P E R F O R M A N C E

The Impressions Project (A Sunday Afternoon)

A performative video collaboration by Chinmoyi Patel and Rahul Bhattacharya based on Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'.There are notions of contemporary cities and there contemporary notions about rivers. How do these relationships unfold in cities today? Each city stands at a different point in its place in the history of progress and identity formation. 

The appropriation and re-enactment of Seurat’s ‘The Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte’ enables us to examine the notions of leisure and mundane as they circulate between Kolkata and Hooghly river.The complexity and dynamism in the river-city relationship get mirrored in Seurat’s spatial divisions and his use of multiple perspectives. Seurat’s attempts to break and then restructure spaces and perspective inform the way the work is enacted and composed. The congestion of the city and its close knit relationship with the river makes the re-enactment almost a point of initiation…slowly the city begins to take over.

HD Video7 min 16 sec (to be played on loop)2014

LOTUS EATERS

India Gate is a site where independence, India and nationalism is performed, on the evening of 15th August two bodies enter that space and through their gestures create blank spaces. Rahul Bhattacharya and IndraBeep Shiitmanowff, performed Lotus Eaters as a part of the Performers independent 3rd Saturday series on 15th August 2015. Medium - Body, Water, Lotus , Saffron Food Colour

The work has been made possible through the participation of Samudra Kajal Saikia, shohini, Manmeet Devgun, Srishti Shreyam and Brishti.

DUCHAMP'S SILENCE

Performative Sculpture intervention Indian Art Fair Okhla 2013-Day 2---- "If there were Art Fair Sculpture parks at the time of Duchamp, he would not have to take the urinal (our Fountain) into a gallery space. 

IMAGE COURTESY SHIV SENA

The black is thrown at a writers face - a threat thrown at all our faces - the courage and the defiance shown by , Sudheendra Kulkarni after the attack was the best reply one could give the attackers -But the ink is also on our faces- are we acknowledging it ? can we take that ink on our face with defiance? And it is not only about , Sudheendra Kulkarni - The Arrest and humiliation of FTII students , the murder of our writers , poets and daily wage workers -

Some of us friends propose a performative viral intervention - where in we put black colour on our faces and post it as our facebook profiles.Some of us friends propose a performative viral intervention - where in we put black colour on our faces and post it as our facebook profiles. 

WHEN DOES A BODY BECOME A MESSENGER?

Performed at the 2016 Morni Hilla Performance Art Biennale 

How does a body become a messenger- a collaborative experiment done by Chi Muk ,Rahul Bhattacharya and Tapati Chowdhury at the Morni Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale. We chose to bring in Rohit Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar into the nonchalant world of Government College of Art Chandigarh . Working within the spaces of 'There is something happening' and 'There is nothing happening' -Angry National- Anti nation - Aunti nation - Anal nation - Nation anal - Mother nation - Andhi nation - Kis ki nation? - Tint i nation - Kis mother ki nation? - "We are Rohit Vemulas haunting this Kafkaland"

#antinational

SNIFFERS OF ART – ART OF SNIFFERS

A Performers independent initiated performancePerformed by Rahul Bhattacharya, Anirban Datta & Chi Muk12th December 2014, Fort-Koch

iWe have come from Bengal. We have an artists’ collective called Performers independent. This performance is dedicated to legendary John Abraham and to the people of Kochi. A reference can be made to their theatre Nayakali in the 80’s. Also we remember one fateful night of 2011 when 350 street dogs were killed overnight in Fort Kochi and were dumped in black plastic garbage bags. This performance is not part of the Biennale and can be seen as a friendly interventional gesture towards the Biennale.venue- the performance started at fort kochi beach, travelled via Old Heritage Hotel, Aspin Wall, Pepper House and jetty ^we ended at Mattancherry,

The Impressions Project (Luncheon)

There are notions of contemporary cities, and there are contemporary notions about rivers. Development, growth, spectacular are words we associate (or want to associate) with the city. Decay, preservation, forgotten, beautiful are words we associate with the river. The river and the resources it offers (water, transport, fertile soil) have led to burgeoning cities, yet the birth and growth of the city has meant the slow death of rivers. Once polluted and encroached upon, our rivers are forgotten by us. 'Dirty', 'dead', 'smelly' are words we are beginning to use for them. Yet for the real estate industry, they still hold capital value and riverside locations are sold at high premiums.

In this collaborative performance + video, we - Chinmoyi Patel + Rahul Bhattacharya - explore such dystopias in relationships between the city and its river. By appropriating and re-enacting Manet's 'Luncheon on the Grass' at a construction site along the riverbank, we bring Surat and its Tapi river into the discursive focus.

PERFORMING THE CURATOR

A COLLABORATIVE PERFORMANCE WITH CHI MUK AT STUDIO 21 DURING KIPAF 2014

JOLER BYAPAR TA | POWER AND PANI

A PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTION WITH PERFORMERS iNDEPENDENT AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY KOLKATA

"should the american embassy keep provision for drinking water, as they force people to walk and dont even allow shops. thankfully they dont give water...free drinking water from america will go a long way to privatise all our waters...but i am thirsty"

many things remained unsaid...

THE STRIKE IS ON

WORK DONE AS A PART OF PERFORMERS iNDEPENDENT'S PARTICIPATION IN THE ALL INDIA LABOUR STRIKE -RAHUL BHATTACHARYA  AND SYED TAUFIK RIAZ ENACTING THE DANDI BETWEEN ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS KOLKATA AND TATA CENTER