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Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond

Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond

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Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond
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<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Dr. Cathrine Bublatzky</strong> (Chair, Visual and Media Anthropology, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg) a talk on <strong>Socio-Political Role of Contemporary Art in India and Beyond</strong> Date : <strong>August 27, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>With reference to contemporary artistic practices such as street art, video art or performance, this paper engages with art in border zones and in times of crisis and its possible impact on civil societies. Looking at different social and cultural contexts in India and beyond, the discussion will focus on the question what the social role of contemporary art can be today. How do artists position themselves in times of crisis? And how do they try to find artistic expression for experiences of trauma, atrocity and violence, or to create platforms for solidarity and dialogue? Whereas the boundary between art activism, political art or participatory art soften blurring, social factors such circulation, institutional environments or the reactions to an artwork foster a particular meaning attributed to an artwork. Providing exemplary insights into multiple dynamics of meaning production, this paper will problematize the role of contemporary art as social practice. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Dr. Cathrine Bublatzky is a trained photographer and gained her MA in Anthropology and South Asian History in 2008. Since 2009 she is a Research Fellow at the Chair of Visual and Media Anthropology, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Heidelberg). Her research focuses on theories and methods in Visual and Media Anthropology, Art Anthropology, Popular Culture, and Urban Studies. Her seminars in Transcultural Studies, Anthropology and South Asian Studies are often research-based with a relation to Digital Humanities. In 2014, she finalized her dissertation on contemporary art in India "Along the 'Indian Highway': An Ethnography of an International Travelling exhibition

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.