian traditionality).But as an insider one always experiences a growing community which is looking towards the appropriation of the urban in the rural context. Today Santiniketan becomes a more vulnerable site with its duality and dialectics and as such it is also becoming a new site for nurturing individual differences and co-existence. The present project evolved out of this urge to map this growing community.
Concept:Santiniketan has always been an exponent in evolving methodologies in community based interactive events. Since 1930s, with various events like Briksharopan, Halokarshan and other ritualistic activities, it has been practicing a community based cultural activity that has been successful in dissolving the performer and viewer positions. Basically, the most important criteria for any community based activity is to participate in the present cultural practices and disappear, but the most important aspect is the insider-outsider situation. The Gobbet day activity is an attempt to evolve ongoing community based activity that will operate from the position of an insider. Hence, everybody who is a part of the Mono Gobbet Society is equally part of the context and has no space to complain and this is how the society itself is contextualized. This society is at present made up of students of Kala Bhavan with no fixed membership and the responsibility to carry it on depends on individual choices; anybody can leave the society and join at any point. This Society of Fools declared August 1, 2006 as the GOBBET DAY to begin its maiden venture into the fools’ domain.
On the Gobbet Day, the Mono Gobbet Society planned to organize an mono- acting competition to decide the Voice of Santiniketan (an appropriation of popular television events like Voice of India, Indian idol etc) with the theme Santiniketan My Dearest. This event was basically a game and like every game it had its rules. Each actor was given a minute’s time to prove his/her love for Santiniketan but non-verbally. The idea was to subvert the whole existence of an invisible community whose voice cannot be heard or acknowledged. So each participant acted for one minute in front of a camera which was placed in a closed created room on the back stage of Natyaghar, the main site for any cultural activity in Santiniketan.
.Short animated films made by the students of Kala Bhavana as part of the Gobbet Day activity
 |
| Performance of the students backstage projected in front of the audience |
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