South Asia is land of great beauty, opportunities, natural and cultural diversity. It's a land of varied beliefs and practices in culture, literature, religious life and identities; which have co-existed and negotiated their space through dialogues. South Asia is not a paradigm but a 'discursive formation', with its remarkable capacity of 'giving birth simultaneously to mutually exclusive objects, without having to modify itself.
The region is a also a hotbed for conflicts and more often than not arising out of vortex of political ambition of superpowers and exploitation of fissure lines which are intrinsically present in context of religion and ethnicity, leveraging the poor economic conditions. The voice of art has been throttled, manipulated and patronized to voice the dubious ideologies, as 'intimidation' is the the order which threatens to transform 'humanity into 'silhouettes'.
Yet there have been voices which have existed and that too sometimes appropriated by ideology. It is art which can make sense and harmonise the diverse condition of the South Asian region. It is with the idea of connecting the artists of the South Asia region, in spite of the differences and lack of resources in order to find ways to be sustainable in their practices that the first ever Mountain Fringe Festival in India: The South Asian Fringe: Mountain India Editions will take place on May 5 at Jogibara Village, Himachal Pradesh, India.
This 3 days festival promotes counter culture, alternative arts and performances will showcase theatre, performance art, video art, music, poetry and dance by young contemporary artists from throughout the world. The festival will also feature the #International Video Art Xibition , which will exhibit the video art works of top international artists like Robert Cahen (France), Wilfried Agricola de Cologne (Germany), Francesca Fini (Italy), Marcus Shahar (Israel), Nezaket Ekici (Turkey) and many other outstanding international video artists. The spaces for the performances are all very unique and beautiful and definitely will be a memorable experience for the audience and tourist this weekend.
The South Asian Fringe is a festival platform which explores spaces, communities and identities in South Asia. The festival will add to sustainability of artists and spaces while also promoting tourism.