a TRADITIONAL ART AND CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGE

BARBICAN CINEMA 2

8, 9, 10 JULY 1982

To coincide with the Aditi Exhibition, the major event in this year's Festival of India, at the Barbican Art Gallery from 6 July - 22 August, a series of discussions will take place led by distinguished speakers, intended to open a creative dialogue between East and West on the crisis of traditional art in our time.

The basic theme will be explored through the visual arts, architecture, design and performing arts. The seminar will bring together artists, writers, architects, designers, historians and anthropologists, who are linking the old with the new

in their respective fields.

There will be six sessions over three days, each devoted to a particular theme. Each session will have the same structure: afternoon lectures followed by a dialogue between the speakers and the audience. Admission is free and open anyone who is interested to attend. Some lectures will be illustrated with slides.

Thursday 8 July 2 pm Opening Session

4.30 pm

Mrs Pupul Jayakar, Chairman of the Festival of India Committee (India): "The Inner Spirit and Outer Form - A Contemporary Challenge. Dr Stella Kramrisch, Curator of Indian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA): Title to be announced Dr Warren E Adams, economist (London): "Intermediate Technology: The Human Aspects of Economic Development." Mr B Ramadorai, Director General of the Festival of India Committee (India): Title to be announced Discussion time. The Vernacular Tradition and the Modern Artist Deanna ·Petherbridge, artist and writer (London): "A Taut Line Between the Exotjcal and the Topical." Priya Karunakaran, writer (India): "The Concept of Rasa and its Contemporary Relevance." Discussion time.

Friday 9 July 2 pm Towards An Architectural Anthropology: Radical Perspectives on

Vernacular and Ritual Architecture Richard Lannoy, writer and photographer (Norwich): "Concrete Action or Reinforced Concrete? A Consideration of Basic Issues." Robin Spence, architect (Cambridge University): "The Richness of Poor Resources."

4.30 pm

Dr E Fischer, Director, Reitberg Museum (Zurich): 11 Canopies for the Mother Goddess ... Dr J P Das, art historian (India): 11 Wall Paintings in Ritual Architecutre ... Discussion time. Modern Theatre and the Traditional Performing Arts Kenneth Rea, journalist and lecturer (London): .. Cultures in Collision.u Habib Tanvir, theatre director (India): 11 Traditional Performing Arts and the Contemporary Challenge ... Dr Roberto Laneri, composer (Rome): 11 Indian Music: Here, There and Everywhere ... Discussion time

Saturday 10 July 2 pm Contemporary Application of Traditional Art in Mridern Deiign

4.30 pm

Publication

KG Subramanium, writer and designer (India): 11 Craft and the Contemporary Environment ... Rajeev Sethi, designer (India) : 11 The Ex peri enc·e of Ad it i ... Zandra Rhodes, designer (London): 11 The Experience of Aditi. 11

Discussion time New Paradigms for Linking The Old With The New Based On Case Studies and/or Specialised Research Madhu Khanna, writer (London): 11 Universal Symbols: Traditional Imagery and Contemporary Parallels as Seen Through Children's Meditational Art ... Dr D Miller, anthropologist (London University): .. A Potter's Community: New Anthropological Models ... Dr Brian Durrans, Curator, Museum of Mankind (London): 11 Modes of Distortion: Problems in Presenting Indian Culture ... M Crites, Director, Threshold Foundation (London): Nizamuddin: A Sufi Village Surrounded by Delhi ... J Swaminathan, artist (India): 11 0n Building a Relevant Museum ... Discussion time.

It is intended that the seminar proceedings, the texts of the papers presented and the summary of the debates, will be published by AARP (Art and Archaeology Research Papers), London.

Any enquiries on the Seminar should be addressed to: Madhu Khanna or Dalu Jones, 102 St Paul's Road London Nl 2LR Telephone (01) 226 5240

Barbican Centre, Silk Street, LondonEC2Y 8DS R

WHAT IS ADITI?

An event? An exhibition? A 'happening'?

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~RIT~\'= ADITI is all of these things. Arranged by the Government of India, it is the most important event in this year's Festival of India and can be seen over six weeks at the Barbican Art Gallery from 8 .Ju1y- 22 August. ADITI means abundance and creative power in Sanskrit, and this is the key to-the theme of the exhibition. It focusses on the development of the chi.ld in India society, from the preparations for its birth right up to its transition into adult­hood. Each stage is vividly brought to life by reconstructing the traditional family celebrations and customs which are specifically connected with it.

34 artists and performers from all over Ind ia~ including musicians from the deserts of Rajasthan, wedding dancers, a ' Bhopa' balladeer family, Tah jore glass painters, Mithila women painters, puppeteers, toymakers, acrobats, mag icians and jugg1ers, will participate in this unique event. In a specially designed environment featuring over 2,000 paintings and artefacts, many never seen outside India before, these artists will demonstrate their remark able skills. The exhibition is conceived in a series of connecting sections: SIGNALS OF FERTILITY including religious symbols, plant and animal symbols ausp1c1ous to fertility and rituals associated with the 'coming of age•. COURTSHIP AND BETROTHAL including personal ornaments and trinkets, special garments, representations of marriage proposals, examples of gifts and wedding invitations. PREPARATION FOR THE WEDDING including live demonstrations of ritual house decoration, the painting of hands and feet, facial decoration, thP. dressing of hair and tattoos. THE MARRIAGE PROCESSION including a life size mural of a wedding procession, a silver wedding chariot, saddle decorations, wedding umbrellas, bride­groom~s weaponry and live demonstrations by wedding dancers. THE WEDDING including 8 feet high cut-outs of scenes of a wedding in Mithila and accompanying drawings of the entire ceremony by one of the region's finest artists, wedding garments, jewels, dowry chests, wedding dolls, garlands and food containers. THE COMING TOGETHER including complete reconstructions of a Nuptial Chamber from the Mithila region and, by contrast, a Court Nuptial Chamber with bed linen, frescoes~ silver mosquito net, furniture and other small objects, of a 19th century Nawab from Lucknow. PREGNANCY including images of the ritual celebrations of pregnancy and a tableau of the 'Shaad 1 ceremony as it took place in the 19th century contrasted with the lonely alienation of the foreign 'Mem Sahib' in a district bungalow. BIRTH including paintings and sculpture devoted to images of birth, mother and child. WELCOMING THE CHILD INTO THE WORLD including lam~s, cradles, beaded hammocks, mobiles, rattles and whistles, embroidered quilts and other objects associated with early childhood. PROTECTION OF NEW LIFE including votive offerings, amulets and talismans, aspects of physical care, infants• accessories and festivals associated with infancy. THE PROMISED WORLD including a mixed media visualisation of lullabys, live puppet shows, stuffed toys, children's clothes, tiffin boxes, spoons and teethers. THE FIRST STEP including traditional walking aids and childrenls footwear. INITIATION INTO LEARNING including representations of the Festivals celebrating the child's first writing attempts, objects used for storytelling and live performances and representations by acrobats, jugglers, magicians, snake~charmers, balladeers and an·imal trainers. LEARNING TO BE AND TO DO including toys made out of waste products, improvised playthings created for amusement, children~s paintings and sculpture, school equipment and mobile and kinetic toys. MOVING OUT INTO THE WORLD including children's carts, a mural tableau in pottery depicting movement from village to city and vice versa and miniature transport vehicles. FAIRS AND FESTIVALS OF INDIA including representations of a variety of regional festivals, stalls from a typical seasonal fair and masked and trance dances.

Some aspects of the performers and artists' skills on show in ADITI include: Drums and their associations in India, the traditional wall-paintings of Madhubani village in Mithila, Bihar, the painting of the hands with henna from Marwar, the women's art of decorating the ground with rice powder from Tamilnad, the tattooers art from the tribal area of Gujarat, the significance of.terracotta. votives, the significance of Tanjore g1ass painting and its Temple derivation, the women 1 s art of embroider~ from Kutch and North West Punjab and itinerant performers from North India and Rajasthan: the impersonator, the traditional puppeteer, the balladeer and the desert singer.