WISSEN DER KÜNSTE: 'Quiet Flows the Stream' by Nilanjan Bhattacharya
Event of the series WISSEN DER KÜNSTE: of the DFG Research Training Group "Knowledge in the Arts" in cooperation with the Volksbühne Berlin
October 22, 2019
Grüner Salon, Volksbühne Berlin
Two channel video installation view, presentation, and discussion
Installation on view from 6pm onwards
Presentation and discussion at 7pm
In English
During the second part of 2019, the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg "Das Wissen der Künste" asks how aesthetics can and must be conceived of as a more-than-human phenomenon, turning its view to the entanglements between knowledge systems in art, nature and technic. Acknowledging the intertwined histories of aesthetics as a project of modernity on the one hand, and the exploitation of non-human agents at grand scale set in motion by colonization and capitalism, Kolkata based filmmaker, artist and author Nilanjan Bhattacharya has been invited to present his two channel video installation Quiet Flows the Stream, which highlights the legacy of trans-border knowledge exchange and the relevance of traditional medical practices in India. Bhattacharya will discuss different instances in which he has explored, interacted and interpreted non-institutionalized knowledge systems including systems based on non-human subjects, every day public-life, and filmic and artistic languages.
Quiet Flows the Stream
2-channel video installation, color, sound, 15min loop, 2018
The diptych follows two local medicinal practitioners from India: Kunjira Mulya from Mala in the state of Karnataka, and Thendup Lachungpa from Lachung in the state of Sikkim. Set in their respective environments, and in two separate tracks, they present their individual narratives of healing. Evoking a milieu of the planetary, the installation travels through a labyrinth of traditional medical practices in India.
Commissioned by Wellcome Trust and featured in the exhibition, Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian Medicine at Wellcome Collection Gallery 2018.
Nilanjan Bhattacharya is a filmmaker, artist and writer from Calcutta, India. For the last fifteen years he has been exploring biodiversity, food cultures and indigenous knowledge systems in India. His works include Johar Welcome To Our World, Ninety Degrees, Rain in The Mirror, Fishing Out of Time, and Quiet Flown the Stream; they were exhibited at Mumbai International Film Festival, Goteberg International Film Festival, European Kunsthalle, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Experimenter Art Gallery and Wellcome Collection Gallery.
Nilanjan received the President’s Award of India in 2005 and 2010.
Über die Reihe „WISSEN DER KÜNSTE:“
Das DFG-Graduiertenkolleg „Das Wissen der Künste" ist eine Forschungseinrichtung an der Universität der Künste, in der Forschende verschiedener kunst- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Fächer zusammenarbeiten. Unsere Arbeit geht von der Prämisse aus, dass in den Künsten nicht nur Wissensformen aus kulturellen, sozialen, politischen oder ökonomischen Feldern dargestellt, legitimiert und verbreitet werden, sondern dass diese auch eigenständige Wissensformen hervorbringen, gestalten und vermitteln. In Zeiten des allgemeinen Kreativimperativs und der "Wissensgesellschaft" kommt ihnen dabei eine kritische und widerständige Rolle zu. So interessieren uns an den Formen und Bedingungen künstlerischen Wissens insbesondere die Handlungsmacht von Material und Objekten, die medialen Rahmungen und die politische Performanz sowie die Rolle von Übungs- und Vermittlungsprozessen. In Screenings, Vortrags- und Gesprächsformaten wollen wir diese Forschung im Austausch mit Gästen im Grünen Salon zur Diskussion stellen.
