Tech meets art: Bonjour India brings Hakanai to Kolkata

Aravani Art Project (India) and Chifumi (French street artist) will be collaborating to highlight the transgender community through their artworks. St+art India along with Aravani identified walls for the artists to work through areas like Park Street, Park Circus, areas near Howrah station and Rabindra Sadan - sites with visibility and impact and at the same time in the area of Sonagachi where these portraits and the narrative of the project originated.

On February 9, a unique project choreographed and conceptualised by the Adrien M & Claire B Company and French dancer Virginie Barjonet & Indian dancer Priyabrata Panigrahiare collaborating to recreate the Hakanaï experience for India.

It brings together art & technology, highlighting transversal collaborations for new creation & new media in India. The project is created by the French Institute in India, with the support of Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts and the Alliance Française network in the respective cities, and is produced by Seher.

A unique 40-minute solo performance linking digital & performing arts will be presented at Rabindra Sadan on February 9.

In an effort to promote collective creation between France and India, students, artists, and intellectuals from West Bengal and India are invited to spend two days at Jadavpur University with French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine. Participants will attend a double show presented recently by Trimukhi Platform in the Santhal village of Borotalpada. The first – Essay on Seasonal Variation in the Santhal Society – performed on JU campus' spacious Gandhi Bhavan, awakens spectators' thoughts and senses. The second - Try Me Under Water - deepens audience contemplation through nocturnal wandering on JU campus that concludes with a multi-track video projection in the middle of a pond. Following these performances, participants will join Ariane Mnouchkine and Trimukhi Platform in creating a free and friendly discussion space which encourages questions about theatre today, such as: If theatre has stopped representing and communicating, how does one speak about what happens on stage?

French philosopher and Director of Trimukhi Platform Jean-Frédéric Chevallier, who is at the heart of this project will be available for interactions from February 5-7.

On February 28, the Weight of Joy will be held at GD Birla Sabhagarh. It is a dance project tackling the notion of handicap and social innovation.