Creativity usually involves combining the traditional and the untraditional, or the familiar and the unfamiliar to create a newish creation. So cross-cultural communication is very important and borrowing elements from other cultures is an effective and easy way of latching on to something unfamiliar, while broadening your own potential audience.
Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, director of Folded Paper Dance and Theatre Limited, who focuses her collaborative undertakings on building cross-cultural networks and new forms of dance laboratories, is in Kochi for the last six months for her project Travelling Exchanges/ Theatres, Architecture and Heritage with an aim to understand and build a sort of cross cultural community that has a vested interest in promoting these forms to wider audiences.
A symposium, Culture Heritage and Our Future Cities, will be held at the Kerala Museum on April 21 and 22. The symposium is a conclusion of her ongoing projects and research in Kerala’s art forms. The symposium will be facilitated by Kanta (Ph.D.), a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar (affiliated with the Madhavan Nayar Foundation), and K.K. Gopalakrishnan, writer and cultural critic of Kerala’s performing arts and Director of the Kuttiyattam Kendra (2010-2016). It will feature Kanta and her project Travelling Exchanges/ Theatres, Architecture and Heritage. “My project focuses on three performing arts of Kerala and two of Tamil Nadu,” says Kanta.
A scene from Kanta’s workshop.
According to Kanta, an American-Indo professor, the programme will ensure the fruitful exchange of cultures. “These undertakings can energise and transform our relationships with each other,” she says, adding, “These undertakings can also impact our experiences of urban spaces and the natural world across a range of site-specific locales, build greater cultural understanding, and generate exploratory spaces for change.”
An ardent lover and follower of Kudiyattam, Kalaripayattu and Daveli, she has worked with Kudiyattom maestros across Kerala and has the opinion that the art form has grown a lot among the present generation.
The symposium will also include talks, discussions, exhibits and an interactive installation as well as Kudiyattam, Kalaripayattu and Daveli performances. There will also be a documentary film screening of the winners of ‘Films for the Future, a Traveling Exchanges Short Documentary Film Competition’. She is looking forward to working with more artistes and scholars in Kerala.
