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I m / Material presents a series of dialogues between the mediums of dance and cinema created by artists from / in India. Each film plays between the materiality of the physical body and the materiality of the spaces the bodies inhabit and encounter. The dancers and filmmakers negotiate these various spaces through movement, opening up tensions and textures between natural and man-made environments, elements and expectations. In the process, they propose yet another fluid space created between and with the dance-maker’s and the filmmaker’s eye. The relationships between the dancing body, the camera and the surrounding contexts are diverse, fluid, and complex – reflective of a country where socio-cultural borders are never static, and traditional and contemporary sensibilities often occupy the same time/space.
About Pickle Factory Dance Foundation (Calcutta, India)
Pickle Factory Dance Foundation is a hub for the practice, discourse and presentation of dance and movement housed in spaces repurposed for the arts in Calcutta: a space to think, meet, know, talk, imagine dance. We respond to the lack of spaces and infrastructure in India to develop and nurture dance work and artists, and imagine and create the many futures possible for us. We reflect the work that comes from a shifting and uniquely Indian context, while being closely connected to an international network of parallel endeavours. We work with, for and through artists, audiences and support systems towards a vibrant, invested, and critical culture and community of the dance-curious.
Since our launch in 2018, we have hosted artists and guests from India, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland, China, the USA, Lithuania, Thailand, Australia, Austria, Canada, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Chile and Germany in a variety of programmes in a variety of spaces (including online) – always asking both artists and audiences to imagine with us what and where a performance space could be. Burnt-out cinemas, television studios, rooftop spaces, public streets and gardens, blackboxes… we have transformed each of these into magical performance spaces along with our collaborating artists and partners.
Currently nomadic, our big dream is a permanent venue in a repurposed space in architecturally textured fabric of our home city of Calcutta – a home for and of the dance-curious that redefines our experiences of both physical movement and physical space; brings together, expands and nurtures diverse communities of artists and audiences; and reflects the plural and cosmopolitan spirit of Calcutta. The Pickle Factory venue would be an anchor around which a community, neighbourhood and city come to life, part of an international network of vital and vibrant arts spaces.
